Who invented jazz and blues

Smithsonian American Art Museum Jazz. National Portrait Gallery Dizzy Gillespie. National Portrait Gallery B. Back to Top. Did you know that the word "cool" and "hip" were originally jazz terms? Join us in learning more about the history of jazz from its birth in New Orleans, Louisiana, to the music we hear on the radio today. Blues is the foundation of jazz as well as the prime source of rhythm and blues, rock 'n' roll, and country music. The blues is still evolving and is still widely played today.

You shouldn't have to feel sad when listening to the blues. Wynton Marsalis explains why. Your browser does not support the audio element. Opera, military marching bands, folk music, the blues, different types of church music, ragtime, echoes of traditional African drumming, and all of the dance styles that went with this music could be heard and seen throughout the city. When all of these kinds of music blended into one, jazz was born. Listen to this traditional New Orleans standard called "Second Line.

Notice the banjo rhythms in the background, and listen to the musicians break away from the melody into collective improvisations. Louis Armstrong was one of the most influential artists in the history of music. Reset your password Click the eye to show your password. When you think of the blues, you think about misfortune, betrayal and regret. You lose your job, you get the blues.

Your mate falls out of love with you, you get the blues. Your dog dies, you get the blues. While blues lyrics often deal with personal adversity, the music itself goes far beyond self-pity. The blues is also about overcoming hard luck, saying what you feel, ridding yourself of frustration, letting your hair down, and simply having fun. The best blues is visceral, cathartic, and starkly emotional.

From unbridled joy to deep sadness, no form of music communicates more genuine emotion. The blues has deep roots in American history, particularly African-American history. The blues originated on Southern plantations in the 19th Century. It's generally accepted that the music evolved from African spirituals, African chants, work songs, field hollers, rural fife and drum music, revivalist hymns, and country dance music.

The blues grew up in the Mississippi Delta just upriver from New Orleans , the birthplace of jazz. Blues and jazz have always influenced each other, and they still interact in countless ways today.

Unlike jazz, the blues didn't spread out significantly from the South to the Midwest until the s and '40s. Those are just some of the reasons that jazz is a great art form, and why some people consider it "America's classical music. Jazz developed in the United States in the very early part of the 20th century. New Orleans, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, played a key role in this development.

The city's population was more diverse than anywhere else in the South, and people of African, French, Caribbean, Italian, German, Mexican, and American Indian, as well as English, descent interacted with one another. African-American musical traditions mixed with others and gradually jazz emerged from a blend of ragtime, marches, blues, and other kinds of music. At first jazz was mostly for dancing.