Jazz is a
genre of music that originated from
African American communities of
New Orleans in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It emerged in the form of independent
traditional music and
popular musical styles, all linked by the common bonds of African American and
European American musical parentage with a performance orientation. Jazz spans a period of over a hundred years, encompassing a range of music from
ragtime to
jazz-rock fusion of the 1970s and 1980s, and has proved to be difficult to define. Jazz makes heavy use of
improvisation,
polyrhythms,
syncopation and the
swing note, as well as aspects of European harmony,
American popular music, the
brass band tradition, and African musical elements such as
blue notes and African-American styles such as
ragtime. Although the foundation of Jazz is deeply rooted within the black experience of America, different cultures have contributed their own experience to the music aswhile. Jazz music has led intellectuals from around the world to hail jazz as "one of America's original art forms".