Jazz
Etymology	See: Jazz (word)
Stylistic origins	Blues ragtime (including classical ragtime) spirituals folk marches European classical music West African music
Cultural origins	Late 19th century, New Orleans, U.S.
Typical instruments	Double bass drums guitar piano saxophone trumpet clarinet trombone tuba vocals vibraphone bass guitar Hammond organ flute violin bass clarinet french horn harmonica
Derivative forms	Rock and roll rock jump blues traditional pop reggae R&B soul ska funk hip-hop house lounge contemporary R&B
Subgenres
Subgenres Avant-garde jazz bebop big band chamber jazz cool jazz free jazz gypsy jazz hard bop Latin jazz mainstream jazz modal jazz M-Base neo-bop orchestral jazz post-bop progressive jazz soul jazz straight-ahead jazz swing third stream traditional jazz (complete list)
Fusion genres
Fusion genres Acid jazz Afrobeat Afro fusion bluegrass bossa nova dansband folk jazz free funk humppa Indo jazz jam band jazzcore jazz-funk jazz fusion jazz rap kwela mambo Manila sound nu jazz neo soul punk jazz ska jazz smooth jazz swing revival Western swing world fusion
Regional scenes
Regional scenes Australia Armenia Azerbaijan Balkans (Bulgaria) Baltimore Belgium Brazil Canada Chicago Cuba Denmark Ethiopia France Germany Haiti India Iran Italy Japan Kansas City Malawi Mexico Netherlands New Orleans New York City Poland South Africa (Cape jazz) Spain Sweden UK U.S. West Coast Washington, D.C.
Other topics
Jazz clubs Jazz poetry Jazz standard Jazz (word)
2026 in jazz

Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, hymns, marches, vaudeville song, and dance music. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, complex chords, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation.

As jazz spread around the world, it drew on national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to different styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. However, jazz did not begin as a single musical tradition in New Orleans or elsewhere.^[1] In the 1930s, arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz (a hard-swinging, bluesy, improvisational style), and gypsy jazz (a style that emphasized musette waltzes) were the prominent styles. Bebop emerged in the 1940s, shifting jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging "musician's music" which was played at faster tempos and used more chord-based improvisation. Cool jazz developed near the end of the 1940s, introducing calmer, smoother sounds and long, linear melodic lines.^[2]

The mid-1950s saw the emergence of hard bop, which introduced influences from rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues to small groups and particularly to saxophone and piano. Modal jazz developed in the late 1950s, using the mode, or musical scale, as the basis of musical structure and improvisation, as did free jazz, which explored playing without regular meter, beat and formal structures. Jazz fusion appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s, combining jazz improvisation with rock music's rhythms, electric instruments, and highly amplified stage sound. In the early 1980s, a commercial form of jazz fusion called smooth jazz became successful, garnering significant radio airplay. Other styles and genres abound in the 21st century, such as Latin and Afro-Cuban jazz.