Cultural movement · 1900–now
Jazz
Born in Black New Orleans, jazz became America's first original art form and its gift to the world — the sound of improvisation, swing, and freedom.
Out of the blues, ragtime, and brass-band traditions of Black New Orleans, jazz emerged in the early 1900s and swept the world. Louis Armstrong made the soloist its hero; Duke Ellington made it a composer's art; Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald made the voice an instrument; and bebop and John Coltrane pushed it to the edge of the avant-garde. More than a genre, jazz is widely called America's first original art form — and it was created by Black Americans.
On the timeline
- September 28, 1912W.C. Handy's "Memphis Blues"
One of the first published blues compositions helps launch a new American art form.
- November 1925Louis Armstrong reinvents jazz
Armstrong's Hot Five recordings make the soloist the heart of jazz and reshape American music.
- November 26, 1945Charlie Parker and the birth of bebop on record
Parker's "Ko-Ko" session — with Gillespie and a young Miles Davis — captures bebop as a recorded revolution.
- August 17, 1959Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue"
The best-selling and most influential jazz album ever made, defining modal jazz.
Resources
The web
Connections to other moments, systems, and investigations — the links rarely drawn together.
- builds on·ThreadAfrican Kingdoms & Heritage
Jazz grew from the rhythms, call-and-response, and blue notes carried across the Middle Passage from West Africa.