A Brief History of Jazz
Matthew Streit
April 27, 2008
The Origins of Jazz in America
African slaves in the
American South
began using
European musical
instruments in the
early 19th century
 They incorporated
their tribal musical
traditions with
European minstrel
performances

Ragtime and “Dixie” Music
Scott Joplin and others
popularized Ragtime
music in the late 19th
century and early 20th
century
 Along with Ragtime,
southern “Dixie” music
created many of the
foundations for what
would later be called Jazz

Swing and the Big Bands
Jazz music became more
popular in the 1920s and
1930s with the rise of
Swing music and the big
band orchestras
 Many of Jazz’s pioneers
(Louis Armstrong, Duke
Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald)
were making influential
music at this time

Bebop breaks the mold
Jazz’s popularity
continued to grow in the
1940s, but a counter jazz
movement (called Bebop)
influenced what was to
come later in Jazz music
 Musicians like Charlie
Parker and Dizzy Gillespie
led the Bebop movement

Miles Davis and Cool Jazz
Miles Davis broke from
his early Bebop days and
started a new Jazz
movement (“Cool Jazz”)
in the 1950s and 1960s
 This period had the peak
and the start of the
decline of Jazz’s
popularity (Rock ‘n Roll
was rising at this time)

Jazz moves to the fringe
From the 1970s to today,
Jazz music has lost a lot of
its popularity
 Experimental artists like
Ornette Coleman and the
Free Jazz movement were
not popular with mainstream
listeners
 Ken Burns’ documentary on
Jazz brought back some of
the interest in this genre
