How did jazz begin?

The music we know today as jazz arose out of the black experience in the United States, an experience of violent dislocation and cultural deprivation, an experience of survival in the most cruel of human situations, an experience of spiritual and psychological oppression. read more

The city had its own tradition of band music for street parades and this type of jazz was sometimes referred to as classic jazz, traditional jazz, or even Dixieland jazz. (During the American Civil War in 1865, the Union of the North and the Confederacy of the South were divided by the Mason-Dixon line. read more

In 1919, Kid Ory's Original Creole Jazz Band of musicians from New Orleans began playing in San Francisco and Los Angeles, where in 1922 they became the first black jazz band of New Orleans origin to make recordings. read more