"If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know."
—Louis Armstrong
Between the 1890s and 1910s, African-Americans in the South developed a new style of music that came to be known as jazz. The roots of jazz are planted in ragtime, blues, spirituals, work songs, and even military marches. Born in New Orleans and elsewhere in the Deep South, jazz quickly spread to Chicago, New York, Kansas City, St. Louis, and all over the United States. Before long, the new unstructured musical style caught on around the world. Jazz was hot in the 1920s and continues to be popular as it evolves into distinct styles for diverse generations.
