Jazz began early when white and black folk music was woven together into a new musical tapestry.

The home of Jazz as we know it does seem to have originated in New Orleans as a mixture of brass band marches, parlor music, Creole and Cajun folksongs, Caribbean music and church hymns.

It was originally called “ragtime” but by 1915 it was being called “jass” or Jazz.

Other centers of influence were Memphis with bawdy Beal Street and Kansas City and St. Louis with their ragtime.

Jazz also grew out of the Blues with every major ethnic group (Irish, Italian, French, Spanish, Jamaican, German, Greek and Jew) and every city in the South having its identity with the Blues.

Also Jazz and Gospel blended together to create great songs like “When The Saints Go Marching In” and “Down By The Riverside.”

Jazz greats included: Charles “Buddy” Bolden, “Papa” Jack Laine, John Robichaux, Freddie Keppard, the all white Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, Clarence “Gatemouth” Williams, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Jack Teagarden, Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, the Adderly Brothers, the Marsalis brothers, etc.