Jazz
Jazz is a form of musical art that emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century in the United States. Calling Jazz one separate music style would be incorrect as since its birth Jazz has developed into tens of other subgenres which sometimes sound completely different in relation to each other. Jazz appeared in the result of synthesis of the African and European cultures as black people were brought to the American continent. Characteristic features of the musical language of jazz were first of all improvisation, polyrhythm based on syncopated rhythms and the unique complex of tricks of performing the rhythmic texture called swing. The further development of jazz was based on mastering of new rhythmic and harmonic patterns by the musicians. Subtypes of jazz are various, they were developed as the new began to be recognized by wider and wider strata of the society. The variations of jazz are New Orleans music, swing, European jazz, bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, free jazz, and many others.
Jazz emerged at the end of the nineteenth century as a combination of African rhythms and European harmony, but its origins can be found as far back as in the era of slaveholding in the New world. The slaves brought from Africa created a unique culture, including the musical subculture. The word "jazz" itself was first spelled like jass and only since 1918 it acquired its modern form. The homeland of jazz is the American south and particularly New Orleans (that's why the earliest form of jazz is called New Orleans jazz).