A Short History of Jazz: From New Orleans to Today

Jazz is often called America’s classical music. In a little over a hundred years it went from street parades in New Orleans to concert halls, film soundtracks and the quiet café playlists many of us study to. This guide walks through the main styles in order, so you can hear how each one grew out of the last.

Roots: New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century

Jazz was born in New Orleans around 1900. The city was a port where many cultures met, and it had a rich tradition of brass bands, church music and dance halls. African American musicians mixed the blues (with its bent "blue" notes and call-and-response), ragtime (syncopated piano music) and marching-band instruments into something new.

Early New Orleans jazz was built on collective improvisation: the trumpet or cornet played the melody, the clarinet wove around it and the trombone filled in the low notes, all at the same time. The first jazz record, "Livery Stable Blues" by the Original Dixieland Jass Band, was released in 1917.

The 1920s: the Jazz Age and the soloist

When many musicians moved north to Chicago and New York, jazz became the sound of the decade. The most important figure was Louis Armstrong. His Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings (1925–1928), including "West End Blues", turned jazz into a soloist’s art. Armstrong also popularised scat singing, improvising with wordless syllables.

The 1930s and 1940s: the Swing Era

Swing was the pop music of its day. Big bands of 12 to 20 players filled dance halls across America. Arrangers wrote parts for whole sections of saxophones, trumpets and trombones, leaving space for star soloists.

• Duke Ellington wrote and arranged with unusual colours and moods.
• Count Basie led a band famous for its relaxed, bluesy groove.
• Benny Goodman brought swing to huge audiences, including a famous 1938 concert at Carnegie Hall.

Bebop: jazz for listening

In the early 1940s, young musicians jamming after hours in clubs like Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem pushed jazz in a new direction. Bebop used fast tempos, complex chord changes and long, twisting melodic lines. It was music for listening rather than dancing.

The leaders were saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and pianist Thelonious Monk. Bebop’s language of chords and scales is still the foundation of how jazz musicians learn to improvise.

Cool jazz, hard bop and modal jazz

The 1950s split jazz into several paths:

• Cool jazz was softer and more relaxed. Miles Davis’s "Birth of the Cool" sessions (1949–1950) and Dave Brubeck’s "Time Out" (1959), with "Take Five" in 5/4 time, are classic examples.
• Hard bop brought back gospel and blues feeling, led by Art Blakey and Horace Silver.
• Modal jazz built solos on scales (modes) instead of fast chord changes. Miles Davis’s "Kind of Blue" (1959) is the best-selling jazz album of all time and a perfect first album for new listeners.

Free jazz and spiritual jazz

Around 1960, Ornette Coleman’s "The Shape of Jazz to Come" and "Free Jazz" broke away from fixed chord changes. John Coltrane moved from the dense harmony of "Giant Steps" (1960) to the deeply spiritual "A Love Supreme" (1965), one of the most personal statements in jazz.

Fusion and smooth jazz

At the end of the 1960s, jazz met rock and funk. Miles Davis’s "Bitches Brew" (1970) used electric instruments and studio editing. Herbie Hancock’s "Head Hunters" (1973) and the band Weather Report brought jazz to new, younger audiences. In the 1980s, smooth jazz became a radio format with polished, mellow grooves.

Jazz today

Jazz is more varied than ever. Artists like Kamasi Washington, Robert Glasper and Esperanza Spalding mix jazz with hip hop, soul and orchestral music. At the same time, jazz chords and textures live on in lo-fi hip hop, café playlists and film scores. Much of the relaxing jazz you hear on Ricky Box Music uses the same warm seventh chords and gentle swing that grew out of this long history.

Where to start listening

1. Louis Armstrong – "West End Blues" (1928)
2. Duke Ellington – "Take the 'A' Train" (1941)
3. Charlie Parker – "Ko-Ko" (1945)
4. Miles Davis – "Kind of Blue" (1959)
5. Dave Brubeck Quartet – "Time Out" (1959)
6. John Coltrane – "A Love Supreme" (1965)
7. Herbie Hancock – "Head Hunters" (1973)

Want to understand what makes jazz harmony sound so rich? Read our guide to chord progressions and try the seventh chords in our chord finder.