ABSTRACT
In the early 1900s, blacks f rom the Miss i ss ippi Delta and various other regions in the South developed a distinctive musical style called the blues. Ragtime, a distinctive new musical form that composers like Scott Jopl in fashioned out of classically European and Amer ican techniques, was popular at the same time. The streets, clubs, bars, and brothels of N e w Orleans became a breeding ground for a new, American art form called jazz, which incorporated influences f rom both the blues and ragtime. Black and white audiences found the new sound irresistible. Jazz followed the Great M i g r a t i o n to places like Kansas City, Chicago, and N e w York, where the music's spontaneity, its overt sexuality ("jazz" was wel l - k n o w n as a slang term for sex), and its contagious rhythms and melodies packed cabarets and nightclubs during what became known as the "Jazz A g e . " M a n y early jazz greats, inc luding Louis A r m s t r o n g , Bessie Smith , and Jelly R o l l M o r t o n influenced the next generation of performers to expand the music into a new, modern art form. Duke El l ington emerged in the 1920s as one of the greatest composers of a l l t ime, perfectly encapsulat ing jazz music's innovative creativity.
