from blues, which evolved from slave songs. Jazz has no birth date or year. It is continuous change and cannot be attributed to one time period.

IN the 1920s in Southern US states, amongst the black communities. It was one of several styles of music that built upon the rhythms that the slaves brought from AFrica with them. Initially, it was played only in the black communities, as entertainment in the clubs and bars that were reserved solely for them, but eventually crossed over and became a totally American genre. Now it is international.

Jazz originated some time around the beginning of the 20th Century in the African-American community down south--in the New Orleans area in particular. Although some Jazz critics have suggested that "because of the strong presence of time and rhythm in Jazz it was actually [imported] from Africa with the slave trade". This suggestion is largely due to the fact that, although is not easy to give Jazz a complete definition, however, the strong presence of key element in Jazz such as improvisation, blue notes, syncopation, swung note, poltrhythms and repetitive call-and-response pattern(very typical of africans), its pedigree can be easily traced back to West African style. Coincidently, the slaves brought to the U.S. in 1806 or 1808, were largely from West Africa, and, of course, they brought with them their musical traditions which it did play a very important--if not the most important--part in their lives and predicament which they found themselves in. It did start with organized festival with African drumming and dance in a place in New Orleans called "Congo Square". The speech pattern of Africa is reflected in its rhythms and the use of its pentatonic scales which led to blue notes and Jazz subsequently.

the actual term jazz did not appear until 1920's but simular music had been around before