Jazz originated from a number of different types of music, including both traditional African and American folk music. The development of jazz was influenced by the blues, a rhythmic form of folk music featuring frequent call-and-response sections. Ragtime was another important influence, with fast-paced, syncopated rhythms. Both ragtime and blues were largely African-American genres. The most famous ragtime composer, Scott Joplin, was African American, as were prominent early bluesmen such as W.C. Handy and Robert Johnson.
The earliest form of jazz was Dixieland, which developed in New Orleans in the first two decades of the 20th century. Dixieland was played by small musical groups or combos, usually without singers. Many of the most famous musicians in Dixieland were African American, such as trumpeter Louis Armstrong and pianist Jelly Roll Morton. This period also saw jazz reaching white listeners and spawning new white musicians, such as trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke.
From the 1930s to the 1950s and onward, jazz increased in popularity. The work of African-American jazz bandleaders and composers such as Duke Ellington reached a wide audience, as did the singing of jazz vocalists like Lena Horne, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. In the postwar period, new directions in jazz were charted by the new "bebop" style. Once again, African-American musicians like Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk were in the forefront of this musical revolution.
Although jazz is no longer as widely popular as it once was, it remains a vibrant and diverse musical genre. Some musicians play a traditional jazz style known as "straight-ahead jazz," while others are taking jazz in new directions, including combining jazz with other musical genres. African-American musicians continue to play vital roles in all parts of jazz, with modern musicians like Wynton Marsalis and Terence Blanchard both preserving traditional musical styles and adding their own innovations.