The origins of the word "jazz" are unclear. Some have equated it with a slang term related to sex or romance, while others argue it has its origins in the works of English writers Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 to 1400) and William Shakespeare (1564 to 1616).
Jazz music can trace its origins as far back as the 1700s, when slaves sang "call-and-response" songs while working in fields and "Negro spirituals" in church. Also, European immigrants from Ireland, Germany and France introduced their musical traditions such as the jig, waltz and quadrille, respectively. Black American composer Scott Joplin (1868 to 1917) melded these variant styles to found the musical genre known as "ragtime."
Joplin's style caught on in New Orleans, where people of various races and backgrounds converged. It was there that ragtime became just another ingredient in the musical "melting pot." Mixed with blues, marching band music and other styles, a brand new genre was formed: jazz.
In the 1920s, jazz began to spread beyond New Orleans. Black Americans were migrating to big Northern cities such as Chicago and New York for a better life, bringing their music along with them. With its introduction to radio and dance halls, jazz grew in popularity, with young people listening and dancing to the music as a sign of rebellion against their parents' comparatively old-fashioned viewpoints. Swing music, a more danceable form of jazz and characterized by big bands, developed in the early 1930s, with some of its main proponents being Count Basie (1904 to 1984) and Benny Goodman (1909 to 1986).
Jazz experienced a lull in the 1940s, when jazz musicians were drafted to fight in World War II. By the 1950s, TV and rock 'n' roll began to displace jazz as a major source of entertainment. However, innovation in jazz continued. A fast-tempo form of jazz called bebop was formed in the early 1940s, whose famous practitioners included pianist Thelonious Monk (1917 to 1982), saxophonist Charlie Parker (1920 to 1955) and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie (1917 to 1993). Also, orchestra leader Duke Ellington (1900 to 1974) and trumpeter/singer Louis Armstrong (1900 to 1971) were arguably hitting their peaks at this time.
By the 1960s, jazz had seen its best days in terms of popularity. However, jazz continued to stay vibrant as it drew from many distinctive styles of the day. Jazz fusion--a hybrid of rock, funk and R&B--developed in the late 1960s and blossomed in the 1970s. Acid jazz (a blend of jazz, funk and hip hop) and smooth jazz (R&B, funk and pop) have their origins in the 1990s, and there was a brief swing revival in the latter half of that decade. Great figures of the genre stood out after the 1950s, ranging from John Coltrane (1926 to 1967) and Miles Davis (1926 to 1991) to Grover Washington Jr. (1943 to 1999) and Wynton Marsalis (born in 1961).