In the southern United States, there was a very lively encounter between the musical expressions of the black and white races. In the state of Louisiana, African-American blacks came in contact with European musical forms - folk songs, salon games, church music, military marches and the like. Blacks, musically extremely creative, with a strong sense of fantasy and interpretation, especially in the field of rhythm, with their characteristic interpretation of European forms and styles created a special African-American musical language in the forms of working song and play music, spiritual songs (spirituals and gospel) and blues , which are all actually the sources from which jazz developed, the latest and most perfect result of this fusion of European and African musical elements.
The main characteristic of jazz is improvisation. A feature of improvisation is the spontaneous creation of imagination that takes place in the moment. Thus improvisation, if written down, in a way loses its essence, because it should be different every time in the true sense. Unlike classical music in which the notation contains the complete composition (conditionally speaking, because each conductor in the interpretation adds nuances that are not on paper), jazz music is often recorded in the form of a sketch in which only the theme and harmonic skeleton are defined. Improvisation as the main characteristic of the jazz style has its roots in the innate improvisational ability of blacks, but probably also in the fact that blacks could not be educated due to their difficult social position, and thus know music theory, writing and reading music. Improvisation was performed en masse by blacks, on text, melody and rhythm. In the black neighborhoods of New Orleans, spiritual songs were improvised in churches, and later these songs were played in bars and on the street. Improvisation in jazz usually takes the form of a theme with variations, and the theme is often some popular 32-bar song. The melody of the theme is improvised on a repetitive harmonic pattern.
Another important characteristic of jazz music is rhythm, which is often bold and unusual and which has one indispensable element - syncope. Syncoping in jazz is the rule and principle. Theoretically, syncope is the transfer of a metrical accent from a difficult age to a light one, but a mechanical unconscious emphasis of an easy age will not in itself create jazz music. This is a fine differentiation that cannot be put into the mold of a rule. Syncope in jazz is most easily described by impression, and it is a certain kind of lightness, enthusiasm, freedom, flexibility, elasticity and the like. When lightness and flexibility are combined with the imagination of melodic improvisation, an unusual and very creative musical event emerges. Due to these characteristics of creation and performance, there is no doubt that jazz is incomparably most enjoyed by the performers themselves, who completely indulge in imagination, freedom and creation that happens in them, and thus move for a moment to some "other dimension", and their experience gets a very clear expression on their faces. And in the performance of classical music there is a shift to the "other dimension", but it differs in one thing: the performer of a classical work largely follows the composer's vision, coexists with it and tries to convey it, and the jazz performer follows more of his own inner impulse.
The performance of jazz music is therefore very expressive, with the expressiveness of the human voice often imitated in the melody played. The color of the tone in jazz musicians has a concentration of expression and a certain tension of sound, which are the result of immersion in the performance and creative moment, which often takes on ecstatic characteristics.
Jazz ensembles can be small, from 2 to 8 players (so-called combo ensembles), or large, from 10 to 15 players (big band ensembles). The instruments are divided into rhythmic, harmonic and solo, and they can alternate in roles. Jazz ensembles consist of various types of instruments, but the most common are drums, double bass, piano, guitar, wind instruments (trumpet, trombone, saxophone ...), vibraphone and others. Jazz has branched into various types of sub-styles (New Orleans, swing, bebop, cool jazz, free jazz, symphonic jazz ...) and has developed into sophisticated music, more artistic than entertaining, that attracts serious, intellectualized audiences.
A very interesting history of jazz, from pop music is now art.