Jazz has roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and in African American music traditions including blues and ragtime, as well as European military band music. After originating in African American communities near the beginning of the 20th century, jazz gained international popularity by the 1920s. Since then, jazz has had a profoundly pervasive influence on other musical styles worldwide. Today, various jazz styles continue to evolve.

According to Pulitzer Prize-winning African American composer and classical and jazz trumpet virtuoso Wynton Marsalis:

Jazz is something Negroes invented, and it said the most profound things -- not only about us and the way we look at things, but about what modern democratic life is really about Wikipedia