What Are The Similarities Between Blues And Ragtime Influence Jazz?

Jazz is a very unique genre of music because of how it was created and its complexity. It was, and still is to this day, one of the hardest styles to play on any instrument because of its improvisation. Jazz was made from a large culture collision, erotic past times and many famous musical genres mixing to create a beautiful sound that is still appreciated in this current day and age. There was a high demand for slaves in the south at plantations as field workers or houses as servants; because of this there was a large population of Africans and then African Americans in Louisiana. New Orleans was home to many large ports because of its convenient placement at the end of the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The ports were open to many countries such as …show more content…
A few of the popular ones were Blues and Ragtime. Blues is very similar to Jazz because of the similar ways musicians modify the instruments for the pieces. Artists like Robert Johnson helped showcase the modification of the guitar beautifully. He used a slide which helped mimic the sound of another singing voice though Johnson was playing solo. A very large part of Blues was a call and response feature. It was when there is a question asked in one section of the song and another band member or vocalist follows with a line that sounds like a response (Gridley). This carried over from the Blues to Jazz. Ragtime helped contribute the piano to Jazz. Each Ragtime piece was usually up beat and composed therefore no improvisation and room for the musician’s emotions to take an effect on the tempo. Though these styles have different characteristics, they both use the piano to create a mood through out their pieces. Just as Jazz was created with the help of other genres, Jazz helps create the music we listen to today. We owe a large part of Rock and Roll to Jazz because the way they expanded the uses of the