Let’s start at the beginning, before jazz was JAZZ. Ragtime originated from a mix of African-American, Western classical and “Spanish” forms in the late 1800s and early 1900s, primarily in bars in the red light districts of cities such as New Orleans and St. Louis, as a form of upbeat, dance-style piano music. Inspired by jigs and other dances played by African-American bands at the end of the 19th century, ragtime pianists composed syncopated melodies that fused the confident American marches of John Philip Sousa with the energetic polyrhythms of African music. Composer and pianist Scott Joplin took ragtime from the realm of minstrels and also out of the red light district. Ragtime pianists like Jelly Roll Morton straddled the two worlds for several years, liberally borrowing from ragtime to lay the foundations for his early forays into jazz.
