The origins of jazz lie in the heart of the deep south of America, in New Orleans, Louisiana during the time of the black American enslavement before the American Civil War. But first let us look at what the main ingredients were for this inventive mix of white and black culture.
The styles present in New Orleans before the development of jazz, that led up to its creation, would include the work, prison and spiritual songs of the west African slaves, the dance music of both the white Europeans and the black Americans, military dance music and the call and response style that was mainly of the black church. These styles all contributed to the development of jazz but through a process that was very similar to the general process of the integration of the black slaves African culture with the white European culture already there. Cornel West, an African-American cultural theorist, claimed the main black means of cultural expression lay in music and preaching.
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