Jazz seems to be one of the music genres that is so grateful in terms of improvisation and experimentation that it’s always evolving and new subgenres are emerging. Whether you are fan of Chicago jazz style, bebop, west style jazz, acid jazz, hard bop, or you name one, they all had the same roots back in 19th century New Orleans.
Jazz music has developed around the beginning of the 20th century having its roots in ragtime and blues music styles highly influenced and created by African-American communities in America. Although there are some different opinions on where jazz originated, it seems that its roots go back to 1890s New Orleans, where brass bands became popular during that time. First pioneering jazz to be recorded was by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1917 in New Orleans, and this traditional jazz style later became known as Dixieland jazz.
And since these beginnings, this music has allowed much space for music expression, improvisation and experimentation, which is why it remained so popular until these days (though not mainstream anymore, but rather an underground genre). Since the 70s and a long era of transformation jazz has gone through, it has also become an academic topic on music conservatories, where all of its genres and subgenres will be preserved and studied.
Since the new experimentations introduce new instruments to the music, literally any instrument can be played in a jazz band. But some classical, recognizable jazz instruments include trumpets, saxophones, pianos, violins banjos, and other woodwind and percussion instruments like oboe, drums, bass etc. Generally, all the instruments in a jazz band are divided into three main sections: horn section, rhythm section and others, which include woodwind instruments, guitars, violins, banjos and others. If you are interested to find out more about jazz instruments and get a short introduction in jazz music history check out this Insider Monkey’s article on 7 Easiest Jazz Instruments to Learn.