This new music with elements of Ragtime, Blues and even marching band added something totally new, totally wild and radically different to the musical traditions of the western world: Improvisation. The world of music would never be the same.

African Americans and Creole musicians from New Orleans were the first to play Jazz, using traditional song structure only as a frame work, improvising and spontaneously creating something new every time they played.

Today, 100 years later we can feel the power and hear the influences which Jazz has on our current music. Thanks to the net we have the ability to compare old and new. We can dig deeper into the history of Jazz and perhaps glimpse its future.

OpenNote invites you to go on a little internet tour, which perhaps will provide some inspiration for your own music: