Part: 1 introduction of jazz

Without question jazz music is a powerful vehicle for human expression. Everywhere we look or open our ears, we can discern the emotional, creative, and musical effects of this particular mode of human expression. Interestingly though, when we are discussing jazz music, we are also moving into the realm of controversy. First of all, this music is the cultural and spiritual tool and means by which the journey of an entire group of people is chronicled.

Second, jazz is the repository of how our ancestors were able to maintain life's energy in the face of inhuman treatment by one group of humans, toward another group.Jazz music serves as a societal mirror. Americans of European decent, have great difficulty acknowledging that without the enslaved African people, music in America would be entirely different. In many instances, this group of people want to distance themselves from the essence of this music, as evidenced by various organizations and schools, where there is limited involvement of white and African Americans, really allowing this music to dismantle and dissolve the walls of racial strife and antagonism. Jazz started in the progressive era, around the 1920s, it was started in places like Louisiana, New Orleans and Harlem in New York City. The art was so popular in Harlem during that time; they called it the Harlem renaissance.