Jazz originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The earliest written record of the word is in a 1912 article in the Los Angeles Times in which a minor league baseball pitcher described a pitch which he called a "jazz ball" "because it wobbles and you simply can't do anything with it".

Livery Stable Blues, recorded by the Original Dixieland Jass Band on February 26, 1917, established jazz as popular music and spawned demand for small jazz bands in New York and Chicago at a time when it was getting harder and harder for musicians to find employment in New Orleans.

Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation.

Ella Fitzgerald was an American singer noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability.

Rolling Stone described him as "the most revered jazz trumpeter of all time."

According to a study conducted by two professors from John Hopkins University, when jazz musicians improvise, their brains turn off the dorsolateral prefrontal and lateral orbital regions linked to self-censoring, inhibition and introspection, and turn on the medial prefrontal cortex--the part of the brain that lets self-expression flow.

Parker acquired the nickname "Yardbird" early in his career, inspiring the titles of a number of his compositions, including "Yardbird Suite", "Ornithology", "Bird Gets the Worm", and "Bird of Paradise".

While acclaimed by many, Monk's unorthodox approach to the piano, which combines a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of switched key releases, silences, and hesitations, is not universally appreciated.

After suffering a dental injury in an altercation with an acquaintance trying to extort money, Baker had to be fitted for dentures and relearn how to play the trumpet.