History of the United States, Vol. VI-Charles Austin Beard, Mary Ritter Beard

Long before 1900 there began a fusion of African and European musical forms from which, at the end of the nineteenth century, "jazz” emerged. This descriptive and analytical narrative explores the growth and the changes in direction of jazz music, and the effect on it of religious and economic as well as artistic and individual influences. - Summary by R. P. Jones, in Preface