Around the beginning of the 20th century, blues, African-American spiritual forms, and ragtime combined and rearranged to develop into jazz. Many different forms popped up in different areas, with cultural center like New Orleans, Chicago, and New York becoming hotbeds of musical creativity. Boogie-woogie, stride, and ragtime piano developed alongside the riffing of Dixieland as jazz prepared to become America's popular music of the 1920s, '30s and '40s.

Notable Artists: Buddy Bolden, King Oliver, Sidney Bechet