A Child’s Introduction to Jazz: The Musicians, Culture, and Roots of the World’s Coolest Music

Have you ever heard a woodpecker tapping on a tree trunk? The tap-tap-tap of its beak against the bark is what we call rhythm. Have you ever patted your foot while listening to your favorite tune? The pattern of sounds your foot makes is also what we call rhythm. The bark of a dog, the tick of a clock, and the brisk-brisk of a broom sweeping the sidewalk are all examples of the rhythms that can be heard throughout the day, indoors and out.

No one can say for sure where or when people began to create rhythms of their own, perhaps by clapping their hands or rubbing sticks together. We do know that rhythm has strong roots in Africa, home of the world’s earliest civilizations. African rhythms traveled across the Atlantic when people were abducted from their homes and forced to sail to the Americas. One of the places they arrived was New Orleans, a port city on the Mississippi River, near the Gulf of Mexico.