Jazz is not Blues and Blues is not Jazz.......

Ragtime was a precursor of Jazz. Late 1800’s-early 1900’s.

RAGtime . Ragged rhythm : syncopation; the main defining characteristic of Jazz (the “swing”). Ragtime was not really Jazz in the strictest sense of the word since there was no improvisation to speak of . Players (Morton) would later incorporate improvisation along with other influences such as Blues and Jazz was born. No big mystery here as it is well documented.

The evolution of Jazz is linear; it builds on what came before. Same can be said of practically all art.

Through sheer good fortune, a book of piano sheet music a neighbor laid on me happened to have a xerox of Scott Joplin's rag "The Chrysanthemum" hidden inside.  I thought I was a knowledgeable Scott Joplin fan, but this particular piece had completely eluded me.  Anyway, I'm hearing it for the first time, under my fingers. It's totally wonderful.  Yeah, to put it gently, the music is a bit above my station in terms of difficulty, but on a good day I can almost pull off maybe eighty percent of it.  BTW, the music the book actually contains is uniformly awful.

As for my piano, it's an early 20th Century Mason-Hamlin studio upright.  It can no longer be tuned to standard pitch, and it will never be fully in tune with itself but it's got tone, tone, tone!  My audio-fool ears bathe in luxury.

I suspect that most of the pianos in the various “venues” that Joplin played were not fully in tune with themselves either.  You’re in good company.  Some of those old pianos do have great tone; sounds like you have a good one.

'Jazz ain't Blues and Blues ain't Jass.......But I tell you what. If you cain't play the blues. You cain't play jass.' 

If we didn't have blues were sure wouldn't have jazz.

@oldhvymec,
You're on to something big bruh.

How's this, Country Western, Rock and Roll, Blues and Jazz were ALL born in the USA. They are bound to cross a few boundaries.
Wrong country for being a purest, ay?

If you think about it, one was born from the another, or branched and taken from another. It's not like Opera, Dixieland jazz, Bali, or Bagpipes, crossing lines... Just sayin, more alike than not...

The older I get the more I learn that the blues or any american music for that matter is a melting pot of all music that came before it. Even the indigenous music of the american indian had just as much effect on the creation of blues as any of the european and african music that is given more credit.

Even in New Orleans the black folks of the 1800's recognised that the indian population and people were treated even worse than the black man. And if that ain't the blues, I don't no what is.

Legend has it Charlie Patton, the so called father of Delta Mississippi blues was part Choctaw which had a profound effect on the music he was creating or should I say melting. I have learned to love Delta Mississippi music. Blues, french, spanish and indigenous indian and all. After all  Mississippi is a Choctaw word.   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charley_Patton

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