Blues was a major influence on early jazz style and composition. The blues style involved playing blue notes (minor keys/pentatonic blues scale) and also joining notes through melismatic (sliding) runs, both of which were hallmarks of many early jazz melodies and solos.
Jazz first emerged in the black cultures of New Orleans from the mixed influences of ragtime (songs with a syncopated rhythm), blues, and the band music played at New Orleans funerals. The term jazz or jass derives from a Creole word that means both African dance and copulation.
