Radio Zona

Jazz and Blues laid the groundwork for nearly every other musical genre to hit it big since the 1920s.

With Jazz emerging from the old ragtime and dance rhythms of the 1890s and Blues fusing guitar mastery with a classic country music sound, both genres have been cornerstones to American music and its influence on the world.

Jazz is a genre of numerous styles, sounds, and dozens of different takes, having splintered into dozens of separate genres since its heydays in the 1940s and 50s.

Artists today such as Michael Buble and Diana Krall strive to bring back that classically inspired jazz sound to the mainstream while pioneers such as Winton Marsalis simply play amazing jazz music.

The blues sound, so important in the crafting of Rock and Roll in the 1950s hasn’t changed much since then.

With leading masters like B.B King and Bobby Rush winning awards almost 50 years after they started playing, it’s no wonder Blues music has become such a defining institution in American musical history.