European music in the US. By the early 20th century the relationship gave birth to the distinctive sound known as jazz.

Over the years the music has evolved, transcending age, culture and languages all over the world.

For lovers of jazz, the music cannot be understood by reading about it -- you have to listen to it to fully appreciate it.

But here are a few `notes' to help those, who are not quite jazz connoisseurs, get a basic feel for the inspirational musical genre known as jazz.

BLUES: The grand daddy of jazz -- and most of the West's popular music. Born on the plantations of the American south, it -- not surprisingly -- tended to be filled with emotion and yearning. Contact with Caucasian brought in more European elements. But without the blues, there couldn't have been rock and roll. Crucial musical moments include WC Handy's `St. Louis Blues.' *** RAGTIME: The expression literally means `ragged time'. Ragtime is generally optimistic, with the capacity to make a listener laugh and dance. The Ragtime craze took hold of in the final decade of the 19th century. The genre underwent a revival in the 70s when Scott Joplin's `The Entertainer' was used for the Oscar-winning Robert Redford/Paul Newman movie The Sting.

*** NEW ORLEANS: The first real merging of Africa and Europe in music. Post US Civil War brass instruments and drums joined with the Creole clarinet and the banjo and guitar of the blues. `When the Saints Go Marching In' was a traditional New Orleans funeral tune which achieved lasting popularity.

*** SWING: A `sanitised' version of jazz, which used elements of traditional African/American music in the `big band' sound of the 30's and 40's. The most famous swing musicians were Count Basie and Glenn Miller, whose signature tune was `In the Mood.' *** BEBOP: A turbocharged version of Swing -- with a fast-lane, live-for-now intensity. Saxophonists Charlie Parker and John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie were among the driving forces. It was a more improvisational and experimental form of jazz.

*** COOL JAZZ: The South meets the West Coast in a fusion of styles leading to a smoother, more melodious, lounge-lizard version pioneered by the legendary Miles Davis.

*** LATIN JAZZ: The African influence struck again with Latin-based jazz, with its main roots in Cuba and Brazil. Samba beats connected with African rhythms to produce the genre's 1960s incarnation.