Blues.
native american
folktale
African American
Blues evolved into jazz.
The ethnic group that is credited for creating jazz music and maintaing its strong presence in American life is....African Americans.
jazz and blues
Rhythm and Blues
When acid jazz came along it did not really kill off any form of music but it did combine elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop. So it could be said to have reduced the popularity of those genres although not by any great degree.
The web address of the Jazz Heritage Center is: http://www.jazzheritagecenter.org
The phone number of the Jazz Heritage Center is: 415-255-7745.
Jazz evolved partly out of gospel music of the African-Americans, and partly out of their "field hollers" they would call back and forth while at work. They began to experiment with the rhythms, and jazz evolved out of that. Improvisation is a basic tenet of jazz (and blues). There is also an old joke that jazz was invented when a cow swallowed a bottle of ink and "mooed indigo". :>D