The origins of jazz are as richly textured as the music itself. The term jazz really covers many different kinds of music. In the late nineteenth century, African Americans began performing the folk music known as the blues, whose origins lay in the work songs of slavery days. Within the African American community. The blues evolved into popular commercial music. In nineteen fourteen, a black orchestra leader named w c handy wrote the St. Louis blues, adapting the African American folk idiom to European convention of orchestration and harmony. Handy produced a hit song. The St. Louis blues was tremendously influential among black and white musicians, and handy style of music became famous under the name of jazz. Early jazz musicians were active in many cities and towns throughout the southern United States. It was New Orleans with its long tradition of African American music that was the home of many fathers of jazz. After world war one, the musicians of New Orleans joined the general northward migration of African Americans. The first great national center of jazz was Chicago. From there, the music entered the mainstream and even gave its name to the decade of the nineteen twenties. Jazz blending African American folk roots with elements of popular music and European classical traditions has been called America's classical music.