However, jazz is not haphazard and random. There are rules and structure. Within that structure, the soloist improvises. It is individualism within constraints, so in a way, jazz represents America, where individualism is prized above all, but within the constraints of societal laws. Jazz is a music that could have only been born in America, because America brought so many people with diverse backgrounds together.
Jazz fuses the structure of European classical musical concepts with the rhythms of Africa.
Jazz was created by African-Americans, because the freedom of jazz could only be born of a people who were not free. Together, ragtime and blues formed to give jazz its musical foundation. That foundation was laid in New Orleans, in the very early part of the 20th century. At that time, segregation laws were passed and Creoles were declared 2nd-class citizens. Many of these people were well educated and the musicians were classically trained.