The spelling of the word took years stabilize.
Jazz represents a multiformity of musical ideas and originating influences.
Piano ragging was an improvisational reworking the tempos of known tunes played by ear. Ragging style was applied by the popular virtuoso banjo players, in minstrel show music, in string bands, and for buck dancing. Later, the immense distribution of parlor uprights and player pianos throughout the country allowed ragtime to be easily incorporated into the repertoires of music-reading players at home as well as in clubs. The new jazz bore the stamp of Caribbean, Spanish, French, and South American ideas. Although most of the jazz innovators and emulated masters of early jazz were African American, jazz's musical core also incorporates Western European ideas.