1. A style of dance music popular in the 1920s; similar to New Orleans jazz but played by large bands.
2. Music that originated in New Orleans around 1900 and developed through increasingly complex styles.
Polyphonic syncopated music, characterized by solo virtuosic improvisation, which developed in the US at the turn of the 20th century. Initially music for dancing, often with a vocalist, it had its roots in black American and other popular music. Developing from blues and spirituals (religious folk songs) in the southern states, it first came to prominence in the early 20th century in New Orleans, St Louis, and Chicago, with a distinctive flavor in each city.
Traits common to all types of jazz are the modified rhythms of West Africa; the emphasis on improvisation; Western European harmony emphasizing the dominant seventh and the clash of major and minor thirds; characteristic textures and timbres, first exemplified by a singer and rhythm section (consisting of a piano, bass, drums, and guitar or a combination of these instruments), and later by the addition of other instruments such as the saxophone and various brass instruments, and later still by the adoption of electrically amplified instruments.

To play something in the style of jazz.