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Jazz is an American musical genre largely originated in New Orleans, Louisiana by African American, White and Creole musicians as documented by Dr. Richard Sudhalter in his comprehensive scholarly study "Lost Chords." However, the style was rapidly and enthusiastically taken up by musicians all over the world, including Australia. Jazz and jazz-influenced syncopated dance music was being performed in Australia within a year of the emergence of jazz as a definable musical genre in the United States.
Until the 1950s the primary form of accompaniment at Australian public dances was jazz-based dance music, modelled on the leading white British and American jazz bands, and this style enjoyed wide popularity.
It was not until after World War II that Australian jazz scene began to diversify as local musicians were finally able to get access to recordings by leading African-American jazz musicians like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, and bebop, cool jazz and free jazz exerting a strong influence on Australian musicians in the late 1950s and beyond. (more)