What is a popular kind of music that originated in the United States? The answer is Jazz. Mixing folk and blues influences, talented artists from Scott Joplin to Wynton Marsalis have kept jazz at the forefront of the American music scene. The musicians portrayed in this book played different instruments and had different styles, but all helped keep jazz fresh and new. Follow ten prominent jazz musicians (Scott Joplin, Daniel Louis Armstrong, Edward Kennedy Ellington, Mary Lou Williams, Benjamin David Goodman, John Birks Gillespie, Charles Christopher Parker, Jr., Miles Dewey Davis, III, John Coltrane, and Wynton Marsalis) through their many successes and varied hardships.