爵士有很多种类， 而且也在发展。 她受到不同音乐形式的影响，比如：classical music, marches, spirituals, work songs, ragtime, blues and the popular music of the period。是一种独特的音乐形式。
One of the major questions that will go forever unanswered is “How did jazz start?” The first jazz recording was in 1917 but the music existed in at least primitive forms for 20 years before that. Influenced by classical music, marches, spirituals, work songs, ragtime, blues and the popular music of the period, jazz was already a distinctive form of music by the time it was first documented. （取自网络）
下面是不同风格的爵士。 还有其它略为不同的说法。网上也有很多介绍。
- Acid Jazz (with thx to Hunter Nelson)
- Avant-Garde Jazz
- Big Band
- Blue Note (with thx to Jillian Edwards)
- Contemporary Jazz
- Cool
- Crossover Jazz
- Dixieland
- Ethio-jazz (with thx to Jillian Edwards)
- Fusion
- Hard Bop
- Latin Jazz
- Mainstream Jazz
- Ragtime
- Smooth Jazz
- Trad Jazz
