0). The blues often
             allude to despair but they always seem to have a "bittersweet twist, a hope
             that things will get better" (O'Brien 1987 466). The term has come to be
             connected with an African American song form that blends spiritual and
             gospel music. Although historians have mixed ideas on the origins of the
             blues, there can be no question that New Orleans is an essential aspect of
             its history. Perhaps the most obvious difference between the two forms of
             music is that jazz is predominantly instrumental while the blues are
             predominantly vocal. However, their intersection was a practical one,
             according to Shipton, as jazz musicians could offer their services to blues
             singers and singers could accompany jazz musicians.
             This may be because jazz and the blues represent different aspects of a
             culture that was growing and discovering itself at the same time. At a
             time when optimism among African Americans was diminishing due to southern
             white resistance and discrimination, a new pattern of music emerged, which
             revolved around the nationalistic sounds of soul" (Ward 1998 3). This soul
             was characterized by "musical and presentational devices drawn from a
             gospel tradition to which blacks had in intensely poprietorial
             relationship" (3). This soul is captured in many early jazz and blues
             Jazz is significant to music because it represents a mood and captures
             an emotion of a culture like none other. Jazz is in many ways, very
             personal. Duke Ellington once described jazz as a "freedom that takes many
             forms" (Ellington qtd. in Berendt 1975 8). Dave Brubeck claims that jazz
             is practically the only art form that exists today "in which there is
             freedom of the individual without the loss of group contact" (Brubeck qtd.
             Berendt 8). While jazz may be difficult to define, it is not difficult to
             sees its influences in modern music. Berendt claims that this is clear
             when we notice what ...