move towards the mid 19th century/Civil War/growth, etc.

.....Henry Clay Works
     Great Composer of the Civil War/Mid-19th C. America
     tunes of note: Grandfather's Clock, Buckskin Bag of Gold & Father Dear Father.....

......Stephen Foster
     American Folk Melodies
     Bardstown, KY, Old Kentucky Home, etc.
     [some serious question about the authenticity of tunes]

.....Post Civil War - Late 19th C America
.....advent/expansion of the railroads
.....expansion of population - move from agrarian to urban society
.....rise of middle class

.....Great Touring Artists [brought music to the masses]
.....Jenny Lind - Swedish Nightingale: [click for pic]
.....Ole Bull - Norwegian Violinist
.....J. P. Sousa: [click for pic]
     Gilmore, Pryor Bands - American Band/March Music

Rise of interest in music/sheet music publishing
.....Growth and Rise of Tin Pan Alley
     New York City
     Music Publishing District
     Major Publishers - Remick, Berlin & Snyder
.....Song Pluggers
     "pushed" music for clients and patrons
      Irving Berlin, George Gershwin all got start as "pluggers"
.....Charles K. Harris - "After The Ball" - 1892
     1st million selling piece of sheet music
      based on the story of young couple at a ball

Origins and the Rise of Jazz/Blues

[The origins are very fuzzy as folks involved did not write/read, etc. former Afro-American slaves though early major contributors had a literacy problem - relied on aural/oral tradition]

.....New Orleans-Storyville
     bars, brothels, bordellos, gaming houses
     "where vice was king and pleasure was queen"
     Lake Ponchatraine

Probable early influences on the development of Jazz/Blues
.....French military bands in New Orleans
     syncopation
.....call and response
     "work songs"
....."blue notes" and scales
     "spirituals"
.....rejected instruments from factory
.....illiteracy
.....bars - brothels - gambling area

.....Rise of "Cake Walks" and "Rags"
     syncopation
     Scott Joplin - Maple Leaf Rag, et al

.....Early Artists of "New Orleans Style"
     King Oliver, Buddy Bolden, Bix Beiderbecke [white]
.....Later Adherents of New Orleans Style
     Louis Armstrong: [click for pic]
     Kid Ory, Baby Dodd

.....Great Early Blues Singers
     King of the Work Songs - Hugh "Ledbelly" Ledbetter
     City Blues - Bessie Smith
     City Blues - Billie Holiday 

.....onward towards the contributions of Duke Ellington, Count Basie

.....Country Blues
     Jimmie Rodgers "The Singing Brakeman"
     Hank Williams [Hank Sr.]
     Carter Family

The "Great Split" and Reconciliation

.....George Gershwin
     massive contributions to American Music
     started as a song plugger at Remick's
     hired to present jazz/blues composition in "polite society"
     "Rhapsody in Blue" with Paul Whiteman Orchestra
     Later wrote famous American opera "Porgy & Bess"