Traditional, or trad jazz as it's often called, is "hot" jazz, tracing its roots back to ragtime and the hot dance music of the 1920s, 1930s, and early 1940s (the "cool" strain of jazz began with bebop in the 1940s). Trad jazz includes forms like ragtime, blues, Dixieland, boogie-woogie, swing, and some big-band music (Duke Ellington and Count Basie, for instance).

This kind of music is far from dead. Some modern-day players of traditional jazz try to preserve the authentic sounds of the past, but most use it as a starting point to develop their own sounds. The result is a dynamic music scene that includes everything from honkytonk and ragtime to swing-dance revival. The common denominator is the dance beat – this is joyous music, intended for dancing and having a good time, and it continues to attract enthusiastic audiences.