I don't have my American History book on hand, but I seem to remember it saying that the word "Jazz" came from an African term for "voodoo." I know it has something to do with what white antebellum Americans thought of as witchcraft because they had never before heard such "rubbish" as Jazz. African music was just as sophisticated as the European counterpart, but while Europeans focused on harmony, the continent to the south went the opposite way and focused on rhythm.