The mental health problems of one musician could have led to the creation of jazz.

Without his schizophrenia, Charles "Buddy" Bolden - the man credited by some with starting off the jazz movement - might never have started improvisation, psychiatrists have heard.

And without this style change, music might never have evolved from ragtime into the jazz movement we know today.

Professor Dr Sean Spence, of the department of psychiatry at the University of Sheffield, was speaking to representatives at the Royal College of Psychiatrists' annual conference.

He said jazz music arose from the attempts of a cognitively impaired performer to execute novel performances.



If we had not had this improvised music then it would just have continued as ragtime

Dr Sean Spence