Jazz and Blues? Are they similar?

They are when it comes to both allowing you to express yourself. Beyond that the styles are very different. And both can be played with the same intruments. The chords progressions are different, bending of the notes, and the moods that the styles set. To me, they are not the same.

Blues is an expression, and complaint about problems, and the injustices of life. Especially by the black American blues artists of the time, who identified with the injustices of black slavery. It is edgy, and potent. (showing power and influence) An example of this kind of blues artist is Jimi Hendrix.

As I understand it, in music blues pertain to the depressive mood tempo of the song, thus it was called blues. Blues can often be associated into various sub-genre such as country blues, electric blues, guitar blues, jazz blues, etc. Whereas, Jazz is a sub-genre of music or a musical art characterized with its swinging notes, blues notes, synchronizing notes and the likes. To put it on a more relative description, Blues is one characteristic of Jazz and Jazz is considered a musical art form.