The Origins of Jazz

The music called Jazz was born sometime around 1895 in New Orleans. It combined elements of Ragtime, marching band music and Blues. What differentiated Jazz from these earlier styles was the widespread use of improvisation, often by more than one player at a time. Jazz represented a break from Western musical traditions, where the composer wrote a piece of music on paper and the musicians then tried their best to play exactly what was in the score. In a Jazz piece, the song is often just a starting point or frame of reference for the musicians to improvise around. The song might have been a popular ditty or blues that they didn't compose, but by the time they were finished with it they had composed a new piece that often bore little resemblance to the original song. Many of these virtuoso musicians were not good sight readers and some could not read music at all, nevertheless their playing thrilled audiences and the spontaneous music they created captured a joy and sense of adventure that was an exciting and radical departure from the music of that time. The first Jazz was played by African-American and Creole musicians in New Orleans. The cornet player, Buddy Bolden is generally considered to be the first real Jazz musician. Other early players included Freddie Keppard, Bunk Johnson and Clarence Williams. Although these musicians names are unknown to most people, then and now, their ideas are still being elaborated on to this day. Most of these men could not make a living with their music and were forced to work menial jobs to get by. The second wave of New Orleans Jazz musicians like Joe "King" Oliver, Kid Ory and Jelly Roll Morton formed small bands that took the music of these older men and increased the complexity and dynamic of their music, as well as gaining greater commercial success. This music became know as "Hot Jazz", because of the often breakneck speeds and amazing improvised polyphony that these bands produced. A young virtuoso cornet player named Louis Armstrong was discovered in New Orleans by King Oliver. Armstrong soon grew to become the greatest Jazz musician of his era and eventually one of the biggest stars in the world. The impact of Armstrong and other Jazz musicians altered the course of both popular and Classical music. African-American musical styles became the dominant force in 20th century music.

The First "Jazz" Recordings

The first "Jazz" record "Livery Stable Blues", coupled with "Dixie Jass Band One Step" was made in 1917 by a White band from New Orleans called The Original Dixieland Jazz Band. The band was one of the first to bring the New Orleans style of Jazz to New York. After a music agent heard them in Chicago he brought them to New York, where, within weeks, they were a sensation. Soon after their first recording Victor records signed them for several more. The music recorded by the band was nearly conventional with no blue notes and only a smattering of ragged rhythms. Nonetheless, the record sold over one million copies and had a profound effect on musicians and the public all over the U.S.

The First African American Jazz Recording

As Jazz proliferated, many New Orleans-based bands began spreading out across the country, playing in Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or hitting the smaller towns on the T.O.B.A. vaudeville curcuit. The first Jazz record by an African Americans, was by Kid Ory's band recording under the name of Spike's Seven Pods of Pepper Orchestra. The songs "Ory's Creole Trombone" and "Society Blues" were recorded in Los Angeles in 1922. After 1923 the flood gates were open and African-American Jazz became widely recorded. Early stars included other New Orleans musicians like King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton, a Creole musician who, in the early 1920's, recorded over a hundred of his own and other's Jazz tunes. Some of the records are solo piano, but many are of Jelly Roll with his band the Red Hot Peppers.

These early releases were great hits and record companies began recording nearly anyone who even claimed to be a Jazz musician. With records coming out by the hundreds, thousands of young people across the U.S. decided they wanted to be "Jazz" musicians. The Jazz music boom had begun.

But the enthusiasm for Jazz was not shared by everyone. Many in White middle America were concerned, and magazine and newspaper articles decrying the influence of African-American music on society and the scandalous behaviour, including dancing, it supposedly led to were not uncommon. But the social outcry had little effect. Jazz had arrived and it was going nowhere but up!

The Original Dixieland Jass Band

The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, who billed themselves "The Creators of Jazz", have long been dismissed as the White guys who copied African-American music, and called it their own. There is a lot of truth to that statement, but on the other hand, The Original Dixieland Jazz Band's recordings still hold their own unique charm, over 80 years after their initial release. However unfair and indicative of the racism of the era, the record "Livery Stable Blues", coupled with "Dixie Jass Band One Step" became the first Jazz record ever released on February 26, 1917 for the Victor Talking Machine Company. It was wildly successful. Its release signalled the beginning of the Jazz age and helped define the wild, exuberant era we call the "Roaring Twenties". The Original Dixieland Jazz Band had recorded for Columbia in January 1917, but the session was unsuccessful and the band had to come back and re-record the songs, thus the release of the Columbia sides did not come about until after the amazing success of the Victor records. The group had formed in New Orleans, all of the musicians had played in Papa Jack Laine's Reliance Brass Band at one time or another. In 1916 the band moved from New Orleans to Chicago, just like so many of the African-American and Creole musicians from that city. In Chicago, they played a season at the Booster Club under the name of Stein's Dixie Jass Band. At the beginning of the following year the band ditched Stein and moved to New York where, on the recommendation of Al Jolson, they landed a gig at Reisenweber's Café on Columbus Circle and 58th Street, a fashionable restaurant and night-spot. The band created quite a stir and Columbia rushed to record the band only two weeks after they had arrived in the city. The band was an immediate success, with their wacky stage antics, like wearing top hats that spelled out "Dixie", playing the trombone's slide with the foot, and so on. The band's slogan was "Untuneful Harmonists Playing Peppery Melodies", and their leader Nick La Rocca and cornet player delighted in stirring up the press, describing themselves as musical anarchists and coining fun statements like "Jazz is the assassination of the melody, it's the slaying of syncopation". After the Reisenweber's Café engagement end the band played at the Alamo Cafe (148th Street) and the College Inn at Coney Island. The Original Dixieland Jazz Band went on to record and play in London, producing 20 tracks for Columbia, including another big hit, Soudan. They returned to America in July of 1920. They signed a new record contract with Okeh, but the public began to tire of them and they never regained the sales or popularity of their initial success. The group broke up in 1925 after La Rocca suffered a nervous breakdown. The surviving members briefly re-formed in 1936 and recorded some sides for Victor. In 1940 the band re-formed yet again, but this time without La Rocca and recorded six sides for Bluebird and played up until 1940. Eddie Edwards formed a version of the band that recorded a V-Disc during World War II and for Commodore Records in 1945 and 1946. Tony Sbarbaro was the only other original member to perform on those sessions.

Nick La Rocca

Nick La Rocca claimed to have invented Jazz and often complained that African-American musicians have been given too much credit for the birth of Jazz. He was so obnoxious about this, that many people tend to try and overlook the important contributions he made to the music and the role that the Original Dixieland Jass Band played in popularising Jazz around the world. Nick started playing with the Papa Laine's Reliance Brass Band in New Orleans. He formed the Original Dixieland Jass Band in New Orleans in 1914. The group referred to itself as America's first Jazz band. They played wacky novelty-based jazz and they were very popular in New York City during World War One. The band featured La Rocca on trumpet; Larry Shields on clarinet; Eddie Edwards