New Orleans Jazz
Between 1917 and 1930, the collective music that had grown up in the dance halls and Storyville cabarets of New Orleans reached the phonograph and became the first jazz the wider world could hear. In 1917 the Original Dixieland Jass Band cut 'Livery Stable Blues', long cited as the first jazz record, while the city's Black musicians carried the idiom north on the Great Migration. In Chicago, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band recorded its landmark 1923 sides, Jelly Roll Morton arranged his Red Hot Peppers, Sidney Bechet bent the soprano saxophone into a voice, and a young Louis Armstrong turned collective polyphony into the art of the soloist with his Hot Five and Hot Seven. The cited sources place this music's emergence in New Orleans and its diffusion across the United States within these years.
The record
People & groups9
- King Oliver2 sources
1885 · New Orleans
Cornetist and bandleader Joe 'King' Oliver was one of the senior figures of New Orleans jazz, prized for his expressive use of mutes and his commanding lead.
- Jelly Roll Morton2 sources
1885 · New Orleans
A Creole pianist and composer from New Orleans, Jelly Roll Morton was among the first to write jazz down as fully formed arrangements rather than treat it purely as collective improvisation.
- Sidney Bechet2 sources
1897 · New Orleans
A New Orleans clarinetist who adopted the soprano saxophone, Sidney Bechet was one of the first jazz musicians celebrated chiefly as a soloist.
- Louis Armstrong2 sources
1901 · New Orleans
Born in New Orleans in 1901, Louis Armstrong was mentored by King Oliver and grew into the trumpeter and singer who reshaped jazz around the individual soloist.
- Original Dixieland Jass Band2 sources
1916 · New Orleans
A five-piece of white New Orleans musicians led by cornetist Nick LaRocca, the Original Dixieland Jass Band formed around 1916 and carried the city's new dance music to Chicago and then New York.
- King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band2 sources
1922 · Chicago
Led by cornetist King Oliver, the Creole Jazz Band became the defining New Orleans ensemble of early-1920s Chicago, holding court at the Lincoln Gardens dance hall.
- Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five2 sources
1925 · Chicago
Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five was the studio band, active from 1925, that produced the recordings on which Armstrong reinvented jazz as a soloist's art.
1926 · Chicago
The Red Hot Peppers was the recording band Jelly Roll Morton led from 1926 to 1930, a studio group assembled to realize his carefully plotted arrangements.
1927 · Chicago
An expanded version of the Hot Five, the Hot Seven recorded across 1927 and 1928, adding tuba and drums for a fuller rhythmic drive.
Works & releases8
- Livery Stable Blues2 sources
1917 · New Orleans
'Livery Stable Blues', recorded by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in 1917, is the side most often named as the first jazz record.
- At the Jazz Band Ball (single)1 source
1918-06 · New York City
'At the Jazz Band Ball' was issued as a single by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1918, part of the wave of records that followed their breakthrough the year before.
- Dippermouth Blues2 sources
1923 · Chicago
Composed by King Oliver and recorded by his Creole Jazz Band in 1923, 'Dippermouth Blues' is one of the cornerstone sides of recorded New Orleans jazz.
- Wild Cat Blues1 source
1923 · New York City
'Wild Cat Blues' is among the 1923 recordings on which Sidney Bechet showed what a single soprano-saxophone voice could do within a New Orleans band.
- Heebie Jeebies2 sources
1926 · Chicago
Recorded by Louis Armstrong's Hot Five in 1926, 'Heebie Jeebies' is famous for its passage of wordless, syllable-tossing vocal improvisation, an early and hugely influential popularization of scat singing.
- Black Bottom Stomp2 sources
1926 · Chicago
Composed by Jelly Roll Morton and recorded by his Red Hot Peppers in 1926, 'Black Bottom Stomp' is a showcase of his composer's approach to jazz.
- Potato Head Blues2 sources
1927 · Chicago
'Potato Head Blues', recorded by the Hot Seven in 1927, is one of the most celebrated of Louis Armstrong's early sides.
- West End Blues2 sources
1928 · Chicago
Built on a King Oliver theme and recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1928, 'West End Blues' is widely regarded as one of the supreme performances of early jazz.
Events5
- The first jazz record (1917)2 sources
1917 · New Orleans
In 1917 the Original Dixieland Jass Band, a group of white New Orleans musicians, made the recording usually cited as the first jazz record, with 'Livery Stable Blues' among its sides.
- Closing of Storyville (1917)1 source
1917 · New Orleans
Storyville was the district of New Orleans where, for two decades, the city's vice trade and its musicians had concentrated, giving early jazz players some of their steadiest work.
1922 · Chicago
In 1922 King Oliver sent for his young protégé Louis Armstrong to leave New Orleans and join the Creole Jazz Band in Chicago.
1923 · Chicago
In 1923 King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, with Louis Armstrong on second cornet, made a series of recordings that count among the first major documents of New Orleans ensemble jazz.
- First Hot Five session (1925)2 sources
1925 · Chicago
In 1925 Louis Armstrong gathered his Hot Five for the first of the studio sessions that would remake jazz over the next three years.
Venues2
- Storyville1 source
1897 · New Orleans
Storyville was the New Orleans district set aside as a legalized vice quarter, whose cabarets, dance halls, and brothels offered steady employment to the city's musicians.
- Lincoln Gardens1 source
1922 · Chicago
Lincoln Gardens was the Chicago dance hall where King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band held its celebrated residency in the early 1920s, the home base from which the New Orleans sound reached Northern audiences.
Cross-movement connections
Connections · 2
- Louis Armstronginfluences →Charlie Parker
- Louis Armstronginfluences →Dizzy Gillespie