New Orleans’

First
Generation
The standard accounts focus on Storyville, a red-light district in New Orleans
that existed for a scant twenty years ─ created by the city alders on October 1,
1897, and closed by the U.S. Navy on November 12, 1917 ─ as the birthplace of
jazz music. Close investigation of the facts casts more than a few doubts on this
colorful lineage. Donald Marquis, a leading expert on New Orleans jazz who
painstakingly researched the life of Buddy Bolden ─ commonly credited with
being the first jazz musician ─ was forced to conclude that Bolden "did not play
in the brothels. None of the musicians who were interviewed remembered
playing with a band in a whorehouse, nor did they know of anyone who had.”
Even the name Storyville, now enshrined in the jazz lexicon, was largely
unknown to jazz musicians at the time. As Pops Foster recalled: Long after I left
New Orleans guys would come around asking me about Storyville down there. I
thought it was some kind of little town we played around there that I couldn’t
remember. When I found they were talking about the Red Light District, I sure
was surprised. We always called it the District. Foster adds that most of the
early jazz musicians did not play in the District. Other sources suggest that
piano music was often featured in the brothels ─ although in many instances
player pianos were used ─ and that only a few locations employed larger
ensembles. One is left to conclude that, at its peak, perhaps a few dozen
musicians were regularly employed in Storyville. Chastized as the devil's music,
jazz may have even deeper ties with the house of God. "You heard the pastors
in the Baptist churches," explained Paul Barbarin, one of the finest of the early
New Orleans jazz drummers, "they were singing rhythm. More so than a jazz
band. "Those Baptist rhythms were similar to the jazzrhythms," concurred
Crescent City banjoist Johnny St. Cyr, "and the singing was very much on the
blues side! Kid Ory, the most famous of the New Orleans trombonists, saw
Bolden drawing inspiration from the church, not the brothels: "Bolden got
most of his tunes from the Holy Roller Church, the Baptist church on Jackson
Avenue and Franklin. I know that he used to go to that church, but not for
religion, he went there to get ideas on music."
 Just think about
it…
“Many of the earliest generation of players never recorded; others ─ such as Keppard
─ recorded when past their prime, thus limiting our ability to make a full and accurate
assessment of their talent and influence; still others, such as Jelly Roll Morton and
Bunk Johnson, made outstanding recordings, but did so, for the most part, some
years after the New Orleans style of performance was perfected, thus raising
questions about how accurately these recordings represent turn-of-the-century
practices. Our ability to decipher this history is further complicated by the
recollections of such musicians as Johnson, Morton, and LaRocca ─ all players whose
autobiographical narratives were tainted by a desire to enshrine themselves as major
protagonists in the creation of this new music. As previously mentioned, some twenty
years transpired between Bolden's glory days and the release of the first jazz
recordings. Nor do these first commercial disks simplify the historian's task. If
anything, the opposite is true: the history of recorded jazz was initiated with an event
that remains to this day clouded in controversy. And, as with so many of the loaded
issues in the story of the music, the question of race lies at the core of the dispute. In
an ironic and incongruous twist of fate, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (ODJB), an
ensemble consisting of white musicians, was the first to make commercial recordings
of this distinctly African-American music.” - Gioia, T. The History of Jazz - Chapter 2
 "First" jass
musician; directly or
indirectly a major
Buddy Bolden 1877 1931 NOLA Jackson LA
influence on later
jazz musicians.
Invented Big Four

New Iberia
Bunk Johnson 1879 1949 NOLA Buddy Bolden
LA

Near King Oliver's Creole

Joe "King" Oliver 1881 1938 Savannah GA
NOLA Jazz Band

ODJB – first jass

Nick LaRocca 1889 1961 NOLA album 1917; Papa NOLA
Jack Laine's band

Storyville; Original
Freddie Kepard 1889 1933 NOLA Chicago IL
Creole Orchestra

King Oliver's Creole

Louis Armstrong 1901 1971 NOLA Jazz Band; Hot5 and NYC
Hot7

Freelancer;
Composed "Sing
Louis Prima 1910 1978 NOLA NOLA
Sing Sing"; Walt
Disney
Marsalis on The Big Four:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsnf-C1Pu-A
King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band – Dippermouth Blues – 1923:
Pops on “Jujitsu” music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSp0Ms1TpdM https://open.spotify.com/track/6ZqfDWDhqlgW5Tlf991hsR?si
=S07BNN9aTs-mLWjkakFFDw
Louis Armstrong in Copenhagen (1933):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZvqvNYJmC4 Hot 7 – Potato Head Blues – 1927 (stop time):
Armstrong, Louis (Cornet)
Thomas, John (Trombone)
Dodds, Johnny (Clarinet)
Armstrong, Lil Hardin (Piano)
St. Cyr, Johnny (Banjo, Guitar)
Briggs, Pete (Tuba)
Dodds, Baby (Drums)
https://open.spotify.com/track/2iCDEZ5GSxyb6nfs7i4EWF?si=
x0HPk000QWy-2zyJ3BYaqA

Hot 5 – Heebie Jeebies – 1926 (scat singing):

Armstrong, Louis (Cornet)
Ory, Kid (Trombone)
Dodds, Johnny (Clarinet)
Armstrong, Lil Hardin (Piano)
St. Cyr, Johnny (Banjo)
https://open.spotify.com/track/64dnf5tGls7r4en5HjVePF?si=fd
55BGqHQpCCcWYjTIs3pQ
 King Oliver's Creole Jazz
Johnny Waveland Band; Hot5 and Hot7;
1892 1940 Chicago IL
Dodds MS Jelly Roll Morton's Red
Hot Peppers
Larry ODJB; Papa Jack Laine's
1893 1953 NOLA LA CA
Shields band
Freddie Kepard's
Jimmie Original Creole
1895 1944 Bayou LA CA
Noone Orchestra; King Oliver;
Inspired Ravel's Bolero
Willie "The Lion" Smith;
Sidney Louis Armstrong; Near Paris,
1897 1959 NOLA
Bechet Clarence Williams; France
Influence on Hodges
Bunk Johnson;
George
1900 1968 NOLA Preservation Hall Jazz NOLA
Lewis
Band
Edmond
1901 1967 Near NOLA Louis Armstrong; Boston MA
Hall

Papa Jack Laine's

Leon Reliance Brass Band;
1902 1943 Near NOLA NOLA
Roppolo George Brunies; New
Orleans Rhythm Kings

Kid Ory; King Oliver;

Barney Culver City
1906 1980 NOLA Duke Ellington; Glen
Bigard CA
Miler
“Sidney Bechet to me was the very epitome of jazz.
Everything he played in his whole life was completely Sidney Bechet – Blue Horizon – 1944
Sidney Bechet, clarinet
original. I honestly think he was the most unique ever to be Sidney de Paris, trumpet
Vic Dickenson, trombone
in this music” - Duke Ellington Art Hodes, piano
George 'Pops' Foster, bass
Manzie Johnson, drums
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZRAg1POycM https://open.spotify.com/track/1EWPMNHfdVNJwBpG9BcxX
B?si=DdS8gcyQTiebZxOhCV1XFg
"Funky Butt” became so well-known as a rude song that
even whistling the melody on a public street was Sidney Bechet – Sweet Georgia Brown
considered offensive and likely to get you in trouble with https://open.spotify.com/track/6Hne1fw8SYKUaRCpNcuda9?
the police. si=jLqhBjkFSN6QZNhUv9w47A

Jimmie Noone – Four or Five Times – 1937

Apex Club Orchestra
Vocals – Joe Poston
Banjo, Guitar – Budd Scott
Clarinet, Vocals –Jimmie Noone
Drums – Johnny Wells
Piano –Earl Hines
https://open.spotify.com/track/40G9tvfWf4HVOPQrP1WAsW
?si=QgH4a-AHTDWpi2sPCeJZBQ

Jimmie Noone & Kid Ory – Sugar Foot Stomp

https://open.spotify.com/track/7jUXSxNbjVedjXbh3OynHG?si
=tpa7ctKBTemwILujcsKpFQ
Just think
about it…
Bechet returned to Europe in May 1949, for the first time in
almost twenty years, to participate in a Paris jazz festival. The
event was a success, and Bechet came back to France in the
fall for more performances, followed by a trip to England. In a
move that many later American jazz musicians would
emulate, Bechet decided to settle permanently overseas; it
was not a departure from his roots, he explained, since it
brought him “closer to Africa.” In the Old World, he received
the adulation, financial security, and social acceptance that
no black jazz musician could find in the music’s native
country. Performing and recording dates were abundant, as
were a whole range of other artistic opportunities; these
years found Bechet entertaining capacity audiences at
nightclubs and concert halls, and also involved in ballet and
cinema projects. Shortly before his death in 1959 he even
turned litterateur, completing his autobiography Treat It
Gentle, a plainspoken work that many of his fans cherish
almost as much as his legacy of recordings.
 King Oliver; Hot5 and Played String Bass
Near "Pops" Near and Tuba; Kid Ory; San Francisco
Kid Ory 1886 1973 Hot7; Jelly Roll Morton's Honolulu HI 1892 1969
NOLA Foster NOLA King Oliver; Sidney CA
Red Hot Peppers
George Lewis; Bunk Bechet
"Big Jim"
1892 1976 NOLA Johnson; Preservation NOLA
Robinson
Hall Jazz Band Alfred King Oliver; Jimmy
George Near
1902 1974 NOLA Papa Jack Laine's band Chicago IL "Tubby" 1895 1955 Noone; Louis Chicago IL
Brunies NOLA
Hall Armstrong
Louis Armstrong; Bix Buddy Bolden; Bunk
Jack Vernon
1905 1964 Beiderbecke; Paul NOLA Johnson; John
Teagarden TX Baby Dodds 1898 1959 NOLA Chicago IL
Whiteman Robichaux; Jelly Roll
Morton
Freddie Keppard;
Paul
1899 1969 NOLA Jimmie Noone; Louis NOLA
Barbarin
Armstrong

Hot5 and Hot7; Jelly

Johnny St. Cyr 1890 1966 NOLA Roll Morton's Red LA CA
Hot Peppers
Ferdinand
Joseph Storyville; Red Hot
1890 1941 NOLA LA CA
Lamothe/Jelly- Peppers
Roll Morton
"Sweet Emma" Preservation Hall Jazz
1897 1983 NOLA NOLA
Barrett Band
Near Storyville; Louis
Clarence 1893
1965 Baton Armstrong; King NYC
Williams (8)
Rouge Oliver; Bessie Smith
Jelly Roll’s Background: Jelly Roll Morton & his Red Hot Peppers – Black Bottom
https://open.spotify.com/track/0K2vCYQSfP0NjuCpebzBCy Stomp – 1926
?si=RIjIYJQzRoKFWBD-Jx4i6A
Jelly Roll Morton (piano)
Andrew Hilaire (drums)
The Spanish Tinge: John Lindsay (bass)
George Mitchell (cornet)
Kid Ory (trombone), Johnny St. Cyr (banjo),
https://open.spotify.com/track/6t8ywLmRCoYfS0plkbVDhA Omer Simeon (clarinet)

?si=o3RKYt8pQ8OAnAtik6LmaA
https://open.spotify.com/track/5MXn4YVFQ4uebJ2zaIquKZ?s
i=pD5P_A24QfSdAmq-Q-fbPA

Jelly Roll Morton & his Red Hot Peppers – Dr. Jazz – 1926

https://open.spotify.com/track/2SthJmNrYNOS7PM9BhFapp?
si=kGGFzuVeSPSDa0hZYPY88w

Clarence Williams’ Orchestra - I Can’t Dance, I Got Ants In My

Pants – 1933(4)

https://open.spotify.com/track/2ACHlDD84KqpZWirbPCG2k?
si=nQUy5CiuRP6NbY6NlaUaBw