Original Dixieland Jass tape
The Original Dixieland Jass Band (the spelling was changed to Original Dixieland Jazz Band in mid-1917 ) - ODJB for short - supposedly made the first ever published record of jazz music (1917). They were the first jazz band to gain international popularity as early as 1919. Many of the pieces recorded for the first time by the Original Dixieland Jass Band - such as Tiger Rag , Fidgety Feet , Clarinet Marmalade , At the Jazz Band Ball and, last but not least, the St. Louis Blues - are still widely played Dixieland standards today .
history
At first the five white musicians played in the band of the drummer Papa Jack Laine in New Orleans . In March 1916 the musicians Frank Christian ( cornet ), Eddie Edwards (trombone), Alcide Nunez (clarinet), Henry Ragas (piano) and Johnny Stein (drums) were invited to Chicago for an engagement. The promoter wanted a band that represented the sound of New Orleans, similar to the Rubes of Ragtime band, led by trombonist Tom Brown , which made a guest appearance in New York in 1915. For the cornet player Frank Christian who was absent at short notice, a good replacement was found in Nick LaRocca . On March 3, 1916, the musicians made their first appearance as Stein's Dixie Jass Band . The great success led to tensions, among other things because of demands for higher fees. With new drummer Tony Sbarbaro and under the direction of LaRocca they performed under the name The Original Dixieland Jass Band in Casino Gardens from June 1916 . Due to personal conflicts between Nunez and LaRocca, Larry Shields was employed as clarinetist from the end of October 1916 , an exchange of clarinetists with Tom Brown's band. In business terms, the ODJB was a so-called "co-op band", that is, the sidemen who had chosen LaRocca as their leader, participated in the overall profit.
The music of the Original Dixieland Jass Band was completely new to their audience. Due to the counterpoint-oriented play of the three melody instruments and the syncopated two-beat, it differed considerably from ragtime , the most modern form of music at the time. After a few weeks, her guest performance became a sensation in Chicago, as the Chicago Herald reported on April 30, 1916.
The star singer Al Jolson brought the band to the New York luxury restaurant Reisenweber in January 1917 . First recordings followed, first with Columbia Records , but they were not released. On February 26, 1917, the Victor Talking Machine Company label recorded the Livery Stable Blues and the Dixie Jass band One Step . The recording was released on March 7, 1917 and became a million-dollar success. The talent scout Ralph Peers , who was sent from Columbia to New Orleans, could not find a comparable jass band there in 1917. Allegedly they played in New Orleans "at this time everything possible, just no jass" ( Horst H. Lange ). However, this pointed view is not shared in scientific jazz research ; she probably has a racist background. Of course, Jass was played in New Orleans around the First World War ; There are occasional (mostly derogatory) reviews of dancing pleasure in various newspapers from the time where such a music was played. This music was possibly different from the music of the ODJB (more ragtime-like).
In the course of time the Original Dixieland Jazz Band has been changed a few. Larry Shields, one of the "fathers" of the jazz clarinet and one of Johnny Dodds ' favorite clarinetists , as well as the pianist J. Russel Robinson , who replaced the late Ragas on the England tour, and the British jazz Pioneer Billy Jones. In 1918, Emile Christian replaced Eddie Edwards, who was called up for military service.
In 1919 the Original Dixieland Jazz Band went to London and made further recordings there. In 1920 they returned to America. "After their return, the chapel existed until 1925, but without ever regaining its original meaning in the face of new competition". LaRocca broke up the band for health reasons (he suffered a nervous breakdown). Other bands such as B. the "Original Memphis Five" or " King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band" conquered the still young jazz scene.
In 1936 there was a brief reunion under the name Original Dixieland Jazz Five with six new recordings. Later some of the original band members formed new bands with the old name (Edwards, Sbarbaro). Nick LaRocca's son, Jimmy LaRocca , first made a name for himself as a modern jazz trumpeter, then also led a band under the same name.
meaning
The ODJB was initially advertised by the record company as the " Creators of Jazz" . Trumpet player Nick LaRocca was absolutely convinced of this. B. in the answer to Bunny Berigan's question in an interview (1936). In a headline-grabbing trial in Chicago in the 1920s over copyrights for her hit Livery Stable Blues , LaRocca claimed to be the Columbus of jazz . In the 1950s, he was still trying trombonist Tom Brown, who, like Jelly Roll Morton, claimed to be the "inventor of jazz".
Much of the disputes over who first played “Jass” in New Orleans is simply a result of misunderstandings. The way the ODJB played was so unique (at least on records) because in Chicago and in the Reisenweber restaurant in New York they played their music faster, more "hectic" and hotter, with wild staccato , than was usual in typical ragtime. The ODJB was the godfather not only for genuine jazz developments ( Chicago jazz ), but above all for the popular dance music of the 1920s (Charleston). It is no coincidence that the fast Tiger Rag became her most famous piece ( "still the best version", according to Louis Armstrong ). Louis Armstrong also wrote about the ODJB in his first autobiography Swing that Music from 1936: “His (LaRocca's) orchestra had only five pieces, but they were the hottest five pieces that had ever been known before. He had an instrumentation different from anything before… “The number of musicians as well as the style of presentation and the instrumentation differed considerably from the ragtime orchestras of the time. The typical jazz of the time before and shortly after 1920 (ODJB, Original Memphis Five , Original Indiana Five , New Orleans Jazz Band, King Oliver , James Reese Europe, Wilbur Sweatman , Kid Ory and others), as documented on sound carriers and by contemporary witnesses ( as e.g. Bunk Johnson ), was probably comparatively legato even in fast pieces , with a relaxed rhythm, sometimes even with behind-the-beat echoes, and with more improvisation (called embellishment at the time ) in the music the ODJB is almost completely absent. The white band New Orleans Rhythm Kings , which recorded a little later, represents jazz from New Orleans more authentically, without the stylistic changes that the ODJB had worked out in Chicago and New York.
In any case, the ODJB were the first to bring jazz under this name to be heard on records both in America and in Europe. B. King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band was only able to make jazz recordings in Chicago from 1922. In the USA, cultural-political and social disputes over general racial issues have significantly disrupted the perception of content and form of music from the early jazz years up to the present day.
Discographic notes
literature
- H. O. Brunn: The Story of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band . 1960.
- Horst H. Lange: When jazz began 1916-1923 . 1991, ISBN 3-7678-0779-3 .
- Gunther Schuller : Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development (= The History of Jazz, Vol. 1). ISBN 0-19-500097-8 .
- Louis Armstrong: Swing that Music . 1936.
- Brian Rust: Article in Melody Maker . 1960.
- Andre Asriel: Jazz: Aspects and Analyzes . Berlin 1985.
Web links
- Biography at Allmusic Guide (engl.)
- The first recordings of the ODJB 1917 (German)
- OJDB on Red Hot Jazz
- The original Dixieland Jass Band (advertising postcard, 1917/18)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cf. for example Gunther Schuller : Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development , p. 175 ff.
- ↑ Mark Berresford: That's Got 'Em! The Life and Music of Wilbur C. Sweatman. 2010, p. 96 f.
- ↑ See for example Jack Stewart: The ODJB's Place in the Development of Jazz . In: Jazz Archivist , Vol. XIX (2005/6) [Zeitschr. of the Hogan Jazz Archives of Tulane Univ., New Orleans].
- ↑ Asriel: Jazz. P. 141
- ↑ At the beginning of the 1950s, as older men, Brown and LaRocca allegedly even allowed themselves to be led into violent arguments in a joint radio interview. Source unknown
- ↑ In the ODJB, drummer Tony Sbarbaro, possibly also clarinetist Larry Shields, improvised, but he was not very present on the band's first recordings (cf. Schuller: Early Jazz , p. 183). This was a favorite of the temporary student of LaRocca, Bix Beiderbecke , as the latter writes in a letter of November 22, 1922 to LaRocca.