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JAZZ |
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Marable certainly had a genius for picking up talented musicians, and the music his bands played must have been good. "The people learned to like us right away," says Armstrong of his days with the Riverboat band. Unfortunately, nearly all the playing was done while cruising up and down the river, and none of it has been captured for us by recording.
The First Recorded Jazz
Indeed, the first band to crash into the recording stakes did not add much credit to the name of jazz. The "Original Dixieland Jass Band" ('Dixieland' is a term said to have grown out of the French 'Dix' on the $10 notes in the Southern States) had made for Chicago in 1915, and there they cut the first jazz records which included the now famous Tiger Rag. But this tiger was not a particularly authentic beast; the Original Dixielanders had calculated that it would be better box-office to cater for those of the public who considered 'jass' to belong together with burnt cork, nigger minstrels, and performances aided by comic hats and false noses.
However, in 1917 our old friend Joe 'King' Oliver hit Chicago, and there at the Dreamland Cafe he put the first real jazz on record. His line-up for these sessions was: |
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Joe Oliver (Cornet) Jimmie Noone (Clarinet) |
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