The Original Dixieland Jazz Band was originally an offshoot of Stein’s Dixie Jass Band and started out under the leadership of cornetist Nick LaRocca. By 1917, the band had moved from Chicago to New York, where, in February of that year, they would make the first-ever jazz recording, “Livery Stable Blues/Dixie Jass Band One Step,” for Victor.
As the unexpected commercial instigators of the global "Jazz Age," the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (ODJB) holds an irreplaceable position in the technological history of modern music. Their frantic tempos, collective improvisational structures, and animalistic instrumental imitations delivered a shocking jolt to the polite world of late-1910s popular entertainment. By translating the unwritten, syncopated sounds of New Orleans into a mass-reproducible audio medium, they triggered a massive cultural phenomenon that permanently disrupted international media distribution and rewrote the trajectory of global art
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The recording was a huge commercial success, and it introduced jazz to a nationwide audience. The huge sales of that first recording motivated other record labels to record jazz and thus sparked the spread of the music.
The initial incarnation of the band recorded several other excellent sides, including “Darktown Strutters’ Ball,” “Ostrich Walk,” and “Tiger Rag.” Their music was typical early Dixieland jazz, but the ODJB had some of the finest musicians in jazz music at the time, including LaRocca on cornet, “Daddy” Edwards on trombone, Henry Ragas on piano, and Larry Shields on clarinet.
The ODJB was a white band, and Larocca was a proud member of the white race who always maintained that it was not African Americans who had created jazz, but white musicians. Larocca’s overt racism has probably hurt the reputation of the ODJB and encouraged many observers to write them off as simply a bunch of second-rate white musicians who only had the opportunity to make the first jazz recording due to the institutionalized racism of the time. However, this is clearly not the case. Freddie Keppard, an African-American cornetist, turned down the opportunity to make the first jazz recording in 1916.
The ODJB reunited several times in the thirties and toured Europe. Drummer Tony Sbarbaro was the only original member to appear on all the band’s recordings between 1917 and 1938.
Several compilations of the band’s early sides can be found, including "The Complete Original Dixieland Jazz Band (1917-1938)" (1995). The band also appears on several compilations of early recorded jazz.
Essential Historic Recording: Livery Stable Blues / Dixie Jass Band One-Step (1917)
This singular acoustic shellac disc represents the literal genesis of recorded jazz history. Captured inside Victor's New York studios, the tracking preserves a highly synchronized, high-energy performance that sounds like a manic rejection of ragtime rigidity. Shields’s sliding clarinet whinnies and Edwards's raucous trombone moans mimic barnyard animals, establishing a sonic novelty that captivated the global imagination and launched a multi-million dollar industry overnight.
- Released: March 1917
- Label: Victor Talking Machine Company
- Producer: Charles Sooy
- Core Personnel: Nick LaRocca (Cornet), Eddie "Daddy" Edwards (Trombone), Larry Shields (Clarinet), Henry Ragas (Piano), Tony Sbarbaro (Drums)
- Key Tracks: "Livery Stable Blues", "Dixie Jass Band One-Step"
Essential Compilation Review: The Complete Original Dixieland Jazz Band (1917–1938) (1995)
This definitive RCA/BMG retrospective stands as an indispensable historical anchor, neatly aggregating the ensemble's complete, volatile recording arc. The tracking beautifully charts their evolution from the crude, acoustic novelties of 1917 to their sophisticated, electrically recorded 1936 and 1938 reunion sessions. It serves as a flawless audio blueprint for evaluating how early, frantic polyphony gradually gave way to the structured, highly commercialized syncopation of the swing era.
- Released: 1995 (Recording Era: 1917–1938)
- Label: RCA Bluebird / BMG Records
- Producer: Archival Assembly / Orrin Keepnews
- Core Personnel: Nick LaRocca (Cornet), Larry Shields (Clarinet), Tony Sbarbaro (Drums), J. Russell Robinson (Piano)
- Key Tracks: "Tiger Rag" (1917), "Ostrich Walk" (1918), "Clarinet Marmalade Blues" (1918)
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