Bennie Moten is today best-remembered as the leader of a band that partly became the nucelus of the original Count Basie Orchestra, but Moten deserves better. He was a fine ragtime-oriented pianist who led the top territory band of the 1920s, an orchestra that really set the standard for Kansas City jazz. In fact it was so dominant that Moten... [+] Read More

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Bix Beiderbecke was one of the greatest jazz musicians of the 1920s. His colorful life, quick rise and fall, and eventual status as a martyr made him a legend even before he died, and he has long stood as proof that not all the innovators in jazz history were black. Possessor of a beautiful, distinctive tone and a strikingly original improvising... [+] Read More

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One of the great trumpeters of the 1920s, Bubber Miley was a master with the plunger mute, distorting his sound quite colorfully. He was largely responsible for Duke Ellington's early success and was the most prominent voice in Duke's Jungle Band of 1926-1928, teaming up with trombonist Tricky Sam Nanton; Cootie Williams and Ray Nance would... [+] Read More

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Of all the clarinetists in the 1920s, Jimmy O'Bryant probably came closest to duplicating the sound (if not the genius) of Johnny Dodds. O'Bryant worked with the Tennessee Ten (1920-1921), in a group co-led by Jelly Roll Morton and W.C. Handy (1923), and briefly with King Oliver (1924), but he is best remembered for his recordings with Lovie... [+] Read More

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One of the first important female bandleaders in jazz, Lovie Austin deserves to be much better known. After studying music in college, she toured on the vaudeville circuit, settling in Chicago in 1923. During 1924-1926, she recorded frequently with her Blues Serenaders, a group that at various times had Tommy Ladnier, Bob Shoffner, Natty... [+] Read More

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The first jazz group to ever record, Original Dixieland Jazz Band made history in 1917. They were not the first group to ever play jazz (Buddy Bolden had preceded them by 22 years!), nor was this White quintet necessarily the best band of the time, but during 1917-1923 (particularly in their earliest years) they did a great deal to popularize... [+] Read More

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