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 New Orleans Rhythm Kings (NORK) were the finest jazz group to be on record in 1922, and the white band has served as proof that, even that early, African-Americans were not the only ones who could play jazz with individuality and integrity. The key members of the group (leader/cornetist Paul Mares, trombonist George Brunis, and clarinetist... [+] Read More

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The Original Indiana Five is so-named after the example set by the Memphis Five and other Dixieland-styled groups of the early '20s. Neither the band nor its members were from the state of Indiana; it appears that the group was initially formed in Pennsylvania sometime before 1923. After that time, the Original Indiana Five were based in New... [+] Read More

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