Bountiful club work and, beginning in 1923, the possibility of making records, which did not exist in the Crescent City, proved irresistible. Subsequently reorganized as the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, and in 1917 they played on the first jazz records ever made.Ĭhicago's magnetism proved especially powerful for musicians from New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta. While most of the earliest Chicago pioneers were African Americans, a white group calling itself Stein's Dixie Jass Band performed at the Schiller Café in 1916. So too did Chicagoans listen to a series of cornetists/bandleaders, such as Freddie Keppard, Manuel Perez, and especially Joseph “King” Oliver. As early as 1906, such influential performers as pianists Tony Jackson and Ferd La Menthe “Jelly Roll” Morton were experimenting with fresh improvisational possibilities that did much to transform ragtime into jazz. Whereas New York's Tin Pan Alley dominated theīusiness, Chicago tended to attract performers rather than professional songwriters, and these musicians tended to excel at In 1893, where they set in motion a grand procession of twentieth-century popular-music styles associated with Chicago. Ragtime pianists, important precursors of jazz, gravitated to the While also stimulating the market for musically accomplished entertainment there and in the city's “bright light” districts. Their increased numbers created a new demand for cabarets, cafes, Many of these younger people had discretionary income to spend on musical entertainment and arrived at the time of theįrom the southern states. First, the city's industrial might attracted young workers from throughout the nation and the world during the first two-thirds of the century. There are several reasons for Chicago's powerful musical influence. Throughout the twentieth century, Chicago has played a leading role in the performance, recording, and artistic evolution of jazz.

New york city jazz clubs 1920s