In anticipation of Another 100 Years of Jazz concert at the Cadogan Hall on September 24th I'm posting a few interesting nuggets about some of the music included in the new show. In the first show (100 Years of Jazz in 99 minutes) we played Livery Stable Blues by The Original Dixieland Jazz Band and In "Another 100 Years" we turn the record over and perform Dixieland Jass Band One Step. Livery Stable Blues is a slow infernal racket - in complete contrast the B side is a much livelier infernal racket. Imagine The Sex Pistols having their guitars confiscated and replaced by a trumpet, clarinet and trombone, then downing huge quantities of lager and being accompanied by their drummer chucking his kit down a fire escape and you get a pretty good idea of how it sounds.
The Dixieland One Step by the Original Dixieland Jass Band
This recording from 1917 is now universally considered the first ever jazz recording. It's odd that white musicians should have pipped African Americans to the post for this accolade but it came about because the black New Orleans trumpet player Freddie Keppard turned down the offer to record in that year. His reason for refusing was that he didn't want other musicians listening and stealing his licks!
The recording is pretty wild and we should be grateful that 78 rpm records could only hold about two and a half minutes of music. We recreate the rough and ready nature of the music by having four fifths of the band play instruments that they don't really play (they like to think they do but they don't really).
So what do you think of the original and very first jazz recording?
The Jazz Repertory Company's - 100 Years Of Jazz In 99 Minutes
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