The birthplace of jazz is New Orleans. In the early 1900s people of many cultures lived in the city: French, Spanish and African-Americans. The music was a mixture of blues, black spirituals and rhythms from the Caribbean .The typical jazz band was made up of one or two cornet players, a clarinet and a trombone player. Sometimes there were pianos, banjos, tubas and drums to accompany the horns.

New Orleans jazz became later known as Dixieland. As time went on jazz travelled up the Mississippi to Chicago and then to New York City. Big band jazz emerged as the bands became larger and had more instruments. There were three parts of a big band: brass instruments with trumpets and trombones, reeds with saxophones and clarinets and rhythm instruments (piano, guitar, double bass and drums)

Famous bandleaders were Fletcher Henderson and Benny Goodman. Big band jazz was smoother with lighter rhythms. Most of the bands had famous soloists like Louis Armstrong, the most famous musician of that time.


Benny Goodman with his band
Image: DuMont Television network; photographer: William Kahn, New York City.,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons