Dixieland Jass Band One-Step ODJB 78 1917 Victor

"Dixieland Jazz Band One-Step" also known as "Dixie Jass Band One-Step" and "Original Dixieland One-Step" is a 1917

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

composition by the

Original Dixieland Jass Band The Original Dixieland Jass Band (ODJB) was a Dixieland jazz band that made the first jazz recordings in early 1917. Their " Livery Stable Blues" became the first jazz record ever issued. The group composed and recorded many jazz standards, the ...

released as an instrumental as a Victor 78. The song is a jazz milestone as the first commercially released "jass" or jazz song.

Background

The ODJB released the song as a Victor 78 in 1917 as 18255-A on the

Victor Talking Machine Company The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer that operated independently from 1901 until 1929, when it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and subsequently operated as a subsidi ...

of Camden, New Jersey. The B side was the landmark jazz song " Livery Stable Blues". The personnel on the recording were Nick LaRocca (

cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B, though there is also a so ...

), Larry Shields (

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitch ...

), Eddie Edwards (

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

), Henry Ragas (

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

), and Tony Sbarbaro (

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

). The ODJB initially auditioned for Columbia Records. A month after the audition, the band began recording for Victor. They made recordings on February 26, 1917. The first jazz record released was Victor 18255, which featured "Dixieland Jass Band One-Step" as the A side, "Composed and played by Original Dixieland 'Jass' Band", backed by "Livery Stable Blues". The "one-step" designation on one label was changed to "fox trot" on another label. The phrase "For Dancing" appeared to the right of the spindle hole on both sides of the disc. Following lawsuits, Victor changed the label of both sides of the release. The inclusion in "Dixieland Jass Band One-Step" of a strain from Joe Jordan's 1909 "That Teasin' Rag" resulted in a suit for copyright infringement. The earliest copies of the first ODJB disc do not cite Jordan's rag but later copies noted "Introducing 'That Teasin' Rag'". The title on side A of the disc was changed to "Dixie Jass Band One-Step." Posters promoting the band's live concerts in 1921 added that Victor 18255 featured the song "Ramblin' Blues"--"Dixie Jass Band One-Step". For the second pressing of side B, "Livery Stable Blues Composed and played by the Original Dixieland Jass Band" omitted the phrase "Composed and played by". Max Hart, the manager of the ODJB, made an agreement with J. W. Stern in 1917 for the publication rights to "Dixieland Jass Band One- Step." Nick LaRocca wrote to Eddie Edwards on November 8, 1929: "Ed, I want you to look up Max Hart and see if he will sign the Dixieland one step to one of us so we can get behind the publisher to settle up with us, on royalty due band. Suppose you go and see J. W. Stern or his successor and get the dope on same. Do not let him know what your motives are. I have in my possession the contract but that is made between Max Hart and J. W. Stern. Also, ask Mr. Hart for statements, if any, from Victor Co. This number promises to be a big hit but no one seems able to get orchestrations on same." In 1936, the reformed ODJB recorded a new version of the song as "Original Dixieland One-Step" on October 9 in New York and released it as a 78 single on Victor as 25502 backed with "Barnyard Blues", itself a version of " Livery Stable Blues".

Other recordings

In 1933, Nick LaRocca copyrighted a new arrangement of the song under the title "Original Dixieland One-Step" with Edward Marks in New York. In 1937, he copyrighted the song for the UK publication with Peter Maurice in London. The song was described as "a new arrangement of the familiar jazz favorite with vocal refrain" on the sheet music cover which featured photographs of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1937 and 1919. The Castle Jazz band recorded the song in 1949 and released it on Castle Records as a 78. Sonny Brooks and His orchestra released the song as "Dixieland One-Step" on Cahill with the songwriting credit to Nick LaRocca.

Kid Ory Edward "Kid" Ory (December 25, 1886 – January 23, 1973) was an American jazz composer, trombonist and bandleader. One of the early users of the glissando technique, he helped establish it as a central element of New Orleans jazz. He was ...

recorded the song as "Original Dixieland One-Step". "Original Dixieland One-Step" was released by the Sextette from Hunger led by Eddie Skrivanek with George Thow, Joe Yukl, Blake Reynolds,

Charlie LaVere Charles LaVere Johnson, better known as Charlie LaVere (July 18, 1910, Salina, Kansas - April 28, 1983, Ramona, California) was an American jazz pianist, vocalist, bandleader, and composer. He is best known for his extensive work with arranger Go ...

, Richard Cornell, and Country and Washburne on MacGregor 1026 in the early 1950s.

Jack Teagarden Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden (August 20, 1905 – January 15, 1964) was an American jazz trombonist and singer. According to critic Scott Yannow of Allmusic, Teagarden was the preeminent American jazz trombone player before the bebop era of the 1 ...

Tommy Dorsey Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. (November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-toned trombo ...

and his Clambake Seven,

Coleman Hawkins Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Yanow, Scot"Coleman Hawkins: Artist Biography" AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2013. One of the first p ...

, and Doc Evans in 1947 also recorded the song under the title "Original Dixieland One-Step". The song was featured in the film ''The Benny Goodman Story''.The Benny Goodman Story. IMDB.
/ref>

References

Sources

*Gracyk, Tim, Frank Hoffmann, and B. Lee Cooper. ''Popular American Recording Pioneers, 1895–1925.'' Haworth Popular Culture Series. Routledge, 2000. *Stewart, Jack. "

The Original Dixieland Jazz Band The Original Dixieland Jass Band (ODJB) was a Dixieland jazz band that made the first jazz recordings in early 1917. Their " Livery Stable Blues" became the first jazz record ever issued. The group composed and recorded many jazz standards, the ...

's Place in the Development of Jazz." New Orleans International Music Colloquium, 2005. *Lange, Horst H. Wie der Jazz begann: 1916–1923, von der "Original Dixieland Jazz Band" bis zu King Olivers "Creole Jazz Band". Berlin: Colloquium Verlag, 1991. *Brunn, H.O. ''The Story of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band.'' Baton Rouge:

Louisiana State University Press The Louisiana State University Press (LSU Press) is a university press at Louisiana State University. Founded in 1935, it publishes works of scholarship as well as general interest books. LSU Press is a member of the Association of American Univ ...

, 1960. Reprinted by

Da Capo Press Da Capo Press is an American publishing company with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. It is now an imprint of Hachette Books. History Founded in 1964 as a publisher of music books, as a division of Plenum Publishers, it had additional of ...

, 1977.

External links

U.S. Library of Congress, National Jukebox, featuring original ODJB recordings on Victor."Dixieland Jass Band One-Step" by the ODJB, Jazz Anthology website."Dixieland Jass Band One-Step" by the ODJB on the archive.org website.

Tim's Phonographs and Old Records.
{{Authority control Songs about jazz 1917 compositions Original Dixieland Jass Band songs Jazz compositions Instrumentals 1910s jazz standards