A spasm band is a musical group that plays a variety of

Dixieland Dixieland jazz, also referred to as traditional jazz, hot jazz, or simply Dixieland, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band ( ...

trad jazz Trad jazz, short for "traditional jazz", is a form of jazz in the United States and Britain that flourished from the 1930s to 1960s, based on the earlier New Orleans Dixieland jazz style. Prominent English trad jazz musicians such as Chris Barb ...

jug band A jug band is a musical band, band employing a jug (instrument), jug player and a mix of conventional and homemade instruments. These homemade instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making sound, like the washtub bass, washbo ...

, or

skiffle Skiffle is a music genre, genre of folk music with influences from American folk music, blues, Country music, country, Bluegrass music, bluegrass, and jazz, generally performed with a mixture of manufactured and homemade or improvised instruments. ...

music. The term "spasm" applied to any band (often made up of children) who made musical instruments out of objects not usually employed for such. The first spasm bands were formed on the streets of

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

in the late eighteen hundreds,Panassie, Hugues and Madeleine Gautier (1954). ''Dictionary of Jazz''. with both styles spreading rapidly along the

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

and

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

Rivers to

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Mem ...

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

and

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

, with jug bands being essentially spasm bands that incorporated a jug player "to handle the bass parts". The earliest band to play under the name "spasm band" in New Orleans was formed in 1895,Jones, Michael L. (2014)
"Chapter 4: The Early Jug Bands", ''Louisville Jug Music: From Earl McDonald to the National Jubilee''. Arcadia Publishing Incorporated.
ISBN 9781625850287, 162585028X. ''Google Books''. Retrieved 17 June 2023. known informally as Stale Bread's Spasm Band and billed as the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band at semi-professional engagements, such as outside the West End Opera House. Hardie, Daniel (2002). ''Exploring Early Jazz: The Origins and Evolution of the New Orleans Style''. They played, amongst other things, a length of gas pipe, a kettle and a fiddle made from a

cigar box A cigar box is a box container for cigar packaging. Traditionally, cigar boxes have been made of wood, cardboard or paper. Spanish cedar has been described as the "best" kind of wood for cigar boxes because of its beautiful grain, fine texture ...

. The spasm band style was one ingredient in the development of instrumental New Orleans jazz. Contemporaries report that the style was imitated by adult orchestras such as the Right At 'Em Razz Band, which featured future

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 ...

clarinetist

Alcide Nunez Alcide Patrick Nunez (March 17, 1884 – September 2, 1934), also known as Yellow Nunez and Al Nunez, was an American jazz clarinetist. He was one of the first musicians of New Orleans to make audio recordings. Biography Alcide Patrick Nunez ...

. The term "spasm band" has been revived by jazz groups the Barnstormers Spasm Band, The Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band, The End Times Spasm Band, and

Anthony Joseph Anthony Joseph FRSL (born 12 November 1966) is a British/Trinidadian poet, novelist, musician and academic. In 2023, he was awarded the T. S. Eliot Prize for his book ''Sonnets for Albert''. Biography Joseph was born in Port of Spain, Trin ...

and The Spasm Band. The term was also adopted by

noise Noise is sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional, or harmful sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrat ...

group The Nihilist Spasm Band.

References

Types of musical groups Jazz terminology Music of New Orleans {{band-stub