[Dixielandjazz] ODJB

[Loerchen2 at aol.com]

I think it's difficult for anyone today to hear the ODJB and not think of all the bands that came afterward.  We're so used to hearing Armstrong, Oliver, etc. in the late 1920s and after, that we can't hear the ODJB in its historical context.

I spent last Friday going through Nick LaRocca's original scrapbooks of press clippings from the band's early days, and there's no doubt that they were influential (and controversial).  Outside of New Orleans, ODJB records were most people's first exposure to jazz--like Bix.  As they were the highest-paid band in the country at the time, someone must have thought they were pretty good....

So, instead of comparing ODJB to its successors, try listening to some earlier original ragtime and popular records from 1915-17--then listen to ODJB and try to imagine how revolutionary this music was to people who heard it for the first time!  

Sue Fischer