Original Dixieland Jazz Band

The Original Dixieland Jazz Band was a five-piece group of white musicians from New Orleans, founded by cornetist Nick La Rocca around 1916. They played New Orleans-style jazz rooted in the tradition of Black combos they had grown up hearing, and in February 1917 they recorded what became widely recognized as the first commercially released jazz record. The band billed themselves as the creators of jazz, a claim that has long been disputed, but their recordings helped introduce the music to a broad national audience.