Centennial: King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band

Jazz, the unique and defining music of the United States, evolved throughout the 19th century, with New Orleans its epicenter, but couldn’t gain general-public attention until its earliest recordings were released, in 1917. Not surprisingly, these featured white musicians, but the recordings proved popular enough to open studio doors to the Black pioneers. Among them was Louis Armstrong. In 1922 he was a young man, fresh out of New Orleans, newly installed in Joe “King” Oliver’s ensemble in Chicago. Oliver, also from New Orleans, was his mentor and hero. He had summoned his protegé to join the band, and Louis couldn’t have been more grateful. The two cornets, playing side-by-side in this seven-piece group, gained attention for their exciting duet work—and that’s generally all the space that Armstrong got. Oliver kept him leashed. But listen to “Chimes Blues,” recorded by King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band on April 5, 1923. Louis has his first solo on record, what would turn out to be his only solo on these King Oliver sessions, and you can hear why Oliver felt threatened. That assertive Satchmo tone is all there, fully inhabiting the acoustic horn through which it was recorded. And this was part of the first of the six sessions that year that gave us the 37 sides enshrined as among the most important and influential records of that decade. Sure, Louis’s Hot Fives