The New Orleans Rhythm Kings Gennett recordings were a big influence on many of the white bands and musicians of the 1920s.

In 1920, Paul Mares and George Brunies were working on the Mississippi riverboat S.S. Capitol when it stopped in Davenport, Iowa, where they teamed with Leon Roppolo on clarinet. They eventually added Elmer Schobel on piano, Frank Snyder on drums, Alfred Loyacano on bass and Louis Black played banjo. They got a gig at the Friar’s Club in Chicago in 1922.

At first they called themselves The Friar’s Society Orchestra, after the club the Friars Inn at 1834 Wabash Street at Van Buren in Chicago, but they changed their name to The New Orleans Rhythm Kings in 1923 after losing that gig.

Unlike Nick LaRocca, the leader of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Paul Mares did not try to deny the African-American roots of Jazz. The New Orleans Rhythm Kings were heavily influenced by King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band and became the first group to put out a “racially mixed” Jazz record in 1923 with “Sobbin’ Blues”, featuring Jelly Roll Morton. Morton went on to record five more tunes with the band.

The New Orleans Rhythm Kings were in existence from 1922 to 1925 when Paul Mares left the music business and went back to New Orleans to work at the family fur business. In 1934 and 1935 two recording sessions took place that revived the New Orleans Rhythm Kings name, but George Brunies was the only original member of the band to take part in the sessions.

The complete recordings of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings were recently restored by Rivermont