Italian-Americans were instrumental in the creation of jazz: Nick LaRocca. Leon Roppolo. Joe Venuti. Louis Prima. When he was born, Eddie Lang was named Salvatore Massaro.
Maybe it was the Italian connection to classic jazz that inspired the confluence of Dixieland and pizza parlors in the 1950s. And the fact is that jazz—like pizza—may have some Italian origins but came to fruition as a wholly American convention.
While early versions of pizza were developed centuries ago in Naples, the baked dough doused in tomato sauce and melted cheese actually began its climb up the ladder of popular cuisines when Neapolitan immigrants established pizzerias such as Lombardi’s in lower Manhattan, opened in 1905.
At the same time, jazz was being born in old New Orleans.
In the first half of the 20th century, pizzerias did brisk business in major American cities such as Philadelphia and Chicago. After World War II the rest of the country caught on and by the mid-1950s the hot sliced pies took the food business by storm worldwide.
During that decade traditional jazz enjoyed one of its periodic revivals, this one largely spawned by West Coast cats such as Turk Murphy and Lu Watters.
"Shakey" Johnson
So along co
