 In 1915, New Orleans band leader Johnny Stein formed this band to take North to Chicago for a gig at the Booster Club at the Hotel Morrison. Unfortunately the club was closed by the police a few days before they arrived. They were able to land another job at Lamb’s Cafe at 151-169 North Clark Street. The band was somewhat popular, but they were not making much money. They played live wearing tan raincoats because they couldn’t afford tuxedos. Stein’s Dixieland Jass Band was the nucleus around which The Original Dixieland Jass Band was formed. Many of the famous tunes that became associated The Original Dixieland Jass Band originated in Stein’s band. Tom Brown recommended Stein’s band for a job in New York City, but Stein was under contractual obligation in Chicago and couldn’t take the job. The rest of the band decided that this was too good of an offer to pass up and left Stein holding the bag in Chicago, so Stein put together another version of the band that included Larry Shields on clarinet, and played at Schillers Cafe at 318 East 31st Street. By 1916 or 1917 Stein had also relocated to Manhatten and was playing at the Alamo Club, where he put together the Original New Orleans Jazz Band that included pianist Jimmy Durante. |
| Artist | Instrument |
| Doc Behrenson | Cornet |
| Jules Cassard | Trombone |
| Eddie Edwards | Trombone |
| Ernie Edrman | Piano |
| Nick LaRocca | Trumpet |
| Yellow Nuņez | Clarinet |
| Henry Ragas | Piano |
| Johnny Stein | Drums |
| Larry Shields | Clarinet |
| The Story Of The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, by H.O. Brunn, Louisiana State University Press, 1960 |
| Jazz Music In Chicago’s Early South-Side Theaters, by Charles A. Sengstock, Jr., The Canterbury Press Of Northbrook, 2000 |
Redhotjazz.com was a pioneering website during the "Information wants to be Free" era of the 1990s. In that spirit we are recovering the lost data from the now defunct site and sharing it with you.
Most of the music in the archive is in the form of MP3s hosted on Archive.org or the French servers of Jazz-on-line.com where this music is all in the public domain.
Files unavailable from those sources we host ourselves. They were made from original 78 RPM records in the hands of private collectors in the 1990s who contributed to the original redhotjazz.com. They were hosted as .ra files originally and we have converted them into the more modern MP3 format. They are of inferior quality to what is available commercially and are intended for reference purposes only. In some cases a Real Audio (.ra) file from Archive.org will download. Don't be scared! Those files will play in many music programs, but not Windows Media Player.
