Traditional Jazz/Dixieland

Traditional Jazz and Dixieland are two terms used to describe the various styles of midsized group jazz that originated in New Orleans in the early part of the 1900s. Through the early '20s, this music was typified by an emphasis on ensemble playing (as opposed to individual soloing) and characterized by melodic trumpet or cornet leads, harmony-supplying trombone, ornamental clarinets and a strongly pronounced rhythmic backing. King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, although not recorded until 1923, exemplified this decidedly joyous style. Virtuosic trumpeter and King Oliver alumnus Louis Armstrong subsequently steered jazz into a more solo-oriented style with his own groups in the mid-to-late '20s, signalling the end of an era in so doing. However, various revivals -- most notably the Dixieland craze of the 1940s and '50s -- have kept the music alive, and it maintains a small yet faithful following to this day.