They were known for playing while wearing white shirts with top collars buttoned and no neckties but black dinner jackets with shiny lapels.
The five members of the band took the lift to the 12th Floor of the Victor Talking Machine Company’s building on 38th Street in New York City. They were known for playing while wearing white shirts with top collars buttoned and no neckties but black dinner jackets with shiny lapels. The song this quintet would play for the waiting microphones was silly, and not rendered with the greatest of technical skill – its most memorable moment is when a clarinet imitates the sound of a rooster; a cornet, a whinnying horse; and a trombone, a cow. The Beatles playing Ed Sullivan this was not. And yet this was as significant a moment in US musical history. The date was 26 February 1917, and this novelty song, Livery Stable Blues by the Original Dixieland Jass Band, was the first jazz recording.