The date was February 26, 1917, and this new song, Livery Stable Blues by the Original Dixieland Jass Band, was the first jazz recording. Following the work of drummer Han Bennink and pianist Misha Mengelberg, the musicians began to explore by improvising collectively until they found a form (melody, rhythm, a famous song). The jazz critic Kevin Whitehead documented the free jazz scene in Amsterdam and some of its main exponents, such as the ICP (Instant Composers Pool) orchestra in his book New Dutch Swing. The most important initiators of the sacred jazz movement were pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams, known for her jazz masses in the 1950s, and Duke Ellington.
However, arguably his best performances were in jazz ballads, and his version of Body & Soul retains its place as one of the most famous jazz songs of all time, even today. One of the most important and influential jazz musicians of all time, Miles Davis was a tireless innovator who was a key player in numerous stylistic developments in jazz. A more precise term could be Afro-Latin jazz, since the jazz subgenre usually uses rhythms that have a direct analog in Africa or that show an African rhythmic influence beyond what is normally heard in other types of jazz. Arguably, he was the first great jazz star and, with his rhythmically sophisticated operatic style, he is still the best jazz musician of all time according to many.
Hawk, or Bean, as he was also sometimes nicknamed, is considered the father of the jazz saxophone, which, surprisingly, wasn't really considered a jazz instrument until its appearance in the 1920s. The vocal pioneer made her debut with Benny Goodman at age 18 and her collaborations with jazz titans such as Teddy Wilson, Lester Young, Count Basie and Artie Shaw are milestones in the jazz canon. Cornetist and trumpet player LaRocca was the leader of the Original Dixieland Jass Band (later renamed Original Dixieland Jazz Band), which made the first jazz recordings in 1917. There was bebop and its variants, the last breath of swing, there were strange new beers, such as Stan Kenton's progressive jazz, and there was a completely new phenomenon called revivalism: the rediscovery of jazz from the past, whether on old records or performed live by elderly players who came out of retirement. According to jazz writer Stuart Nicholson, just when free jazz appeared, it was about to create an entirely new musical language in the 1960s.
However, the critic Joachim-Ernst Berendt argues that his terms of reference and definition should be broader, defining jazz as a form of artistic music that originated in the United States through the confrontation of blacks with European music and argues that it differs from European music in that jazz has a special relationship with time defined as “swing”. In 2001, the documentary Jazz by Ken Burns premiered on PBS, with Wynton Marsalis and other experts reviewing the entire history of American jazz up to that time. Nina Simone's debut album (also sometimes titled Jazz As Played in an Exclusive Side Street Club) includes her best-known song, “My Baby Just Cares For Me”, with that distinctive descending piano introduction. Since the 1960s, creative jazz centers have developed in Europe, such as the creative jazz scene in Amsterdam.
