The Original Dixieland Jass Band (ODJB) made the first jazz recordings in early 1917. In late 1917 the spelling of the band’s name was changed to Original Dixieland Jazz Band. 

The band was a quintet who had played in the Papa Jack Laine bands. They were a racially integrated group of musicians who played for parades, dances, and advertising in New Orleans. 

Band leader and cornetist Nick LaRocca argued that ODJB deserved recognition as the first band to record jazz commercially and the first band to establish jazz as a musical idiom or genre.