We Got a Rat', and 'Kick a Pig', to name but a few) had to be dropped. In the final version of the score, it was a much more muted, sombre affair, the sort of thing that was more akin to what was known as 'serious jazz' – a style which emerged in the 1950s but was already well represented among black musicians in the 1930s. The music had come, not coincidentally, out of circumstances that were similar to what had been going on in British music at the time. Black musicians and audiences had long ago turned to American music to find relief from the restrictive and 'regressive' practices of the music business. The music's origins were to be found within the same areas where jazz music had begun as an art form: New Orleans and Harlem. It was called Dixieland jazz, which took its name from the first of a number of jazz clubs in New Orleans (the famous New Orleans Hotel de Dream). The first band to call themselves a Dixieland band – the Louisiana Five – played in the club in 1907, and their records were issued on Paramount Records. The first jazz recording of any significance, an original song, was 'When You're Smiling' by George Baquet. Then came the Original Dixieland Jass Band from New Orleans. The great figures of the music were Buddy Bolden (the best known New Orleans musician) and King Oliver. By 1910, they had reached Europe. As they went, the style followed them – the Harlem Stompers, a collective of young Harlem-based musicians, were touring Europe in 1917. Their popularity was such that it was decided to use them to introduce the new 'New Orleans jazz' to England. The result was the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, whose first tour had been so successful that they were soon to go on their first European tour. Within two years they had recorded more than a dozen albums. The success of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in England proved so great that it prompted a number of bands to follow. In the summer of 1920, Harry Roy and His New Orleans Jazzmen, the best known of whom was Cyril Blake, were touring Britain and Europe. They too enjoyed popular success, and even made an appearance at the Palladium in London. The success of these bands had brought greater acceptance for black artists in general, although it was still a long way from equality. It did not matter that these bands were largely recruited from the ranks of minstrel show musicians – they knew how to play the music. In the case of Harry Roy, a jazz musician with some background in minstrel shows, he had been writing arrangements for some of the well-known soloists at the time, for example Joe Venuti and Jimmy Durante. It was not long before bands like those of Harry Roy and his New Orleans Jazzmen were playing at dancehalls and clubs around the country. They had begun to take over from the older style of theatre band with black singers. The most notorious and famous of these groups was the Black Diamond Band, the members of which included Sam Leno and Eddie Rouse. The latter went on to record, alongside Cyril Blake, as part of the Dixieland All-Stars. **Swingle Singers** , 'Don't Get Around Much Anymore', 1925. _Pictured from left to right: J. Walter Hawley, Freddy Keppard, Joe Venuti, Joe Howard, Walter French._ In 1927, the musicians became swing bands. They were now more musically diverse, but they were also a means to promote a new type of image of black music. The bands' name, the Swing-Lites (the spelling was later changed to Swing-A-Lites), suggested something new in both tone and movement, as the dancers made their way into the new dances with the same beat as the music, but a very different style of dancing from the steps of the Charleston. In some ways it was a kind of fusion, but it was also something new and revolutionary. It represented the start of a new black musical tradition. By the 1930s, the Swing-A-Lites had moved on, and the big bands and the new swing style were now being dominated by musicians from the south coast of the USA. In 1939, a band called Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra, who had been together since 1932, recorded 'Sugar Foot Stomp'. The musicians began to be known by the names of their instruments: Harry Carney, Earl Hines, Don Redman and others, rather than any given band or orchestra. Although some of the black British musicians had begun to create their own styles in jazz, not all were as inclined to embrace it. Jazz was a musical style that many of the white musicians felt threatened by, and black musicians from abroad had to adjust to being in a country that was increasingly racially divided. It was not surprising, then, that some of the most popular black artists of the period had come from farther afield. They included Duke Ellington and his orchestra and Louis Armstrong. Even these men had been influenced by black music that was rooted in African traditions. Although Ellington had learnt his craft in the American South, his father had bought him a trumpet, and he grew up with the story of a slave who was given a violin. And although jazz music was becoming generally accepted among many white musicians, it was still often difficult for them to play the music effectively. Jazz had its roots in the music played by the African-American slaves on plantations across the south of the USA. The slaves were often treated like animals – it was said that they couldn't be given a name, and had to be called 'the nigger'. When they were not playing music, the slaves played simple tunes – the so-called 'tune work' – a form of folk music that has no 'proper' name. As it was, by the time black musicians arrived in the UK, they were well able to make their presence felt, in large part because they were so successful on the musical scene. By the time jazz was to be heard in the BBC dancehalls, many of the major stars of the day were black, and their music was as much a part of British life as it was American. The British jazz-loving public loved it, and it was played all over the country. It was, in some ways, the music of the people, and it is not surprising that musicians like Henry Hall were to become popular as both singer and bandleader. At the same time, there was a growing black community in Britain, and black music had established its place at dancehalls. This was also the music of the new immigrant communities, who were making a home in London, Middlesbrough and other places across Britain. They brought with them the music of their countries of origin. The most famous and successful example was Joe Loss's Orchestra, but also among the groups playing at parties and dancehalls were bands such as the Caribbean Jazz Band. They used instruments such as conga drums, the bongo, cowbell, the pandeiro and güiro, maracas and maracas-like instruments from the Caribbean – all of which have their origins in Africa. The new types of music – the 'jungle music' played by Joe Loss – and the influence of the new sound were to be important influences in the creation of what was to become known as 'West Indian music'. It is perhaps no coincidence that this music was also to include the use of steel drums. The use of these drums, which had made their way from West Africa to Trinidad and Tobago, was to become one of the greatest elements in the sound of Caribbean music. **Joe Loss** , from _Carnival_ , 1956. By the middle of the 1930s, however, the political situation in Britain was getting worse, and there were signs that the mood was turning against those black people living in Britain who had no work. Not surprisingly, this created considerable tension. The fact that some of the first black musicians to be given residencies in London were from Trinidad and other parts of the Caribbean – bands such as Joe Loss's (and Buster's) and George Lewis's Band – is testimony to how successful black bands were in early British jazz. In the dancehalls, these musicians created a new image of 'blackness' – as distinct from the minstrel shows or even the jazz musicians of the time – which provided a means for black people to make their presence felt. Most of the bands were multi-racial bands, but most of the musicians were black. Although there were bands of black musicians playing in Europe and in the United States in the same period, the bands in Britain and the dancehalls in particular became very important in the development of a British black musical tradition. It became a way of playing black music, or 'black style', to an audience that would not have known much about the different forms of black music that existed elsewhere. The British dancehall, of course, was a very different place from the American dancehall. In the United States, the dancehall had been part of the development of the blues. It had also been an important training ground for young black people seeking work in early modern big cities. In Britain, the dancehall developed in a very different way, and was often used to provide recreation and entertainment for the working class. The dancehall was a very public setting, and when swing took over, it became a venue for dancing. For those who were not there