Buddy Bolden assembled the first jazz ensemble

'Livery Stable Blues' was the first jazz recording and helped popularize the genre

The 1917 song by the Original Dixieland Jass Band was the first jazz recording to be issued and put the New Orleans sound on the national stage, along with inspiring several soundalikes.

Jazz brought together ragtime and blues

Ragtime was a popular music genre that blended African-American spirituals, European folk songs, and military marches. Blues, brought to New Orleans by free Black people seeking opportunities, allowed musicians to play within basic standards. Jazz combined both forms by merging the syncopated, dance-friendly sounds of ragtime with the soulful, brass-instrumental style of the blues.

New Orleans' Congo Square birthed what would become jazz

The city's enslaved people congregated in the city square on Sundays, bringing together the musical traditions of their disparate cultures through drum circles, communal dancing, and call-and-response singing. The rhythmic style that evolved in the area would eventually give rise to ragtime and, subsequently, jazz.

Jelly Roll Morton claimed he invented jazz, though experts disagree

The pianist and arranger was one of the genre's biggest names in the early 20th century, though very few believed him when he claimed he had invented the music in 1902. One of his biggest contributions to the genre was a 1938 session with ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, who recorded nearly 8 hours of music and stories that have become an essential part of the music's history.

Watch a 1934 short film starring Cab Calloway

Singer and bandleader Cab Calloway was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene. He was also one of the biggest names in jazz's swing era and would go on to be the first Black American to have a nationally syndicated radio show and the first to sell a million copies of a record. In this 1934 short film, "Cab Calloway's Hi-De-Ho," he reenacts his upbeat performances at Harlem's Cotton Club.

Jazz legend Louis Armstrong was once the honorary king of the Zulu krewe

The historically Black krewe invited Armstrong to lead their parade in 1949. The invitation fulfilled a lifelong dream for the musician, who grew up in New Orleans. "After that," he told Time magazine in advance of the parade, "I'll be ready to die."

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

The Harlem Globetrotters played their first game in 1927

Black players were not permitted on the existing professional basketball teams, but Abe Saperstein—the team's original coach, owner, manager, and sometimes player—leaned into the team's all-Black roster, nodding to New York's historically Black neighborhood even though the team didn't play there until the late 1960s.

Watch Billie Holiday's only feature film appearance in 'New Orleans'

The 1947 film wasn't known for its sophisticated plot, which mainly centers on a white opera singer who learns about the beauty of blues and jazz. It's more notable for featuring some of those genre's biggest stars, including Holiday, who played a singing maid and the love interest of Louis Armstrong. You can see her first scene around the 11-minute mark.

The GI Bill helped expand formal jazz education

Berklee School of Music (then known as the Schillinger House) and a program at the University of North Texas (then known as Texas State University) established academia's earliest jazz programs in 1945. The GI Bill provided World War II veterans with educational funding, which helped the programs proliferate: By the end of the 1960s, there were 450 college jazz ensembles.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

Mort Sahl released the first stand-up album

There were comedy records that came before “The Future Lies Ahead,” but Sahl’s 1958 album, released by jazz imprint Verve, was the first official recording that captured a complete stand-up set.

João Gilberto was bossa nova's first major star

Antônio Carlos Jobim wrote songs and worked with the singer, whose quiet, melancholy crooning made him a star. The records he recorded between 1959 and 1961, combined with the success of Marcel Camus' film "Black Orpheus," helped bossa nova move from a Brazilian sound to an international fascination.

Coltrane's 'Giant Steps' pushed the limits of jazz

The saxophonist's 1960 recording features chord progressions that have become known as the "Coltrane Changes." Improvising over them is remarkably difficult and has become a rite of passage for jazz musicians.

The legendary jazz beef of Miles Davis and Wynton Marsalis

Miles Davis might be the most recognizable name in jazz history, renowned for his landmark albums "Kind of Blue" and "Bitches Brew," and his unceasing artistic experimentation. By the 1980s, however, Davis was a pariah in jazz circles, causing him to set his sights on the poster child for the genre's purists: the much younger Wynton Marsalis. This overview of the rivalry by journalist James Kaplan details the origins—and the apex—of this now legendary beef.

Quincy Jones' 'Big Band Bossa Nova' helped introduce bossa nova—a jazz-influenced Brazilian genre—to the US

Béla Fleck took the banjo from Appalachian porches to African villages and Carnegie Hall

In a conversation recorded at a Philadelphia instrument shop, Fleck reflects on how an instrument associated with a single American folk tradition became his vehicle for bluegrass, jazz, classical, African folk, and orchestral music. He has long advocated that every living room should have a banjo, and he highlights how he has integrated the instrument across genres in this fascinating discussion.

Springsteen played in several groups in Asbury Park, including one massive jam band

Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom featured between 15 and 20 people on stage at any given time, including future E Street Band members like Steven Van Zandt and Jersey Shore mainstay Southside Johnny. The band was not entirely serious, sometimes featuring someone who "played Monopoly" rather than an instrument.

Guy Lombardo first played ‘Auld Lang Syne’ on New Year’s Eve because of a cigar sponsorship

The bandleader was booked to play a New Year’s Eve concert live on CBS radio program called the Robert Burns Panatela Show, named after its sponsor, a cigar brand. Lombardo, noting the cigar's name, decided “Auld Lang Syne,” penned by the poet Robert Burns, would be both a fitting tribute and, thematically, a great way to enter a new year.

Few realized Connee Boswell used a wheelchair

The original American girl group, the Boswell Sisters, toyed with jazz standards by experimenting with challenging renditions. The group became a popular radio act during the 1920s and 1930s, with few of their fans aware that group leader Connee Boswell used a wheelchair.

James Brown was considered one of rock's greatest performers

"The T.A.M.I. Show" is a 1964 film featuring live performances from the biggest names in rock 'n' roll: Chuck Berry, the Beach Boys, and the Supremes. The most memorable performance from James Brown and his band the Famous Flames, is regarded as one of the greatest performances in pop music.

The 1973 ‘back to school jam’ was the night hip-hop was born

Hip-hop began in New York’s Bronx borough with the “back to school jam,” an August 1973 dance party hosted by Cindy Campbell and her brother, DJ Kool Herc, in their apartment building’s recreation room.

Honky-tonk features a rollicking stomp

Widely considered the first honky-tonk song, Ernest Tubb’s "Walking the Floor Over You" is a perfect example of the subgenre's upbeat percussion, barroom piano, and chippy lyricism. The song is a country music classic, being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and preserved in the Library of Congress.

Langston Hughes performed with Muddy Waters at the Newport Jazz Fest

Hughes became involved with the Rhode Island music festival in 1956, sensing an opportunity to introduce the predominantly white audience to Black culture. In 1960, he helped book Muddy Waters for a blues session that featured the music alongside Hughes' poetic explanation of its history. The final song of the set, "Goodbye Newport Blues," found Waters' pianist singing lyrics Hughes had written earlier that day.

Prince was known as a genre-crossing polymath

The son of two Minneapolis jazz musicians, Prince was surrounded by music from a young age. His full name, Prince Rogers, was actually derived from his father's group, the Prince Rogers Trio. He eventually learned how to play his father's piano, teaching himself the themes to popular TV shows. Eventually, he learned other instruments and expanded his music tastes, indulging in records by Sly and the Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, and more. Below is his junior high school yearbook photo.

Bluegrass, a subgenre of country music, allows every participant to take a solo

The music grew popular after World War II and, like country, was based on a combination of blues, spirituals and Celtic folk songs. Bluegrass has a "high, lonesome sound," as pioneered by Bill Monroe, and features breaks for every melody instrumentalist to take a solo.

Jack Kerouac coined the name 'Beat Generation'

The earliest Beats—Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and Neal Cassady—met in the late 1940s at Columbia University. According to Ginsberg, Kerouac coined the name “Beat Generation” to contrast his peers with the Lost Generation, arguing that what might appear to be disillusionment is actually an openness.

Lenny Bruce was arrested for obscenity seven times

The first was in 1961, after performing at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco. Subsequent arrests were in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. He died of a morphine overdose in 1966, a year and a half after being found guilty of his New York charge.

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

The idea for the Federal Reserve was conceived in secret in 1910—with bankers donning duck hunt gear for disguise while traveling to a remote country club on Georgia's Jekyll Island

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Meet the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence—most of whom didn't put pen to paper until August 2, 1776—and see their original signatures.

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

Learn more about the history of fireworks, which dates back to an accidental invention during an alchemist's quest for information about immortality.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

Ebola species have historically been named after where they were discovered, stigmatizing residents who live there, including Bundibugyo, in Uganda.

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day