The 37 recordings of King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, 1923.

King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band made 37 recordings in 1923. A century later, not one of them exists in a critical edition.

The band recorded for Gennett, Paramount, Columbia, and OKeh between April and December of that year, in Richmond, Indiana and in Chicago. These are the sessions where a 21-year-old Louis Armstrong played second cornet beside his mentor, and they document an ensemble music built on collective improvisation rather than on the string of solos that came after.

This project will publish all 37 sides for the first time: as annotated full scores, as playable performance parts, and as an editable digital archive. We are working with the Library of Congress and the University of Chicago Jazz Archives, and drawing on period sheet music from publishers including Melrose Music of Chicago to check and complete each transcription.

Audio stem separation isolates each musician's part from the dense, century-old recordings, so we can hear Lil Hardin's piano, Johnny Dodds' clarinet, or Baby Dodds' drums on their own. Transcribers who specialize in these instruments and this period then write down what they hear.

Since all of the music is in the public domain, we are able to publish it without the rental and pricing restrictions that keep comparable scholarly editions off most bandstands.