Azizi,

Paul Whiteman was emphatically not the King of Jazz. It was a PR statement.
He had some very good jazz musicians in his band notably Bix Beiderbecke and
Eddie Lang (Salvatore Massaro) who was a great influential acoustic jazz guitarist,
Mike Pinkatore on banjo and a classical arranger Ferde Grofe who was known for the "Grand Canyon Suite". Joe Venuti (great jazz violinists) was also in the band.

There is a video(short movie) called King of Jazz which is very good in that it displays
Eddie Lang's talent, Harry Barris and the Rhythm Boys singing "Happy Feet" featuring the unknown at the time Bing Crosby (who could sing jazz).

Basically, this band was the precursor of swing bands and less representative of the Dixie/New Orleans tradition of small ensemble playing.

As to the origin of what we call jazz, New Orleans was definitely the spawning place.
Lulu White and the Mahogany Hall whorehouse employed many jazz musicians and if you think about "jazz" (originally jass) and "rock", both are sexual euphemisms.

The first commercial recording of trad jazz was "The Original Dixieland Jass Band in the 1900's. Later, the New Orleans Rhythm Kings and Louis Armstrong's Hot Five (and Seven).
The ODJB were responsible for the term "Dixieland" to describe what they played.

Sidney Bechet was not a nice man. He killed a prostitute in Paris and got off because of his reputation. He used to chase Mesirow around with a loaded gun. He played well.
His vibrato could be considered to be a little too much. Lots of imagination, though.



I caution you to be careful about some of the comments of other musicians about certain players. Jazz musicians tend to be highly opinionated about their likes and dislikes.
Anyone who achieves stature in the jazz world has got to be a great musician. The music requires it.

When it comes to tradition New Orleans style jazz, there is a lot of passion about it and
strong opinions. Leonard Feather can't be trusted to make an evaluation that is very objective. He's too influenced by be-bop and modern jazz. His comments on Jelly Roll Morton and Django Reinhardt are a case in point. The famous story is how Miles Davis sat in with Bob Scobey and the Yerba Buena Jazz Band (a San Francisco trad jazz revival band).
Someone came up to MIles and criticized him for sitting in with a "moldy fig" band.
Miles said, "You've been reading that ass hole Leonard Feather, haven't you?"

The best thing as in folk music is to do a lot of listening and come to your own conclusions. Jazz criticism is an oxymoron.

John Coltrane is certainly another musican who has influenced jazz. Miles changed his style of playing after working with Trane.

Creole by definition is a branch of African-American. Labels certainly obscure genetic and racial aspects.

Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker were two of the most important figures in jazz because their playing changed the course of American jazz. Many of the swing bands of the Thirties incorporated the solo style of playing that Armstrong created and the arrangements of the bands reflect Louis' style o playing specifically. Parker did the same thing as a potent influence on the musicians around him.

Kid Ory (unimaginative)? Ridiculous. He was one of the great early New Orleans trombone "shouters" defining the tailgate style of playing with Louis Armstrong and the Hot Five.
He played elegant simple but tasteful solos such as on "West End Blues" and had a driving style like "Big" Jim Robinson and Honore Dutrey (with Jelly Roll's Red Hot Peppers). It was classic New Orleans style.

Just as in folk music, there is a lot of disinformation out there. You can take much of what you read with a grain of salt. Jazz criticism is a lot like folk criticism. Opinions galore but the real substance of understanding comes from personal listening and experience.

Frank Hamilton