Original Dixieland Jass Band was a tribute to the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, who were featured on the cover. When the New Orleans Jazz style swept New York by storm in 1917 with the arrival of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Jimmy Durante was part of the audience at Reisenweber's Cafe on Columbus Circle when ODJB played that venue. Durante was very impressed with the band and invited them to play at a club called the Alamo in Harlem where Jimmy played piano. Durante had his friend, Johnny Stein (the previous drummer and leader of the group), assemble a group of like-minded New Orleans
Jazz standard to be recorded by their artists. Certain songs were pushed by recording executives and therefore quickly achieved standard status; this started with the first jazz recordings in 1916, with "That Funny Jas Band from Dixieland (1916)" by Collins and Harlan for Thomas A. Edison, Inc. on Blue Amberol in December 1916 and in 1917, when the Original Dixieland Jass Band recorded "Darktown Strutters' Ball" and "Indiana". The first record with 'Jass' on the label, "The Original Dixieland One-Step" was issue 18255 by Victor Talking Machine Company in 1917. Originally simply called "jazz", the music of early jazz bands is today