A critical reassessment of the reception of early jazz in Britain

A critical reassessment of the reception of early jazz in Britain Abstract The Original Dixieland Jazz Band’s visit in 1919-20 has been well documented as the beginning of jazz in Britain. This article illuminates a more complex evolution of the image and presence of jazz in Britain through consideration of the cultural and musical antecedents of the genre, including minstrel shows and black musical theatre, within the context of musical life in Britain in the late nineteenth-early twentieth centuries. The processes through which this evolution took place are considered with reference to the ways in which jazz was introduced to Britain through imported revue shows and sheet music.