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Rapp on Jazz: Jenkins Orphanage Band

While New Orleans is considered the birthplace of jazz, it had many cradles, including South Carolina. Charleston's Jenkin's Orphanage Band was one of the most important cradles of them all.

The Jenkins Orphanage was founded in 1891 to shelter homeless African American boys. Donations of old musical instruments, cast-off Citadel cadet uniforms, and basic music instruction equipped the kids who would become the Jenkins Orphanage Band.

By the 1920s, the group was world famous due to its unique rhythmic structures and performance stylings that presaged modern jazz.

The Jenkins Orphanage Band gave the world some of the early greats of modern jazz, including Jabbo Smith, Cat Anderson, Tom Delany, and Freddie Green.

This has been Rapp on Jazz, a co-production of the ColaJazz Foundation and SC Public Radio. Support for this program is made possible in part by Fox Music House of Columbia and Charleston.