The early days of jazz were not always harmonious. Converted dance orchestras often sounded like unbalanced acoustic junkyards; a single violin, cornet, trombone, clarinet, tuba, drums, banjo, and piano, all fighting for attention. The piano was meant to be the glue holding the shrill and boisterous elements together. In 1921 a prodigy pianist named Zez Confrey brought his classical training and sophisticated pallet into the fray as a pioneer of the jazz duo artform. Confrey physically arranged the orchestra on the periphery of the center stage, where two grand pianos were placed. The orchestra was silenced, and Confrey and a second unknown pianist launched into one of the first extended duo performances. There was no recording of the event, and like the beginnings of instrumental jazz duos, the history is murky. In all likelihood, there wasn't much history to report.

The New Orleans bands were supplanted by the "hot" quintets, sextets, and septets. Swing ensembles then dominated through the 1930s up to the bebop movement. Duo breakouts existed within the performances early on, but duo recordings were a rarity. Through Bruce Raeburn, Curator Emeritus at Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz, I learned that cornetist Joe King Oliver and pianist