In the waning years of the nineteenth century, influences of african rhythms and european musical structure came together in New Orleans to produce a unique sound—actually two. One was what we call the Real Jazz, Traditional Jazz, or Dixieland. The other was Ragtime. Although Edison invented his phonograph in 1877 and his wax cylinders sold by the millions, jazz pioneers such as Buddy Bolden were either never recorded or their recordings have been lost. The earliest jazz recordings that remain are generally from those who moved north to Chicago before the end of World War I and helped make the 1920s the "Jazz Age".

Now we move to the latter part of the fifties. The country was at peace, Ike was serving his eight years as president, construction of the interstate highway system was in full swing and the population was shifting to the suburbs and to the West. Typifying that shift, Ted Shafer first moved from New York to Cincinnati, Ohio and then to California, arriving in Los Angeles in 1957 with a piles of shellac 78s loaded with the music of Lu Watters, Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton—among others—and a burning desire to learn to play the banjo and form his own band.

Ted wanted a band that played like the two-cornet Great Pacific Jazz Band in San Francisco, a band somewhat similar to Joe "King" Olivers' Creole Jazz Band. There were none with that style in Los Angeles. It would take two years: some of the weekends spent flying to listen to the Great Pacific Jazz Band and discussing various aspects of the music with GPJB members Charlie Sonnanstine and Robin Wetterau; Tuesdays, back in LA, gathering a group for practice in pianist Don Martin's Van Nuys living room; and, in between, working on the banjo.

In 1959 the group was ready to play professionally in the desired style as the Jelly Roll Jazz Band in honor of Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton. The first gig was on Sundays at Santa Monica's Nickelodeon and lasted four months. Numerous engagements followed. One was at "Bourbon Street", a night club on Hollywood's Cahuenga Boulevard owned by clarinet-playing newspaper writer Jim Hubbart. The most 'picturesque' was on Sundays in a night club amid the oil derricks atop Long Beach's Signal Hill.

By 1964, the group was well-enough known to merit a recording date—actually two. It was also a time when Ted heard the magic of Ray Ronnei's cornet and hired him to perform in a slightly different format that included Ray's vocals as well as his playing. Today, the twenty tunes on the original records have been moved to a CD: MMRC-CD-1 In 1965, seeing an opportunity, Ted moved to northern California to be closer to the Bay Area music scene.