In 1922, five kids from Austin High School in Chicago, Illinois formed a little band which consisted of Jim Lanigan on piano, Jimmy McPartland on cornet, his older brother Dick McPartland on banjo and guitar, Frank Teschemacher on alto saxophone, and Bud Freeman on C-melody tenor saxophone.
Coming from comfortable middle class homes they could, at the outset, pursue their common musical ambitions as a hobby, a circumstance that allowed them much more freedom of choice.