Buddy Bolden is widely known as the inventor of jazz music. While this is debatable, it is clear that Bolden’s music helped form the jazz movement. From New Orleans, from 1898 until 1906, he was known as the King, locally. He formed a band as the coronet player, two clarinet players, one guitarist, one bass player, and a drummer. No one in the band could read sheet music so all compositions played were either copied from other bands or created on the spot, helping to generate the spontaneous improvisation that would become a hallmark of jazz.