Jazz music is one art form that is inherently an American art, though its roots lie in traditional African music and slave communities. A blend of West African, European, and American music that relies on improvisation, rhythm, and harmonies, jazz came into being in the late 19^th century _(Tirro). New Orleans, Louisiana is considered the most important center of jazz and often the city of its creation. Place Congo, an area of New Orleans known today as Congo Square, was a part of the city in which slaves were allowed to gather before the Civil War to sing, dance, and play percussion instruments _(Tirro). It was in this setting that the music we now know as jazz evolved. Jazz musicians traveled all across the country in the years before 1917 but the name “jazz” was not in common use as a way to describe the music until between 1913-1915. While there is no one person or band credited with the creation of jazz, Joseph Lamothe “Jelly Roll” Morton claims to have created jazz in 1902. The first recording of music that was described using the word “jazz” was in 1917 by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band _(Tirro). The traveling of jazz performers and the spread of jazz recordings helped the music migrate out of New Orleans and the South to major cities throughout the rest of the country such as Chicago, Kansas City, and New York.

Even though jazz could be found around the country by the early 20^th century, jazz become an element of music education until after World War II, however, there were a very small number of school jazz bands performing under the terms “dance band” and “stage band” in the 1920s and into the 1930s. The time of the most growth in jazz education was through the 1960s; by 1960 there were about 34 faculty-directed jazz bands in higher education, by the early 1970s there were over 450 reported faculty-directed bands _(Ferriano). Most of the development of higher education jazz bands as a whole was due to the push of a small group of music educators. The National Association of Jazz Educators formed in the mid-1960s as an association of the Music Educators National Conference. 

The UNL Jazz Studies program has been part of the School of Music since 1966. At that time, the School of Music was part of the College of Arts and Sciences (Knoll). It became part of the the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts in 1993. The aim of the program was to prepare students for careers in recording and television industries. The activities of the program included performing at high schools and colleges across Nebraska as well as on campus and participating in competitions and festivals.

The UNL Jazz Lab Band was founded and directed by Dennis Schneider, getting the term "lab band" from North Texas University who implemented it decades before (White). In 1981 Russell "Rusty" White was hired as professor of double bass and jazz performance. He directed Jazz Ensemble I (now called the Jazz Orchestra) and assisted with Jazz Ensemble II (now the UNL Big Band) as well as developed the jazz curriculum. Shortly after, Russel White made a proposal to create a Master of Music degree in Jazz Studies and was approved. A handful of students graduated with the degree prior to being dismantled du to shifting faculty loads. The program has offered classes in improvisation, jazz pedagogy, jazz styles, and jazz history.

Music from from past and present University Jazz Bands can be heard here on the UNL Libraries Multimedia Collections page. Select a performance and look for the streaming link.