  george vital "papa jack" laine (september 21, 1873 â june 1, 1966) was an american musician and a pioneering band leader in new orleans in the years from the spanish-american war to world war i. he is often credited with being instrumental in the development of jazz music as his reliance brass band was the first to fuse european, african and latin music together. the earliest jazz musicians can be traced back to playing within the reliance brass band or being influenced from those who had."birthplace of jazz", new orleans music history online, neworleansonline.com; accessed october 8, 2014. right|frame|laine in 1906 many of the new orleans musicians who first spread jazz around the united states in the 1910s and 1920s got their start in laines band, including the members of the original dixieland jass band. laine was a drummer, but was more noted for his skills at arranging and booking bands. laine's musicians included individuals from most of new orleans' many ethnic groups such as african american, english, french, german, irish, italian, jewish, latin american, scottish, etc. he started leading bands in 1885 before the jim crow laws went into effect in new orleans."papa jack" george vetiala laine, national park service, due to the diverse background of many of his bands members such as their cultural background, socioeconomic status, age variations from young to old as well as musical experience (some having none at all) a broad range of ideas were developed and fused together leading to the early beginnings of jazz music. even after segregation laws started demanding "whites" and "colored" be kept separate, laine continued to hire light- and medium light-skinned african-american musicians, claiming that they were "cuban" or "mexican" if any segregationist tried to start trouble. as such his band attracted a large and diverse group of people such as mexican clarinetist [[lorenzo tio|lorenzo 
1873_births 1966_deaths American_jazz_bandleaders American_jazz_drummers American_jazz_musicians American_people_of_Italian_descent American_people_of_Sicilian_descent Disease-related_deaths_in_Louisiana Jazz_musicians_from_New_Orleans,_Louisiana