Today, international stars perform live jazz shows in historic basement clubs, inviting bars provide a relaxed atmosphere, while young musicians bring a breath of fresh air to the city with new sounds.
Hardly anyone knows that Munich became the scene of a full-fledged Dixieland and New Orleans movement as early as the 1950s. Yet it wasn’t primarily American soldiers who popularized traditional New Orleans jazz: it was mainly Munich high school students and college students who discovered the music for themselves and made it the sound of a young generation.
American Radio Brings the Sounds of New Orleans
Radio played a decisive role. After World War II , the American military radio station AFN broadcast from the Kaulbach Villa near the English Garden, bringing American music to the city. Particularly influential for the emerging Dixieland scene was the program “Strictly from Dixie,” which was dedicated to New Orleans and Dixieland jazz.
New Orleans jazz is more than just a historical footnote in Munich. To this day, the city offers the chance to experience the characteristic sound of the early jazz tradition live. It is precisely in a live setting that this music reveals its special character. Instead of a strictly structured concert, it thrives on the interplay between musicians, on improvisation, and on their immediate reactions to one another.
Bohemia Brings Swing
One of the young musicians drawn to this sound was drummer Hermann Kügler. In 1952, the 20-year-old came to Munich in search of like-minded people. Together with clarinetists Frank Weiss and Heinz Schellerer, as well as musicians from the house band at the Schwabing club “Gisela” on Occamstraße, they formed the Occam Street Footwarmers—Munich’s first Dixieland band.
They weren’t alone for long. Groups such as the Riverboat Seven, the Red Hot Brass Band, and the Candid Street Serenaders soon followed. By 1955, traditional jazz could already be heard in venues such as Café Freilinger, Alte Laterne, Gisela, and the Hot Clubs.
11 December 2026 18:30
Sudetendeutsches Haus
22 November 2026 16:00
Sudetendeutsches Haus
Jazz Events in Schwabing
What makes the story so fascinating, then, is not just the music’s origins, but what Munich did with it. That is precisely where the local payoff lies: New Orleans provides the musical roots; Munich tells the story of how this music was embraced, played, and carried forward here to the present day.
In Munich today, jazz can be experienced in a wide variety of settings: from the historic Unterfahrt jazz club to the intimate Vogler jazz bar to the elegant nightclub at the Bayerischer Hof. Those who want to get a closer look at the local scene can also attend jam sessions and discover young Munich musicians. And at The Jazz Room, you can even take a musical journey back to the roots of jazz in New Orleans.
