John Spikes

John Curry Spikes (July 22, 1881 – June 28, 1955) was an American jazz musician and entrepreneur.

John Spikes
Background information
Birth name	John Curry Spikes
Born	(1881-07-22)July 22, 1881
Origin	Dallas, Texas, United States
Died	June 28, 1955(1955-06-28) (aged 73)
Genres	Jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter, producer, publisher

Along with his brother Reb Spikes, John ran a traveling show band in early 1900s. At one point, Jelly Roll Morton was a member of the band.^[1] The Spikes brothers were performing in San Francisco around 1915, under the name The Original So-Different Orchestra, with Reb Spikes billed as the "World's Greatest Saxophonist".^[2] Around 1919, they settled in Los Angeles, where they started a music store, a nightclub, an agency and a publishing house.^[1]

They were the first to record an all-black jazz band in 1922.^[1] In 1927, they shot a short sound film that predated The Jazz Singer, the first full-length sound film.^[1] Their most enduring musical collaborations were writing the lyrics to Morton's Wolverine Blues and their own composition, Someday Sweetheart, which has become a jazz standard.^[3]