Art Hickman and his Orchestra started out at the St. Francis Hotel (335 Powell Street) in San Francisco in 1913. In those early years of Jazz he was even described by the press as the originator of Jazz, which was clearly not the case and which Hickman also denied. In 1916 the jazz craze started up in New York City with the success of the Original Dixieland Jass Band. The popularity of this style of music continued to grow and in 1919 the Hickman Orchestra went to New York to play at the Biltmore Hotel and record with Columbia. The trip was very successful for the band and they returned briefly to San Francisco in 1920, but they were soon offered a part in Ziegfeld Follies. The Follies was one of the hottest show business tickets in those days and the Hickman returned to New York and were part of the show for five months in 1920. In 1921 Hickman sent a smaller group to London, England to play under the name of Art Hickman's New York London Five. Hickman did not accompany band on this trip. Returning to California the band played residencies at hotels in San Francisco and Los Angeles. In 1926 Hickman Orchestra joined another Ziegfeld show, this time in Palm Beach, Florida, but in the midst all of this success, Hickman's health began to fail and he had to turn down gigs. In 1929 he was hospitalized and he died in 1930 of Banti's disease. The style of Jazz that Art Hickman's Orchestra played had a lot in common with the early music of Paul Whiteman's Orchestra (who also started out in San Francisco). Both groups saw themselves elevating the music beyond the wild and crazy sounds of Original Dixieland Jass Band and Ted Lewis and in the words of Whiteman, "trying to make a lady out of Jazz".

Some of the information in this article is based on the great research that Bruce Vermazen has done on the Art Hickman Orchestra. You are encouraged to read Bruce's definitive article about Hickman by clicking here. Additional thanks to Bruce for his help with some of the recordings on this page.