He played piano with the Original Dixieland Jass Band on their earliest recording sessions.

[1] His role in the band was to fill out the chords and to provide a bass line.

He also wrote "Lazy Daddy", "Dixieland Jass Band One-Step", "Clarinet Marmalade Blues", and "Reisenweber Rag".

He played on many Original Dixieland Jass Band classics and standards such as "Livery Stable Blues", regarded as the first jazz recording; "Tiger Rag", one of the most recorded songs in jazz history; and "Clarinet Marmalade", "Fidgety Feet", "At the Jazz Band Ball", "Sensation Rag", "Bluin' the Blues", and "Dixieland Jass Band One-Step".

[1] "Darktown Strutters' Ball" (1917) by Original Dixieland Jass Band was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2006.