In the 1920s, the United States banned alcohol. The result? Thousands of clandestine bars called speakeasies, hidden in basements, behind barbershops and laundries, with password entry and music all night long.

Speakeasies were the first underground scenes in the history of modern music. This is where jazz exploded. African American musicians played for racially mixed audiences, something unthinkable in segregated America. Trumpet, piano, double bass and voice filled smoke-filled rooms, and people danced to music they would have had no chance of hearing in any other setting.

The irony is that Prohibition, a law designed to impose moral order, created the exact opposite: a space of total freedom. No rules, no segregation, no censorship. Just music and the people who wanted it.

When Prohibition ended in 1933, the speakeasies disappeared. The music they nurtured stayed. Jazz had left the basement and conquered the world.