After a loose association of jazz friends in Wiesbaden had already been formed in 1937, the Hot-Club-Wiesbaden was founded in 1939. Its president was Henry Guntrum. At the end of the 1930s/beginning of the 1940s, Dutch bands played jazz in Wiesbaden and it was still possible to buy jazz records until 1940/41. Italian bands played swing in the Park Café. After 1945, the "Graeme Bell's Australian Jazz Band", the Woody Herman, Lionel Hampton, Stan Kenton and Louis Armstrong orchestras performed in Wiesbaden. Rex Stewart (1907-1967) played at the Kurhaus. German and American bands performed at the Eagle Club. In 1946, the "Swing Stars" with Paul Kuhn and Max Fröhlich played there. In 1954, the Wiesbaden Jazz Circle was founded, whose jazz-loving members still meet once a month for record evenings. The "New Orleans Band Bucktown Six" was formed from its founding circle as early as 1953. The first recordings were made in 1958 with the American singer Rev. James Willard Parks. They won first place at the 4th German Amateur Jazz Festival in Düsseldorf in 1958. Appearances on the radio and on SWF television followed. Later, the Dietrich Geldern Swingtett devoted itself to the combo swing of American role models such as Benny Goodman (1909-1986), Artie Shaw (1910-2004) and Johnny Hodges (1906-1970). He also performed together with the singer Joske Kruijssen. Dietrich Geldern also worked as a teacher for clarinet and saxophone. Paolo Fornara and Reinhard Diegel were among his students. Other Wiesbaden bands from this period were the "Papa Tietz Jazzmen" (founded in 1957) around the Biebrich pianist Fritz Tietz. This was followed in later years by the "Hot Fountain Six" with Klaus Kaestner, Torsten Plagenz, Albert Hemes, Wilfried Jüterbock, Edu Jung and Bernhard Gauer. The "Brauhaus Quintett" and the "Twobone Quintett", which played in the style of J. J. Johnson (1924-2001) and Kay Winding (1922-1983), were dedicated to more modern forms of jazz. Modern Dixieland in the style of Wild Bill Davison (1906-1989) was played since 1961 by the "Jam Buckets" with Richard Streim and Ecki Schumacher. They were one of the typical amateur bands with regional appeal. Paolo Fornara, who started playing clarinet at the conservatory in 1958, then continued his self-taught training, learned the saxophone for the show band "Blue Birds", won the prize for best clarinet soloist at the jazz festival in the Kurhaus in 1962, performed with Jo Flinner, Gerhard Bitter and Achim Cremer from the 1970s and became a member of "Tagore", with whom he played at the jazz festival in San Sebastián in 1976. Further musical stations were the "Ralf Kunzmann Big Band" and the accompanying band of Hans-Dieter Hüsch (1925-2005) in the program "Hagenbuch und die Musik". In the 1960s, jazz connoisseur Hans Herder wrote the cover texts (liner notes) for the reissue series "Jazz Museum" and "Pioneers of Jazz" on Coral as well as "The Golden Swing Years" on Brunswick and "Swing Classics" on Polydor.

In September 1962, Albert and Uschi Butz took over the Jazz House in Nerostrasse. The "Bucktown Six" played at the opening. But blues was also popular. The musicians of the first American Folk Blues Festival with singer Helen Humes (1913-1981) made a guest appearance on October 13, 1962, followed in later years by Howlin' Wolf (1910-1976), John Lee Hooker (1920-2001) and the "Five Blind Boys of Alabama". Members of the Duke Ellington Orchestra led by Jimmy Hamilton (1917-1994), which had made a guest appearance at Erbenheim airfield, performed, the "Elvin Jones Quintet" was engaged, as was Albert Mangelsdorff (1928-2005) with Attila Zoller (1927-1998), Günter Lenz and Ralf Hübner, and there were also art exhibitions, jazz films with Joachim Kreck and an annual record collectors' congress until 1968. Albert Nicholas (1900-1973) played in 1966 and Sam Wooding (1895-1985) in 1967. From 1979, the house traded as "Grammophone" before its time came to an end in 1982. For 20 years, it was the center of jazz in Wiesbaden and a meeting place for young music enthusiasts. It was also the base for many Wiesbaden musicians: guitarist Volker Kriegel played swing here as an amateur, pianist Öcki von Brevern was often to be found in the Sälchen and blues player Tom Woll even lived in the house for a while. He came from Saarbrücken and studied music (piano, guitar). Influenced by Lightnin' Hopkins (1912-1982), John Lee Hooker, Django Reinhardt (1910-1953), Wes Montgomery (1923-1968), Kenny Burrell and ZZ Top, he began playing the blues at the age of 15. It was also during this time that he founded the Wiesbaden Lawyers Band. From 1984-2005 there was the Jazzbandball in the Kurhaus, co-founded, planned and hosted by Bill Ramsey, who also occasionally appeared as a singer.

In line with the international trend, modern forms of playing, including free jazz, also developed in WI. The "Free Jazz Group Wiesbaden", a quartet with Dieter Scherf and Wolfgang König from Wiesbaden as well as Michael Sell from Frankfurt and Wolfgang Schlick from Eschborn, existed from 1969-72. It performed at the 12th German Jazz Festival Frankfurt in 1970 and released the LPs "Frictions" and "Frictions Now", which are collector's rarities today. The internationally successful jazz-rock quartet "Virgo" with four LPs was founded in 1972 by musicians from Wiesbaden around the pianist/keyboardist Henryk Darlowski. Its members were the saxophonists Hans Fischer, Bobby Stern and Wilson de Oliveira. Virgo's breakthrough came in 1974 at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival. The band disbanded in 1982. Pianist Matthias Frey also made his debut with jazz rock in 1977 on the LP Horizonte by the group PSI. He was best soloist at the San Sebastián Jazz Festival, performed at the Berlin Jazz Festival, the Frankfurt Jazz Festival and the Hamburg New Jazz Festival, was nominated for the SWF Jazz Prize, toured East Africa and the Middle East for the Goethe Institute and in the 1990s to South East Asia, England and Scotland. He received the Nassau Culture Prize in 2008.

A group of young musicians - Eberhard Emmel, Ulrich Philipp, Wolfgang Schliemann, Gert Zimanowski and others - with the playing ideal of free improvisation came together in 1979 at the suggestion of Alfred Tilp to form the KOOPERATIVE NEW JAZZ Wiesbaden e.V.. From 1983-87, it ran the ARTist jazz club in the Haus der Heimat in Friedrichstraße, which hosted numerous concerts, readings, performances, screenings of jazz films and art exhibitions. Today it is based at the Kunsthaus am Schulberg. Pianist Uwe Oberg and double bassist and tenor saxophonist Gert Zimanowski emerged from their circle. The self-taught Gert Zimanowski came to the German-French Jazz Ensemble through Albert Mangelsdorff, to which he belonged for three years. From 2006, he worked with children using his own Talktone method (a combination of linguistic and musical rhythm, particularly suitable for introducing children of different linguistic backgrounds to music). In 2011, he was awarded the Integration Prize for a project with pupils from the Goethe School. Uwe Oberg has been active since the 1980s in the fields of jazz, free improvisation and new music, from Thelonious Monk to Anthony Braxton, and is very versatile. He works in experimental groups as well as in other artistic fields: Dance, theater, silent film accompaniment and exhibitions. He has given concerts and made recordings with his own trio and with many established German and foreign musicians, including Heinz Sauer and Evan Parker. Since 2005, he has organized the Just Music jazz festival in Wiesbaden with Raimund Knösche. In 2007, he was awarded the Hessian Jazz Prize.

A special kind of music education project is the "Big Band of the Leibniz School", which was founded in 1977 by Reinhard Diegel - music and German teacher at this grammar school - and led until 2004. In the 1990s, the band performed in Wiesbaden's twin cities of Ljubljana, San Sebastián and Wrocław. In 2002, it won first prize at the Hessian state competition "Jugend jazzt".

Since 1993, Peter Schilbach and his Jazzmap office have been organizing tours by US and European musicians, which he also brings to Wiesbaden whenever possible. So far, more than 200 concerts have taken place here with internationally renowned musicians such as Abraham Burton, Larry Coryell, Al Foster, Joanne Brackeen and many others. Peter Schilbach's events take place in the restaurant "Camera" Unter den Eichen.

Since the closure of the Jazz House in Nerostrasse, no permanent jazz club has been able to establish itself. The concerts take place at frequently changing venues. Nevertheless, activities have tended to increase. Since 1987 there has been the "Humanoise Congress" organized by KOOPERATIVE NEW JAZZ Wiesbaden e.V., since 1988 the concert series "Jazz im Hof" organized by the Hessian Ministry of Science and Art and since 2000 the annual festival "Just Music" and more recently the music series "ton ab" at the Kulturforum. In 2009, the "Dynamic Jazz" and "Jazz in der Wartburg" series began at the Schlachthof cultural center, both featuring contemporary forms of music. The Walhalla Studio hosts jazz and blues from time to time. Paolo Fornara hosts a monthly jam session in the thalhaus. The "Dave Pike Set" with Volker Kriegel and the "Dizzy Gillespie All Stars" with Benny Golson and Slide Hampton have performed at the International May Festival. The Kurhaus and Kurpark are venues for jazz as part of the Rheingau Music Festival. Oscar Peterson (1925-2007), Wayne Shorter and the "Pasadena Roof Orchestra" have played here. There are occasional jazz concerts in the studio of the Wiesbaden Music & Art School. The Andreas Hertel Quintet with neo-bop, Paolo Fornara's "Fun Jazz Quartet", the "Latin Bop Quartet" with Lutz Rathsfeld, the "Small Big Band Five Generations" founded by Reinhard Diegel and occasionally the Wiesbaden Lawyers' Band are active on the scene with Dixieland to swing. It is not only the organizers of the Wiesbaden jazz festival "Just Music" who would like to see a permanent home for jazz in Wiesbaden.