Alphabetical Order

ALBERT, Jeff - Trombone
?: Lafayette, LA
Born and grew up in Lafayette but has lived and worked in New Orleans since 1988. He performs in a wide variety of idioms, from jazz to reggae, Latin, and R&B. He leads his own modern jazz group, and is also a member if the eclectic and innovative Naked Orchestra. Other groups that he plays with regularly include The Other Planets, and Friends of Jabu. He may just possibly play in the nude but I would not bank on it.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

AMBROSE - Trombone
c1900?: New Orleans
It is not known if Ambose was his given name or his family name. George Lewis named him as just “Ambrose”, a member of a group led by Leonard Parker with whom George played after leaving the Black Eagles and before joining Buddy Petit. This info. comes from an article “Play Number Nine” by George published in The Jazz Record. However , I strongly suspect this is Ambrose Powers (q.v.). Not to be confused with Bert Ambrose (1896)

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

ANDERSON, John - Trombone
88 According to R&S and NGDJ, but NOM vol.10 - 2 says 1905 which makes more sense of the Bunk reference Mentioned by Tom Stagg in Footnote volume 2-3 as one of the “young men of New Orleans” who are continuing the traditions of jazz playing, but with no other details. A Jerry Anderson played drums with Kermit Ruffins at the Café Brasil, October 1999 (still with him, Nov. 2002, alongside Kevin Morris bass, Emile Venette piano and Corey Henry trombone in Kermit Ruffin’s Barbecue Swingers.)

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

ANDERSON, Keith “Wolf” - Trombone; tuba
?: New Orleans
Played with Butch Gomez; also Pete Fountain. Founder member of the Rebirth Brass Band.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

ANDREWS, Revert - Trombone; percussion
c1975?: New Orleans?
Revert is mentioned on a Dirty Dozen Brass Band CD “Jelly” (narrated by Danny Barker) as making his debut, after being a young street performer. Nothing else known.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

ANDREWS, Troy “Trombone Shorty” “Trumpet Slim” -
Trombone; trumpet; tuba
1986: New Orleans
Started playing trombone when only 4 with the James Andrews All Star Brass Band and was dubbed “Trombone Shorty” by brother James. Tuba Fats lived with the Andrews family for a while and helped Troy on tuba. Troy organised his first band at 7: the Tiny Toones Brass Band. It was around this time that he came under the benign influence of Danny Barker. Later on he played with Trombone Shorty’s Brass Band at Donna’s, and the New Birth Brass Band at Tipitina’s. It was Aaron Neville who gave him the name “Trumpet Slim” after Troy appeared on trumpet with the Neville Brothers at Jazz Fest in 2003. Accepted to study at NOCCA a year early because of his precocious

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

Troy Andrews plays every brass band instrument, has his own CDs out, had a music club named after him, played Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis and just recently graduated from New Orleans' performing arts high school, NOCCA.

How did you get the name "Trombone Shorty"?
At a jazz funeral for Louis Nelson. My brother gave me the name. I was carrying a trombone. I could only play a couple of notes but I could play them loud. I was maybe five years old.

When did you play your first Jazz Fest?
It must have been in the early '90s. I got up on stage with Bo Diddley.

Since then you've picked up a number of instruments?
I play trumpet, drums, sousaphone, piano. Every brass band instrument. I play trumpet when I am out marching. The trombone is too long. People are always knocking into it. It's safer to play trumpet.

What are you going to pick up next?
I am getting into classical. To get my sight reading together. But I also have a funk band. I'm doing a Latin project. I'm always doing the brass band.

What's your favorite brass band song?
Wind It Up. I wrote it. It's a crowd favorite. Do you have a favorite jazz standard?
Four by Miles Davis. What's Louis Armstrong's best song?
Basin Street Blues.

Source: www.bigeasy.com

AQUILERA, Bob “One-Leg” - Piano; trombone; guitar
c1895: New Orleans 1945, Feb 27
A legendary character who paraded on his wooden leg with Fischer’s Brass Band between 1908 and 1911. Prior to WW1 “One-Leg” was with Happy Schilling’s Orchestra, performing at the Pelican Baseball Park between games. He toured the Southwest later as a solo pianist. He turned down the chance to go to Chicago in 1915 with Tom Brown’s Band.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

ARCENEAUX, Morris (Maurice) - Trombone
Albert Walters recalled, in an interview with Bill Russell, Morris Arcenaux on trombone with the Camellia Band when Albert first started out on piano. Others were Wooden Joe trumpet, George Thompson (a.k.a. George Stuart) clarinet, John Smith leader and banjo, Johnny Prudence bass, and Joe Alexis drums

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

ARCHEY, James H. “Jimmy” - Trombone; guitar
1902, Oct 12: Norfolk, VA 1967, Nov 16
Began playing at 12; played his first gig when 13 years old. An unusually short man, he was barely five feet tall. He moved to New York in 1923 and became famous for his plunger mute work. Played with King Oliver’s band in his New York period, and Joe Steele’s band in Harlem, 1928, and also the Luis Russell Orchestra, with Louis Armstrong, in the 1930s. Toured Europe with Mezz Mezzrow in 1948. Appeared in a Bob Wilber group in the 1950s. He was in Europe with the New Orleans All Stars in 1966. Played regularly until his death. The “This Is Jazz” recordings he made with Wild Bill Davison and his All Star Stompers, in 1947, a group in which the majority were from New Orleans, amply justify his inclusion here. Muggsy Spanier’s wife recalled that, “ He (Jimmy) played the guitar beautifully, too.” Horace Harris (HH) points out that I have failed to mention the excellent biography by Peter Carr, and published by JAZZology: JIMMY ARCHEY: The Little Giant of the Trombone.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

ASTOR, Bob - Trombone; trumpet; drums
1915, Oct 5: New Orleans
Listed as a trombone player and a bandleader by Henry Busse Jr. although I cannot find a mention of him anywhere else. There is no mention of him other than his work in the area of Swing orchestras and so-called modern jazz. Later, I find that he worked with several local groups around New Orleans and in Texas, before forming his own band in Los Angeles where he also became a disc-jockey. Went to New York early 1940s and although he never recorded the band was important because it included such musicians as Neal Hefti, Les Elgart, Zoot Sims, Illinois Jacquet, Shelly Manne and others who became top rank musicians in the 50’s .He left the music business in the late 1950’s.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

ATKINS, Edward “Ed” - Trombone; tuba; baritone horn
1889, Oct 15: New Orleans c1928
On baritone horn with the Onward Brass Band from around 1905 and later with the Olympia. He joined the Tuxedo Band and also played with Joe Oliver, and Joe Howard’s Band in New Orleans around 1916, after having briefly visited Chicago with Manuel Perez the previous year. He served as a bandsman in the US army during WW1 and after the war, in 1919, he settled permanently in Chicago. What this main entry originally failed to mention (mea culpa) is that in 1923 he probably recorded with King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. It certainly wasn’t the regular Honoré Dutrey. Ed Atkins was more positively with Joe Oliver in 1924-25 in Dave Peyton’s Symphonic Syncopators at the Plantation Cafe. In May 1926 he recorded with Erskine Tate’s Vendome Orchestra, and in April 1928 he recorded with Fess Williams and his Joy Boys. R&S give his death as c1926 but I am assuming that the date given by Rust for the Fess Williams session is more reliable.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

AUGUSTAT, Boulboul - Trombone
c1870: New Orleans c1924
Lomax quotes Alphonse Picou (in Mr Jelly Roll): One day Boulboul Augustat the trombone player heard me practising and asked me if I want to come to one of his rehearsals ..… so I played with Boulboul’s string band. However, it is generally accepted that Picou started with Boulboul Valentin, so Augustat was possibly his given name, which further illustrates the perils of oral history.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

AVERY, Joseph “Kid” - Trombone
1892, Oct 3: Waggeman, LA 1955, Dec 9
A pupil of the important early musician, Dave Perkins from 1912. Between 1915 and 1922 he was in the Tulane Orchestra . He spent some time on tour with the legendary Evan Thomas’ Black Eagles, replacing Bob Thomas, and also toured with the Yelpin’ Hounds. In the early 1940s until the mid-50s he led his own band. He played regularly with the Young Tuxedo Brass Band. In 1949 he recorded with Wooden Joe Nicholas. Kid Avery made the early riff melody “Holler Blues” his own, although it later became inaccurately known as “Joe Avery Blues", now performed as “The Second Line” (not to be confused with the Barbarin tune). His funeral was reported as one of the largest held outside of New Orleans.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

BARBARIN, Lucien - Trombone
1956, July 17: New Orleans, Louisiana
For five generations the Barbarin family has contributed immeasurably to the music of New Orleans. Their story begins with Isidore Barbarin, who mentored the young Louis Armstrong nearly a century ago; after achieving unprecedented worldwide fame as a trumpeter, Armstrong recruited Isidore's son Paul to play drums with his band. Today, the torch rests in the hands of Lucien Barbarin, whose command of the trombone and love for performing establish him as one of the city's premier musical ambassadors. Raised in the Seventh Ward, he made his debut at age six, playing drums with his Uncle Paul's Onward Brass Band. By high school he was playing trombone and co-leading the Fairview Baptist Christian Church Band with his cousin Danny Barker. Lucien's tastes embraced from  jazz to funk; he drew inspiration from J. J. Johnson's bop virtuosity and played R&B gigs around New Orleans with the groups Stone Mountain and Joy. But an invitation to work six nights a week with drummer Albert "June" Gardner at the Famous Door, in the heart of the French Quarter, drew him toward traditional jazz. Lucien's calendar filled quickly as he picked up jobs with various outfits. One, the Tuxedo Brass Band, began appearing regularly at Preservation Hall in the early eighties; when he started getting calls to play with Willie and Percy Humphrey in the Preservation Hall Band as well, the enduring relationship between the venue and one of its most engaging artists began. Today, Lucien tours internationally, from the North Sea to the White House, with both the Preservation Hall Band and with Harry Connick, Jr. While in New Orleans he performs locally and helps raise his five children, in whom signs of musical talent are -- not surprisingly -- stirring.  

"I grew up a few blocks from the Treme neighborhood. I used to hear the second line [marching band rhythm sections] come up the street; you could hear that bass drum from two blocks away. I'd say, 'Mama! Mama! Second line's coming!' I'd run down the block, catch up with the second line, and join that parade …"  

"My Uncle Paul used to get on the drums and show my brother and me how to play with the New Orleans rhythm. He took us in parades with him; he'd lay out and let me play the snare drum with the band. And when we were done we'd go out on the streets and beat on pots and pans. All the kids in the neighborhood knew that my brother and I were into music."  

"Musicians in New Orleans are born to entertain. There's nothing wrong with that, because I'm happy when I play. I love what I do. Hey, this is it: 'Come on, join with me! Have fun with me, people!' That's what it's about."  

Source: www.preservationhall.com

See website: www.lucienbarbarin.com

BARNES, Harrison Baritone - horn; trombone; cornet
1889, Jan 13: Magnolia Plantation, LA 1960
Normally Danny would have been interred with his mother and other members of his family in St Louis Cemetery #1 but the vault, like many of the older tombs, was not spacious enough to accommodate a large modern casket so he was buried in St Louis #2 with his uncle Paul Barbarin. A pupil on cornet of Professor Jim Humphrey. Harrison played with the Eclipse Brass Band in 1906, and the Henry Allen Brass Band in 1907, with which band he played a funeral with Buddy Bolden on Buddy’s last known job. He was with Chris Kelly to 1918, Harrison being the only proficient reader, and who also managed the band. When the valves on his cornet wore out he switched to playing a trombone sold to him by Sonny Henry In 1923 he was playing in the NOLA Band, led by Pete Lacaze. He also played with John Robichaux and Manuel Perez. He was on the 1946 Original Zenith Brass Band recording, and in 1951 he also recorded with Kid Thomas. See also Alfred Barnes.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

BARNES, Jules - Trombone
?: Alexandria, LA ?
A light-skinned (“bright”) musician from downtown in Dave Bailey’s Tulane Archive description. Sammy Penn recalled, as a teenager living in Morgan City, sitting in with a band on tour from New Orleans managed by Jules, including Zeb Lenares, Mutt Carey and Little Dad Vincent. Later, on moving to New Orleans, Sammy gigged with Barnes for about three years. Jules Barnes was known to have played in Duck Johnson’s Young Olympia Band. Emile Barnes occasionally gigged with the band but it is

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

BECHET, Leonard Victor - Trombone
1877, Apr 25: New Orleans 1952, Mar 9
Although a musician he was principally a dentist, and is perhaps best known for being Sidney Bechet’s brother, and for making the dentures that “assisted” Bunk in his comeback. However, Emily Mae Evans, Bunk’s stepdaughter, said they were poorly made and never fitted properly! Some later research has revealed that he was at best a rather indifferent dentist. At any rate, Leonard led the Silver Bells Band from 1903 until WW1. He played with the Young Superior Brass Band during the 1920s, and also appeared with Charlie Love. His son, Leonard Bechet, Jr. (born 1927) played alto and soprano sax and clarinet, and was Sidney’s manager for a while. In February 1973 he recorded an album in California with Barry Martyn. Leonard had a younger brother Elmore who fooled around on clarinet “but wasn’t a musician” although he had a tone like uncle Sidney.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

BENARBY, Jim - Trombone
c1904: New Orleans c1926
A member of Nat Towles’ Creole Harmony Kings for their tour of Mexico, 1924-25. He was the uncle of Ernest Kelly who played in the first band led by George Lewis around 1924.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

BENSON, Hamilton “Hamp” - Trombone; bass
1885: New Orleans ?
Hamp had four brothers, all of whom were musicians. He started on bass in 1901 taught by his brother. By his own account he first played in a trio with Russell Williams on guitar, and Johnny Bradley, mandolin. This was in 1901. In 1903 he was with Andrew Kimball and played in the district until 1905. The following year he was at Tom Anderson’s Annexe along with Tom Brown. He started playing valve trombone in 1906 with Tom Brown, a Creole mandolin player. The same year he organised his own band, the Primrose Band, comprising Joe Johnson; Herb Lindsay; George Williams and Augustin Cato. Hamp appears to have absconded with the proceeds from a date around 1911 and was not heard of until about 15 years later when Pops Foster saw him in St. Louis. Also in the 1920s he was known to have been resident in Chicago for a while because he was reported as playing there sometimes with the Kid Howard Orchestra when it made excursions trips from New Orleans. In the mid-thirties he was a member, according to Father Al Lewis, of a band in Crowley, known rather strangely as the New Orleans Cotton Club Band. See also the entry for Vic Despenza . Then, in the 1940s, he appeared on a date with Sidney Bechet.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

BERRY, Mel - Trombone
c1897: New Orleans 1929
In his rather brief life and consequent musical career he achieved fame as a virtuoso performer on his instrument He played in theatre pit bands but his main contribution to jazz was made alongside Tony Parenti in Johnny DeDroit’s Orchestra in the 1920s. He is pictured with them in 1920 on page 177 of R&S. Mel died in Los Angeles. The 1960 Local 496 register lists a drummer, Oliver Berry.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

BLACK JOE - Trombone
c1890?
Described by Pops Foster as an untrained but very popular musician who played in the high register a great deal. His proper name is unknown. He played with a band led by cornettist Walter “Blue” Robertson, including Face-O Woods, Willie Joseph and Oscar Kendalls.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

BLUNT, Carroll “Cal” Trombone; bass
1908, Feb 17: Carrolton, LA 1970, Jan
Cal studied trombone with Dave Perkins, and his first regular job was in 1929 with Willie Newton’s Orchestra, a reading band. After that he was with Ernie Forman, and then began doubling on bass. In the 1940s he was with Jimmy Jackson’s Brass Band, and also became a founder member of the Gibson Brass Band. Recorded on bass in New Orleans with Emile Barnes’ Jane’s Alley 6, in 1962. He led his own group which recorded in

1963, and recorded on trombone with the Gibson Brass Band in the same year. Pictured on page 48 of Schafer’s Brass Bands & New Orleans Jazz, parading with the Young Excelsior Brass Band at Tulane, 1964. Played on bass with Doc Paulin, 1968. Freddie John, Sven Stahlberg and Per Oldaeus went to the wake and Per took of photos of George Sterling, Doc Paulin, drummer Harold Edwards, John Wimberley, John Henry McNeil, etc.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

BOCAGE, Peter - Trumpet, Trombone, Violin
Multi-instrumentalist Peter Bocage was one of the great trumpeters in New Orleans history and ironically did not consider himself a jazz player, rather a ragtime musician. He got his start on the violin, although he did play mandolin, guitar, banjo, trumpet, baritone horn, xylophone and trombone. Listening to the records he made in the 1960’s reveals the differences between the downtown “orthodox” ragtime orchestras and the uptown “syncopators”. Bocage came from the downtown school and preferred soft, melodic playing as opposed to the hotter or as he referred to them “vicious” styles as played by Buddy Bolden, Freddie Kepperd and later work by Bunk Johnson, a former pupil.

Born into a prosperous Creole family in Algiers across the river from New Orleans, Bocage began taking violin lessons at 13. He was soon playing local parties with his father's group, but soon began playing with various groups in Storyville. At 21, Bocage became the leader and violinist for the Superior Orchestra, which at the time was one of the city's most popular ragtime bands and featured Bunk Johnson on cornet. Bocage is considered responsible for Bunk’s learning to read music. During this period Bocage also saw and heard Buddy Bolden’s band, as well as a band led by Freddie Keppard, both of whom he considered inferior to Bunk. In 1910 Bocage joined Frankie Dusen’s Eagle Band on violin which was essentially the Bolden band without Buddy. Bocage began learning the trumpet and with Fate Marable in 1917 formed the first inter-racial band on the Strekfus line.

Throughout this period Bocage played with a who’s who of New Orleans brass and dance bands, many of which contained the most famous musicians ever produced in the Crescent City. In 1918 he played in both the Onward band which included Joe “King” Oliver and Henry Allen Sr.’s band. He also became a regular member of the Tuxedo Orchestra, which included Louis Armstrong. In 1922 he took over leadership of the Excelsior band which he continued to lead up until the band's demise in 1932. He kept the entire working stock of band marching and dancing arrangements and neither he, nor his family after his death have ever let anyone copy the documents.

In 1923 Bocage rejoined Piron's New Orleans Orchestra and with the help of Clarence Williams went to New York for a brief residency at the Cotton Club. The band also recorded for Okeh and Victor. Both songs were rejected and remain unissued. Piron's New Orleans Orchestra did record 13 sides in 1925 and again in 1932 for Victor as the Creole Serenaders.

In 1939, Bocage made his living in the insurance business and briefly left New Orleans to take Bunk Johnson’s place with Sidney Bechet’s group in Boston. As the New Orleans revival of the 1940’s came to a head, Bocage recorded with some of the old-time New Orleans musicians as the Jazz Pioneers as well as playing with Henry Allen Sr.’s brass band in Algiers.

Throughout 50’s and 60’s Bocage led various incarnations of the Creole Serenaders, and released an album on Riverside 60's for Riverside called: "Loves-Jiles Ragtime Orchestra/Creole Serenaders" and was becoming an important part in the early Preservation Hall until his death in 1967 at the age of 80.

Source: Ted Gottsegen

BRAUD, Wellman (Breaux) - Bass; tuba; trombone
1891, Jan 25: St. James Parish, LaPlace, LA 1966, Oct 29
He began playing the violin at the age of seven. According to his oral testimony he moved to New Orleans in 1911, although he never played in the District because he was too young. However, other information had it that his first work was in a trio in the District, at Tom Anderson’s, 1908-1913......! Around 1910 he is said to have played guitar with A J Piron, and also paraded on drums in a brass band. The name change from Breaux to Braud occurred after he moved north in 1917, when he began playing string bass. In Chicago he joined the Creole Band with Lil Hardin, Roy Palmer, Sugar Johnny, Ram Hall and Lawrence Duhé. From around 1920 he had several years in the Charlie Elgar Orchestra, and was with Wilbur Sweatman in 1923. In the same year he was in Europe with Will Vodery’s Plantation Revue, and also toured in a burlesque show. For ten years from 1926 he was a long-time sideman with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. He later played with Jimmie Noone. Wellman left full-time music in the mid-forties, but appeared at weekends with Bunk Johnson in 1947. He resumed playing full-time in 1956 joining up with Kid Ory, and touring Europe. Later, in 1960, he was with Joe Darensbourg. Wellman Braud laid claim to be the creator of the “walking bass” technique. Related to the Marsalis sons on their mother’s side, according to an April, 1999 column in The Times-Picayune.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

BRAZLEE, Harrison (BRAZLEY) - Trombone
1888, Oct 25: New Orleans 1954, Nov
Harrison Brazlee began playing as a professional with the Excelsior Brass Band of Mobile, Alabama in WW1. He also toured with the Ringling Brothers Circus and the Rabbit’s Foot Minstrels. Harrison joined the Evan Thomas band in the mid-thirties, replacing Joe Avery, and consequently he was obliged to learn how to improvise. He later settled down in New Orleans and was a regular at Luthjens. Among his recording dates are: Emile Barnes, 1951; Ken Colyer, 1953; Billie and DeDe Pierce (at Luthjens) in 1953. According to Dick Allen ( KCT Newsletter, June 1998) Harrison spelled his name as BRAZLEY . Well, he ought to have known.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

BROWN, Octave - Trombone
c1880?: New Orleans? ?
All that I know about him is that he is mentioned in NOM when Robert Goffin is quoted as listing him with Henry Payton at the Big 25 in 1900: Huey Rankin bass; Henry Payton accordion; Jim Gibson banjo; Charles McCurdy clarinet; Buddy Bolden cornet and Octave Brown trombone. Big Eye Louis Nelson took over on bass at the time of the Charles Riots. If you played with Bolden you’re certain of a mention here. The 1960 Local 496 register lists a pianist, Ralph Brown.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

BROWN, Raymond “Ray” - Trombone; violin
c1892: New Orleans c1940
The father-in-law of “H .E.” Minor, and the father of Raymond “Clifford” Brown. (Clifford played trumpet with Fats Pichon, according to Lionel Ferbos. A Tulane interview with Alfred Williams says that Clifford was a pupil of Red Allen, and that he could also play drums. Williams and Brown played at the La Vida jitney in 1928 with John Handy, Ernest Kelly, Louis Givens and Sidney Pfleuger.) In the early 1920s Ray worked with Clarence Desdune’s Joyland Revelers. Later, in 1927, he himself joined Fats Pichon (who had a fair line-up with Red Allen, Paul Barbarin and Henry Kimball in his band at the time) and played with Sidney Desvigne in 1928. According to Bill Russell in Preservation Hall Portraits, Twat Butler’s first job was in Raymond Brown’s band that included Sammy Penn at the time. There’s a picture of Ory’s outfit The Woodland Band at La Place around 1905 where the violinist is Raymond Brown.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

BROWN, Tom “Red” - Trombone; bass
1888, Jun 3: New Orleans 1958, Mar 25
He first played violin before starting on trombone. Around 1910 he played with Papa Laine’s Reliance Band. He led the first Dixieland band to go north in 1915, and it was advertised as a “jass” band. During the 1920s he toured and recorded with Ray Miller. Around 1924 he moved back to New Orleans where in later years he was heard frequently in the city and recorded with Johnny Wiggs. Also recorded as a leader during the 1950s with Wiggs and Harry Shields in the line-up. Unfortunately, Tom was given to such ungrammatically racist opinions as, “ ..… niggers ain’t no good on clarinet. Them thick blubbery lips can’t make no tone. They ain’t smart enough to tell where the harmony is neither. After all, they niggers”. Well, I guess we know where you stand, Tom!

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

Like most early White New Orleans Jazz musicians, trombonist Tom Brown was a veteran of Papa Jack Laine's Reliance Brass Band. Around 1910 he organized his own band called Brown's Ragtime Band. In 1915 he took the band North to Chicago making him the first to bring a White Jazz band north from New Orleans. Brown claimed to be the first to use the word "Jass" to describe the music that was coming out of New Orleans. The legend goes like this: the word "Jass" was some vague slang for sex, and was associated with prostitution. Tom Brown's band had come North from New Orleans in 1915 and was playing a successful engagement at Lamb's Cafe (located at Clark and Randolph Streets) against the wishes of the Chicago musician's union. The term "Jass" was used by the union as a way to denigrate the band. In defiance of the union Brown and the club owner started advertising the band as Brown's Band From Dixieland . The union's insults backfired increasing the popularity of the group and causing the term "Jass" to forever be used to describe the New Orleans style of collective improvisation. Brown's Dixieland Jass Band consisted of Tom Brown on trombone, his brother Steve on bass, Ray Lopez on cornet, William Lambert on drums, Arnold Loyacano on guitar and Larry Shields on clarinet. The band traveled to New York and had a successful run in 1916, but then broke up. Brown returned briefly to New Orleans, but booking agents in New York were still contacting him wanting a "Jass" band. He recommended another White New Orleans Jazz band, Stein's Dixieland Jass Band that was playing in Chicago at the time. Johnny Stein was under contractual obligation in Chicago and couldn't make it, but the rest of the band decided that this was too good of an offer to pass up and left Stein holding the bag in Chicago. In New York the group became The Original Dixieland Jass Band, an obvious attempt to associate themselves with Brown's Band From Dixieland. Brown got another band together and got a gig at New York's Century Theatre as part of Town Topics revue in 1916 where they were billed as The Five Rubes. Once in New York, Brown's clarinetist, Larry Shields exchanged jobs with Yellow Nuñez who had just been fired from The Original Dixieland Jass Band. Nuñez joined Brown's band. While in New York Tom Brown took part in a number of recording sessions which included the Happy Six, Yerke's Jazzarimba Orchestra, The Kentucky Serenaders and with Ray Miller's Black and White Melody Boys. Brown couldn't keep his band together in New York, and returned to Chicago where he led bands and worked as a sideman before he returned to New Orleans and opened a music shop. In New Orleans he played with Johnny Bayersdorffer and his Jazzola Novelty Orchestra. He continued to play in a variety of bands in New Orleans for the rest of his life while also running his store. In 1955 and 1958 Brown recorded for the first time under his own name. These sessions are available on CD from GBH records under the name of Tom Brown and his New Orleans Jazz Band.

www.redhotjazz.com

BRUNIS, Georg - Trombone
1902, Feb 6: New Orleans 1974, Nov 19
Claimed to have been born in 1900. Self-taught, and never learnt to read. He adopted the unusual spelling of both names on the advice of a numerologist for reasons best known to himself: his original name was George Clarence Brunies, and he became the best known of a musical clan.

He played with Papa Laine’s junior band on alto horn when he was 8, and also played in family bands before switching to trombone. After playing on river boats went to Chicago around 1920 and joined his friend, Paul Mares, in the Friars Society Orchestra, soon to become the New

Orleans Rhythm Kings. In the middle-20s he played regularly with Ted Lewis. He later played in New York with Eddie Condon for 20 years. Made the famous Bluebird sides with Muggsy Spanier in 1939. Still active in Chicago and the Midwest until the 1970s. Many have said that whilst he was not a great soloist his ensemble playing was unsurpassed, although in later years his playing became somewhat uncontrolled and Spanier, for one, had difficulty keeping him in order. Little Abbie Brunies (d), who died on the bandstand with Sharkey’s band in 1955, was nephew to the brothers Albert (c) George, Henry (tb), Merritt (tpt & tb), and Richard © .See also the entry for the Brunies family. Everyone gives 1974 as his date of death, except OMJ with 1975, an obvious mistake.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

Trombone player George Brunies got his start at age eight playing with Papa Jack Laine's band and later went on to play with Laine's son Alfred "Baby" Laine's band. He played in various bands in and around New Orleans including his brother Abbie's Halfway House Orchestra, until he moved to Chicago in 1919. After playing for a while in Chicago he took a job on the Mississippi riverboat the S.S. Capitol. He returned to Chicago in 1923 with his childhood friends Paul Mares and Leon Roppolo and joined the Friar's Society Orchestra which later changed its name to the New Orleans Rhythm Kings after leaving the club. George's brother Merritt took over the gig at the Friar's Inn with his band which was called Merritt Brunies and his Friars Inn Orchestra. George Brunies left New Orleans Rhythm Kings in 1924 and signed up with Ted Lewis and his Band that same year. He stayed with Lewis until 1934. Throughout the rest of his career he played with Muggsy Spainer, Art Hodges, Louis Prima and Eddie Condon and many others.

www.redhotjazz.com

BUTLER, Rapp “Guyé” (Butler Rapp) - Trombone; guitar; banjo
c1898: New Orleans 1931 or 1942 (more likely) R&S suggests the date 1931 for his death, but the discovery of a newspaper report dates it in 1942. He is also referred to as “Butler Rapp” in an R&S entry, and often elsewhere but my information is that Butler was his family name, not Rapp. In the early 20s he was on trombone with the Onward Brass Band, and he was on banjo with Sam Morgan until 1925, but also played trombone in the Morgan Brass Band. In the late 20s he worked with Chris Kelly; and also played along with Willie Pajeaud in the Magnolia Orchestra. He played jitney dates also on banjo with Eddie Jackson. He was said to have been a good musician but he was a bully and thus hard to get on with. In 1931, whilst playing in a pickup band, he provoked a fight with Walter Decou, a much smaller man. Decou tried to leave but Guyé went after him. Decou stabbed out blindly with a knife and Guyé died. The contemporary consensus seems to be that he got what was coming to him. In case you are interested Eugene Rapp was a black officer in the New Orleans Confederate Militia at the time of the Civil War although he later sided with the Union forces. He is buried in the St. Louis No. 2 cemetery. Rab Butler was a Conservative British politician responsible for the post-WW2 Butler Act which established free secondary education for all. So that clears up any confusion.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

CALISTE, Lester A. ( CALLISTE) - Trombone
1947, Aug 13: New Orleans
Lester is a grandnephew of the celebrated Buddy Petit, although as he has explained himself he is not a blood relative: Buddy was married to an aunt on Lester’s mother’s side of the family. Picked up an interest in music at St. Augustine’s High School in the Seventh Ward. At Xavier University he started playing in local bands but his first real professional excursion was with the Clyde Kerr Sr. Society Orchestra, and also appeared with the Toppers Orchestra. It was whilst with the Kerr outfit that Albert “Papa” French suggested he learnt to play traditional jazz and so it was that in the 1970s he played with the Olympia Brass Band He also turned out with the Young Tuxedo Band and often played at Preservation Hall - I saw him there with Gregg Stafford, Manny Crusto, Jeanette Kimball etc. during the 1994 French Quarter Festival. Also played and recorded with Clive Wilson’s Original Camellia Jazz Band. His exp erience also includes playing R&B with The Music Factory, backing vocalists as a session man at the Sea-Saint recording studio, playing with Sweet Emma Barrett, as well as Kid Sheik’s Preservation Hall Band. In recent years he has recorded with bands led by Lionel Ferbos, Cuff Billett and John “Kid” Simmons.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

CAMPBELL, Arthur - Piano; trombone
c1890: New Orleans c1941
A Storyville “professor” between 1908 and 1917, who on occasion played piano with the Joe Oliver band, and also did some solo piano work, at Pete Lala’s Big 25 148 , a gambling place and favourite musicians’ hangout. He also played in Piron’s Orchestra at Tranchina’s at Spanish Fort around about 1915-17, and again in 1918. When he left to go to Chicago he was replaced by Steve Lewis. There cannot be many pianists who also play trombone professionally but Arthur played trombone in the Magnolia Brass Band before WW1. He recorded on piano in Chicago with Freddy Keppard in 1926.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

CAREY, Jack - Trombone
c1889: Hahnville, LA c1935
One of the many musical Careys. According to a number of reports Jack may well have originated the “tailgate” trombone style. He was reputedly a rough trombonist but a good musician, and was one of the first to use French melodies for jazz.: the quadrille on which “Tiger Rag” was based was once known as “Jack Carey” . As early as 1910 he played brass band jobs with Henry Allen, and became the leader of a great early jazz band, the Crescent Orchestra, that included many fine players. He was replaced by Eddie Morris when Punch Miller took over. His brothers John and Milton played trombone; Pete and Thomas (Mutt) were trumpet players. Zeb Lenares was their nephew. A Peter Carey taught and led a band in Parks during the early 1900s. Any relationship is unknown, but see mention of Pete Carey below.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

Trombonist Jack Carey was the older brother of Thomas "Papa Mutt" Carey, the leader of the Cresent City Orchestra. He was also the author of perhaps the most popular Hot Jazz song of all time. He adapted the song from a book of French quadrilles that his band had been playing around with it, altering the timing and phrasing, and called it Tiger Rag. Jack worked up the second and third sections to show off his clarinetist, George Boyd. The final strain (the 'Hold That Tiger', section) was worked up by cornetist Punch Miller and Jack.

Jelly Roll Morton would later claim credit for transforming the quadrille, but historians have since proved otherwise. The tune was widely known in New Orleans as Jack Carey by the African American and Creole musicians of the period. Historians tell us, that many of the songs the Cresent City Orchestra developed were later recorded by the Original Dixieland Jass Band and copyrighted as their own. This was not unusual in the early period of Jazz, since musicians often played with more than one group at a time, and switched bands often.

Punch Miller took over the Cresent City Orchestra in 1919 and replaced Carey on trombone. Jack continued to play in parade bands in New Orleans throughout the 1920s.

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CARROLL, Albert (CAHILL, CARRELL etc) - Piano; trombone
c1885: *New Orleans c1910?
A piano player in Basin Street brothels until Storyville closed in 1917, and then worked some of the best band jobs, notably at the Lyric Theatre, until 1927. He was the son of a pianist, Cyrus Carroll of *Donaldsville, LA according to Spriggins who said he was 75 in 1933 which would make Cyrus born c1858. Around 1904 he was on the road as musical director of the New Orleans Minstrels and after returning to New Orleans went with Tony Jackson on tour with the Whitman Sister’s New Orleans Troubadours 153 . The last known mention of him was at a theatre in Jacksonville, Florida where he appeared with the Whitman Sisters. According to Clarence Williams, Carroll influenced Jelly Roll Morton. He sometimes played trombone in parades. His name has been mis-spelt in several books: Jazzmen, and also Mister Jelly Roll, no doubt as a result of oral testimony. As a lesson in checking details I offer the following. Rashly, in the entry for Arthur Campbell, I wrote that there cannot be too many pianists who also play trombone. Then, on reflection I decided to count them and discovered there are ten in this book alone. Look them up for yourself. Percy Cahill (relation?) wrote “Shoo Skeeter Shoo” in 1905 (see the Werlein entry)

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

CASSARD, Jules - Bass; trombone
c1895: New Orleans ?
The uncle of Raymond Burke. Jules’ brother, Leo “Dooky” Cassard played banjo and is pictured with Ray Burke on page 305 of R&S. Jules was one of the earliest Dixielanders. He played in New Orleans with those members of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band who eventually achieved fame in New York. He is usually credited with composing the jazz standard “Angry” but see the entry for Blind Gilbert.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

CASTIGLIOLA, Angelo J. “Bubby” - Trombone
1924, Aug 28: New Orleans
In R&S it says that he is the only jazzman from a concert-trained family and that he toured with Jack Teagarden, and worked with Irving Fazola, and also Tony Almerico, and was in a WWL studio band. In the notes to the American Music CD “Raymond Burke 1937-1949” it says that Vincent Cass’s real name was Castigliola and he recorded with Ray in 1942. It seems at least possible that they were from the same family and I wonder why Barry Martyn’s notes failed to make the connection or refer to it.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

CAYETTE, Roland - Trombone
?: New Orleans?
All I know about this guy is that he replaced Eddie Morris in the Gibson Brass Band, and was replaced in turn by Eddie Noble at some time around 1962. Hear him on AMCD-96.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

CHATTERS, Maynard - Trombone
c1935?: New Orleans
Professor of Music at Dillard University. Mentioned by Marcel Joly as with Clive Wilson’s Camellia Jazz Band at Preservation Hall in 1991 having taken over on trombone when Clem Tervalon died. He is referred as one of the “reserve of middle-aged musicians” in New Orleans, and with a son who Marcel Joly remembered with the Onward Brass Band in 1990. A report in The Mississippi Rag (Oct. 1997) names the son as Mark Chatters, on trumpet with Placide Adams playing in Armstrong Park. Currently (2004) is a regular performer at Preservation Hall.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

CHRISTIAN, Charles - Trombone
1886, July 25: New Orleans 1964, Jul 11
Elder brother to Emile and Frank Christian. He was in the Christian Ragtime Band with his brothers from 1910 to 1918. He also appears to have been with the Triangle Band, with Tony Magiotta on cornet, from about 1917. Charles also played in the Domino Orchestra which around 1929 listed Tony Burrella, Tony Fougerat, Willie Guitar, Lester Bouchon and Nappy Lamare as well as Charlie among its members.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

CHRISTIAN, Emile Joseph “Boot-mouth” - Trombone; trumpet; bass; clarinet
1895, Apr 20: New Orleans 1973, Dec 31
Brother of Charles and Frank Christian. Emile was in Papa Laine’s Reliance Brass Band. Amongst his early jobs was one in 1910 with Morgan’s Euphonic Syncopators in Chicago (all but the pianist were from New Orleans) according to R&S. He played with his brothers in both Fischer’s Brass Band and Papa Jack Laine’s band, as well as the Christian Ragtime Band. He replaced Eddie Edwards in the Original Dixieland Jazz Band on the England tour of 1919-21. “ … I played for the King and Queen", he told Clive Wilson in 1964. Emile left the ODJB to play in Paris, staying for ten years. On his return to New Orleans he played for most of the top Dixieland groups. Earl J. Christian (1908-1999) a member of the famous Christian family of jazz musicians, long retired but once played with Frank Frederico, and Stuart “Red Hot” Bergen, was given a brief obituary in The Second Line but no instrument was mentioned.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

CLARK, Joseph “Red” - Trombone; sousaphone; tuba
1894, Feb 12: New Orleans 1960, Nov 30
His father, Aaron, was on baritone horn with the Onward, Pickwick and Excelsior Brass Bands. As a result of his father’s dying wish he did not play until he was in his 30s. He studied trombone with Dave Perkins and joined the Tonic Triad Band in 1928, and was with the Masonic Brass Band in the 1930s. In 1947, when T-Boy Remy was the Eureka’s leader, their sousaphone player didn’t arrive, so Red successfully persuaded T-Boy to let him play it and did so ever afterwards. He was a much loved and respected musician and manager of the Eureka Brass Band continuously from 1947 to 1960. Red Clark was a collector of musical scores and deserves credit as a preserver of the traditions of early New Orleans marching bands. He recorded with the Eureka in 1951.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

CLEMENTS, Octave “Big Belly Fob” - Trombone
?: New Orleans ?
A cousin to Isadore Barbarin. He is mentioned by Danny Barker in A Life In Jazz as one of the extended family of Barbarin-related musicians. Feel free to come to your own conclusions as to the significance of his nickname.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

CORNISH, Willie - Trombone
1875, Aug 1: New Orleans 1942, Jan 11
An early jazz pioneer and veteran of the Spanish-American War 181 , who played with Buddy Bolden, around 1894. He was replaced by Frankie Duson about 1903. Afterwards he played almost exclusively in brass bands, joining the Eureka Brass Band soon after it was founded. He tried to join the WPA band during the Depression but failed the reading test, whereupon he quit the musicians union, telling the officials: “ KMA” (believed to refer to an invitation to osculate his posterior). In 1931 he suffered a stroke whilst parading with the Eureka and was paralysed down his left side. By devising a strap to hold his trombone he managed to continue playing for a while but his last years were spent in poverty. He is said to have been a rough, strong player using a bottle as a mute, and with a poorer ear than Duson. But Don Marquis, In Search of Buddy Bolden, reveals that he worked as a piano tuner, which rather tends to contradict this. Albert Warner said that he was a poor reader which may have led to the confusion. It is a pity, and something of a mystery, that the pioneering researchers like Bill Russell and company did not interview Cornish more extensively when they made their first trips to New Orleans. Willie died disillusioned with music and gave instructions to his wife that he did not want music at his funeral.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

CRAIS, William J. “Bill” - Trombone
1927, Jun 20: New Orleans 1986, May 26
Bill Crais ran the Vieux Carré Record Shop on Bourbon and St. Peter, and was a popular Dixielander who played in the 1950s and early -60s with Pete Fountain, and Sharkey, also Al Hirt. Bill Crais played with Sharkey on his last performance at Mardi Gras in 1972. Bill and his wife Mina Lee Crais were good friends of Ken Colyer on his first visit to New Orleans. Mina was then a librarian and came from Wisconsin, moving to New Orleans in 1950.. With Bill she edited Mecca - “The Magazine of Traditional Jazz", better printed and produced than most, but like so many of the others it only ran to a few issues in 1974. She still turns up at jazz functions in New Orleans. In 1997 she gave me some copies of Mecca and a number of Bill’s snaps of Ken.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

CRAWFORD, James Jr. “Sugar Boy” - Piano, trombone; baritone horn; vocals
1934, Oct 12: New Orleans
That is the sum total (bit of a redundancy there, and a trifle tautologous!) of what I know about this cat. Late news: see Davell Crawford. Later still: I find that he is mentioned as “the legendary R&B singer, and leader of the Cha-Paka-Shaws”. So there! However, since I discovered there are eight pages of IHYK devoted to him I am able to pass on what I’ve learnt. He grew up on LaSalle Street and was taught piano at school, and also played drums. It was on piano though that he with a group of school friends caught the interest of a radio dj “Dr. Daddy-O” and a recording session ensued. My source, however, refers to them as Chapaka Shawee. Sugar Boy had his greatest hit in 1954 with the song “Jock-A-Mo” that has been much recorded by a whole gang of artists. In 1963 during a civil liberties freedom march the police in Monroe, Louisiana pulled him out of his car on a phoney speeding charge and beat him near to death: he was paralysed for over a year. Amazingly, in a cover up, the police charged him with drunken driving in a blatant example of Jim Crow “justice”. He tried a comeback eventually but became resigned to his lack of success and since 1969 restricted himself to singing in church.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

CRAWFORD, Paul R. - Trombone; bass; tuba
1925, Feb 16: Atmore, AL 1996, Jul 30
He began playing traditional jazz in the 1950s having moved to New Orleans in 1951 after studying music at the Eastman Conservatory, New York, although he had played jazz earlier whilst a graduate student at the University of Alabama. Paul began in the late-1950s with the Lakefront Loungers and in the 1960s was co-leader of the Crawford-Ferguson Night Owls. Some of his earliest experience in New Orleans was with the non-paying jam sessions held at the New Orleans Jazz Club. Other early jobs, this time paid, were a week with Sharkey, and a six-week tour with Doc Evans. Recorded: New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra with Orange Kellin. Appeared periodically with Punch Miller at Preservation Hall, and toured Europe with the Olympia Band. Also recorded with the Eureka Brass Band, alongside Jim Robinson, in 1969, at the Newport Jazz Festival (Louis Armstrong did the vocal on “Just A Closer Walk”) .He helped to prepare the jazz archive at Tulane University as associate curator, and was in the “One Mo’ Time” orchestra on baritone horn. Played tuba in the 1980s at the Court of Two Sisters with George Finola. He was resident for years on the steamer President, and occasionally playing gigs through the 1980s, trombonist with the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra from its founding in 1967, and active on the Brass Band scene playing regularly with Dejan’s Olympia Band. Crawford also recorded with Pud Brown, the Raspberry Ragtimers, and Doc

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

CROMBIE, Alonzo - Drums; trombone
c1895: New Orleans
He played with the Norman Brownlee Orchestra (pictured on page 158 of R&S around 1921) and with Emmett Hardy in the post-WW1 period.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

DEICHMAN, Benny - Trombone
1893: New Orleans 1939, Jan 13
A pioneer Dixielander who played with Papa Laine, and the Barocco brothers band. He also played on the lake steamer Susquehanna. His brother Charles, born October 12th, 1894 and died 1927, who played cornet and violin was a bandleader prior to WW1. Charlie’s Moonlight Serenaders (not to be confused with the Augustin / Piron outfit) were the house band at the Tudor Theatre. He was a concert-trained musician but was low-down enough to have had a Dixieland band in New York almost at the same time as the Original Dixieland Jazz Band.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

DELANEY, Jack - Trombone
1930, Aug 27: New Orleans 1975, Sep 22
Jack was first taught to play by Johnny Wiggs. He later played with the Tony Almerico and Sharkey bands in the 1950s. He was with Leon Kellner’s Orchestra in the Roosevelt Hotel during the 60s, and subsequently with Pete Fountain. In December 1952 he recorded with Ken Colyer.

In the mid 50s he made a number of recordings accompanying Lizzie Miles, and in 1954 did a vocal on a group led by Johnny St. Cyr and recorded by Joe Mares. He is pictured on the centrefold of Footnote vol. 8-4 with Mares and a group including Miles, Sharkey, Monk Hazel etc. (By the way, that is Lizzie Miles, of course, not Miles Davis. I don’t think he ever recorded on the Mares “Southland” label.) (See also Roy Palmer entry.)

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

DELISLE, Baptiste - Alto horn; trombone
c1868 204 : New Orleans c1920
He is known to have been a member of the Onward Brass Band around 1890, and with John Robichaux in 1894. When the entire Onward Brass Band enlisted for the Spanish-American War of 1898, Baptiste went too. He was discharged in 1899, having had a complete mental breakdown, and was committed to an institution. After a long illness, he rejoined Robichaux in 1905, playing better than ever. He was said to be one of the first to switch from valve to slide trombone. Pictured on page 180 of R&S. Also listed there in the personnel of the Excelsior Brass Band although, curiously, this accomplishment is not mentioned in the main entry for Baptiste. Marquis lists him among the Buddy Bolden personnel, probably in the post-war period.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

DEMOND, Frank - Trombone; banjo
1933, Apr 3: Los Angeles, CA
One of the earliest “Revival” musicians to become a fixture at Preservation Hall. Got the taste for jazz on hearing Kid Ory in the 1940s. Played on the West Coast with the South Frisco Jazz Band in the 1960s before a first visit to New Orleans late in that decade, and moving permanently in 1974. Originally he copied Jim Robinson’s style and mannerisms before developing his own style. He replaced him when Jim fell mortally ill on tour in 1976 with the Preservation Hall Band. Played and toured with the Percy Humphrey Band, and also toured with another Preservation Hall group (Ernie Cagnolatti, Manny Crusto, Louis Barbarin, Narvin Kimball, Sing Miller) in 1977. Started the Smokey Mary record label, 1974, named after the atmospherically-challenging train that once ran from New Orleans to Milneburg. Joe Darensbourg recalled working with him “......way back .… he played banjo then”.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

The only member of the Preservation Hall band who was not born and raised in New Orleans, Demond developed his love for New Orleans Jazz  from far away in the American west. In the early forties, after hearing the legendary trombonist Kid Ory, he sought out New Orleans musicians who had settled in the Los Angeles area; the banjo master Johnny St. Cyr, who had played with Louis Armstrong and his predecessor King Oliver, pianist Alton Purnell, who had  been born in the building that would become Preservation Hall, and the great George Lewis, an eventual fixture at the Hall, frequently visited and jammed at his family's home. An encounter during his college years with Jim Robinson persuaded him to switch from banjo to trombone as his main instrument. Ory and Robinson have remained his inspirations -- and through Robinson Frank became friendly with the early Preservation Hall Band during its tours to California. While visiting New Orleans in 1965 Frank was invited to sit in with the group; the experience inspired him to move to the city in the late sixties. Because Robinson held the trombone chair, Frank mainly played banjo with them, though he did play trombone with assorted parade bands between dates at Preservation Hall. When asked how he knew he was a permanent member of  the band , Frank replied “No one ever told me to go home!” For a while he also ran his own  record label,  Smoky Mary Phonograph Company, for which he supervised recordings by Kid Thomas, Albert Burbank, Sweet Emma Barrett, and other giants. When Jim Robinson passed away in 1976, Frank took his place in the front line at Preservation Hall, though ten years would pass before he would play the horn that Robinson had bequeathed to him. Frank and his wife Christie now divide their time between New Orleans and southern California, but his ties to New Orleans are deep, and as the senior member of the Preservation Hall Band he has become an important part of its legacy as well.  

"I must have played 'Just A Closer Walk With Thee' a thousand times before I went to New Orleans. But when you play it there with a brass , at a graveyard, and there's a casket going down, it becomes a whole different experience. The whole city is like that: Everything -- the birds, the automobiles -- have a musical tinge. Going to New Orleans for the first time was like going from spring training with a high school team right to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the middle of a World Series."  

"Billie Pierce used to say to DeDe, 'Play it pretty for the people.' That's the way our music is. You give it to the people, and the people give back. The listener, the musician, and the music become one. It's effortless, a great communion. And each time it happens, it's a miracle. I can feel the hair stand up on my arms right now, just thinking about it."

Source: www.preservationhall.com

DE PARIS, Wilbur - Trombone; alto horn
1900, Jan 11: Crawfordsville, IN 1973, Jan 3
Sidney and Wilbur De Paris’s father was a musician and bandleader, and taught his sons. Wilbur started out in his father’s circus band on the T.O.B.A. circuit. In 1922 they visited New Orleans and Wilbur recalled, in a Tulane jazz archive oral history interview, playing on C-melody sax with Louis Armstrong, and also working with A J Piron. In the intervening years he played with many prominent groups, and toured Europe with Noble Sissle in 1931, before playing with Armstrong again from 1937 to 1940. He recorded with Sidney Bechet in the mid to late 40s. From 1951 to 1962 he was at Ryan’s in New York, with brother Sidney and the late, great Omer Simeon; also Zutty Singleton. Wilbur, who was extremely “correct” in both dress and speech, neither smoked nor drank and between sets at the original Ryan’s 206 would sit at a table drinking water.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

DUHE, Gil (Duhé) - Valve trombone
c1895?: LaPlace / Reserve area? ?
Uncle of the Hall brothers. Played with the Dejan Alexander band before Dejan drowned in 1915. The band continued as the Lawrence Duhé Orchestra. Since Lawrence Duhé is known to have been another relative of the Hall brothers presumably all these Duhé’s were related. Gil left the band, and the country, some time around 1917, and was replaced by Paul Ben. Lawrence Duhé’s brothers were all in the Duhé Brothers Band c1911, playing blues and hot numbers. I must try to avoid being self-congratulatory but this is another musician who fails to get a mention in R&S.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

DUSON, Frank “Frankie” (DUSEN) - Trombone
1881, Algiers, LA 1936, Apr 1
A slow reader but he had good ear. He replaced Willy Cornish with Buddy Bolden in the early 1900s, and then took over in 1907 after Bolden went insane. He called the group The Eagle Band with Bunk Johnson as lead horn. Frank later went with Buddy Petit and Wade Whaley to join Jelly Roll Morton in Los Angeles but he returned to New Orleans after falling out with Morton on account of Jelly Roll making mock of their unfashionable dress and habits. Played on the S.S. Capitol with Fate Marable but his slow reading caused him to be replaced by Bebé Ridgely. Paraded with the Excelsior Brass Band. Led his own band in cabarets and at Thom’s Roadhouse, and also occasionally played with Louis Dumaine. He remained active musically until the mid-30s although he was partially-sighted. Married to Lila, Gus Fontenette’s aunt, who played piano. Sadly, he is reported to have died in poverty like so many others. Had he lived another decade or so what an addition he would have made to the revival of New Orleans jazz!

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

Frankie Dusen became the trombonist in Buddy Bolden's band in 1906 and took over the group after Bolden became mentally deranged in 1907. He re-named the group the Eagle Band after the Eagle Saloon at Perdido and South Rampart Street in the Storyville district. They were a hot, hard drinking outfit and they were quite popular in New Orleans up until around 1917. It is said that they played the same songs in the same style as when Bolden was the bandleader. Cornetist Tig Chambers replaced Bolden in 1907 and in 1910 Bunk Johnson replaced Chambers until around 1914 when Buddy Petit replaced him. Many up and coming Jazz musicians passed through the band including Bill Johnson, Baby Dodds, Pops Foster, Ed Garland, and a teenager named Sidney Bechet occasionally played with the group. In 1917 Dusen, Buddy Petit, and Wade Whaley went to Los Angeles to join Jelly Roll Morton at Baron Long's night club in Watts. When they arrived Morton ridiculed them so much for their down home clothes and ways, that Dusen and Petit soon returned to New Orleans, angry, and swearing to kill Morton if he ever returned to the city. Wadley stayed on and went on to play with Kid Ory. Ironically, Morton's verse about Dusen in his 1939 recording of Buddy Bolden's Blues has given Dusen a touch of immortality, but it doesn't paint a very flattering picture of him. The lyrics are as follows:

Thought I heard Frankie Dusen shout
Gal give me the money or I'm gonna beat it out
I mean the money like I explain you, I'm gonna beat it out
Cause I heard Frankie Dusen say

Dusen started another band when he returned to the city. In 1918 he played with the band on the riverboat S.S. Capitol. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s he played occassionally with Louis Dumaine's Orchestra. and he recieved money from the WPA during the Depression. As with Buddy Bolden, we have no recordings of Frankie Dusen.

Thanks to Bruce Harris (the grandson of Frankie Dusen Jr.) for the photo!

www.redhotjazz.com

DUTREY, Honoré “Nora” - Trombone
1894 225 : New Orleans 1935, Jul 21
Started in the Melrose Brass Band at 17 with Joe Oliver. Worked with his brother Sam in the Silver Leaf Orchestra; also with the Noone-Petit Orchestra, 1913. His lungs were injured in an accident onboard a ship in WW1. Joined King Oliver in Chicago, 1919-1924. Also worked in the late 20s with Carroll Dickerson, Johnny Dodds and Louis Armstrong. He was forced to retire in 1930 due to ill-health. Recorded: King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band 1923. (Possibly) Johnny Dodds’ Black Bottom Stompers, ‘27. Dodds’ Washboard Band, ‘28, Richard M Jones & his Jazz Wizards, 1928 and Johnny Dodds’ Orchestra, 1929. When New Orleans trombonists get discussed the names of Kid Ory, Louis Nelson, Jim Robinson and Earl Humphrey come to mind but for me Dutrey’s fluent ensemble work in that unique legato style and his supple soloing is the equal to any. Much underrated and almost the forgotten man of jazz.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

In 1910 Honore Dutrey started playing trombone with various bands in New Orleans, including Jimmie Noone's band. In 1917 he joined the navy and was involved in an accident that permanently damaged his lungs causing him to suffer from asthma, which eventually took his life. During the years 1920 to 1924, he played trombone in Chicago with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Carrol Dickerson's Orchestra, Johnny Dodds band, and Louis Armstrong's Stompers at the Sunset Cafe.

www.redhotjazz.com

EBBERT, Tom - Trombone
1919, Sep 9: Pittsburgh, PA
He is mentioned in R&S as a member of Connie Jones’s band, and a founder member of the Louisiana Repertory Jazz Ensemble, with whom he recorded in 1986. Pictured on page 57 of New Orleans Jazz Fest - A Pictorial History. He first came to New Orleans with Roy Liberto’s Band in 1967. Apart from a short sojourn at Las Vegas he has remained ever since. Tom studied piano and violin, and before working with Liberto was on the road with a number of bands. Whilst lined up for the 1994 French Quarter Festival parade he collapsed before the “off” .Later, however, he was seen by me blowing gustily with another group (which included Jacques Gauthé and Bob Helm), hence the unkind suggestion that he got paid under union rules for lining up, but didn’t march! He has played with the Dukes of Dixieland and Wallace Davenport. In 1995 he was in action again at the French Quarter Festival. He played with the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra alongside Ferbos, Edegran and company in 1996 at Jazz Fest. Seen by me still playing in Apr. 2001.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

EDWARDS, Edwin Branford “Eddie” “Daddy” - Trombone
1891, May 22: New Orleans 1963, Apr 9
Originally played violin from the age of ten but took up trombone when he was fifteen. Began with local brass bands, and worked briefly with Stein’s Dixie Jass Band, around 1910, before becoming a founder member of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1916. Apart from a spell with Jimmy , he remained with them until 1925, when he left music but returned to a revival of the ODJB in 1936. He is credited with composing “Fidgety Feet", “Original Dixieland One-Step”, and “Tiger Rag” - although Morton, and others, disputed the claim to “Tiger Rag”.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

EDWARDS, Willie - Cornet; trumpet; trombone
c1895: New Orleans ?
When he was with A J Piron’s Orchestra in 1920 he was described as a young cornet player and accordingly Pete Bocage switched to trombone. Richard Knowles’ Fallen Heroes has a picture of Willie with Piron at the Maison Blanche Department Store on Canal Street in 1919. Since Bocage was born in 1887 the description “young” might conceivably make Willie’s birth around 1895. Bocage recalled in an interview with Bill Russell and Dick Allen that Willie Edwards lived uptown with Jack Carey. He wasn’t a hot player but he read pretty good, it was said. Sonny Henry remembered him with the Tuxedo Brass Band in its early days - around 1915 is my estimate. Bocage also recalled that Edwards moved away from New Orleans in the early-1920s

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

EUGENE, Homer Anthony - Trombone; sax; banjo: guitar
1914, Jun 16: New Orleans 1998, Jun 7
Brother of Wendell, and nephew of Albert Burbank, Paul & Louis Barbarin, and Danny Barker. Louis Armstrong called him “Jamaica”. Took banjo lessons when he was 12 from John Marrero. His first professional job was with Kid Howard in 1931. Around 1933 he played with Octave Crosby at the Dog House on Rampart and Bienville, and later replaced René Hall with Sidney Desvigne. He was also in the Lucky Millinder Big Band on trombone after WW2, then had a long spell with Herbert Leary. Played on the famous Riverside sessions with Kid Thomas and Peter Bocage’s Creole Serenaders both in 1961. Also, appeared with the Barnes-Bocage Big Five; and the Young Tuxedo Brass Band; plus the Kid Howard La Vida Band, 1961 (replacing Manny Sayles on some tracks). He replaced Worthia “Showboy” Thomas in the Kid Thomas band, 1976. Taught Lionel Ferbos to play guitar. Retired some time around 1980 due to a stroke. His death was first reported on the Internet by Mike Owen. Someone called Adrian M. Eugene Jr. is listed in the 1965 AFM Local 496 membership directory a trombone player. Relationship unknown.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

EUGENE, Wendell - Trombone
1923, Oct 12: New Orleans
Nephew of Albert Burbank and Paul Barbarin, etc. His first job was with Kid Howard, 1938. He also played with Papa Celestin, and George Lewis. Pictured on page 10 of Footnote volume 18-3 in 1953 with Laurence Marrero, Thomas Jefferson, Clem Tervalon, Percy Humphrey, and Jim Robinson. He toured with the orchestras of Lucky Millinder and Buddy Johnson. In the 70s he was with the Dukes of Dixieland, alongside Don Ewell. Recorded: Papa French New Orleans Jazz Band, 1965. Dukes of Dixieland, 1970; Kid Simmons’ New Orleans Band 1991; and the Young Tuxedo Brass Band, etc. Appeared in a Chris Burke group that played for the Ken Colyer Trust in New Orleans, 1995, playing excellently. A nephew, Adrian Eugene, played in a brass band organised by Oscar Rouzan in the 1960s, and recorded with the Olympia Brass Band, 1992.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

EVANS, Paul Anderson “Stump” - Alto & baritone sax; trombone
1904, Oct 18: Lawrence, KS 233 1928, Aug 29
Never got anywhere near to New Orleans as far as I’m aware and he was mistakenly known by me in my youth as “Stomp", but he did play for King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band in 1923 and again with Joe Oliver in the Dixie Syncopaters in 1926. (His work on Oliver’s “Krooked Blues” is outstanding.) He also recorded for Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers in 1927, so quit beefing. It is said that he was taught by his father. He also worked with Erskine Tate, and Jimmy Wade, before he went down with tuberculosis. Stump Evans sure packed a lot into a few years for a little guy. I still like “Stomp” however.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

EWING, John “Streamline” - Trombone
1917, Jan 19: Topeka, KS
On the recording of the then current Eagle Brass Band in Los Angeles, 1983 alongside UCLA student Alex Iles (a replacement for Louis Nelson who was unavailable). Session photographs show that Alex was a young white musician whereas John was a mature black guy, much the same age as the rest (Joe Darensbourg, Herbert Permillion, Sam Lee etc.) - however, the session recording notes omit to mention any other details, apart from his nickname. However, on a hunch I looked in Joe Darensbourg’s Jazz Odyssey and found two fleeting references to him under “Streamline”. He recorded with Joe at about the time of the success of Joe’s “Yellow Dog Blues”, and they later worked together occasionally at Disneyland in 1966. His varied career is fully covered in the NGDJ: go buy a copy!

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

FILHE, George (a.k.a. Fields) - Trombone
1872, Nov 13: New Orleans 1954
Started with the Coustaut-Desdunes Orchestra, in 1892. Played for eighteen years with the Onward Brass Band, 1893-1911. He also appeared with: the Peerless Orchestra, around 1903-1904; and the Imperial Orchestra, 1905. Sonny Henry said that George Filhe gave him lesson when Sonny arrived in New Orleans about 1913. Later, that year, after several years playing in Storyville, Filhe went to Chicago. In the early 20s he worked with King Oliver, Manuel Perez, Sidney Bechet and Lawrence Duhé. In the late 20s he played in a pit orchestra led by Dave Peyton. He retired at the beginning of the Depression.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

FONTENETTE, Gustave “Gus” (FORTINET) - Trombone; violin; etc.
1888, Dec 15: New Iberia, LA 1967
Gus Fontenette, a multi-instrumentalist, led the nine-piece Banner Band, a dance and jazz band active in the Crowley and New Iberia regions of Louisiana, from 1908 to 1930, having studied music as a child. His father was something of a musician too, and Gus was playing professionally in his early teens. He often had Bunk, Evan Thomas, Joe Avery, Lawrence Duhé, Chester Zardis, etc. in his group. However, in view of the insecurities of music, Gus spent most of his life following his father’s profession of a barber, and only played music part-time. It seems that the Evan Thomas Black Eagle group was interchangeable with the Fontenette outfit when work was slack. Gus’s daughter Mercedes played piano in the Banner and married Harold Potier, and supposedly her sister Maude, according to Christopher Hillman, married Bunk (but see above). Frank Dusen’s wife, Lila, was Gus’s aunt. Ferdinand Fortinet, (violin) is listed in SBC as playing along with Paul Beaullieu in the Crescent City Orchestra. No connection known, though. Mercedes said in an interview with Austin Sonnier that her father used a wooden mute and blew so hard blisters came up on his horn, and sax player Glossey Roy with the Banner band used to kid him about it. However, I think the blisters are apocryphal. Gus’s wife, Jenny was said by their son John to have been of Latin and Indian extraction and was from Algiers, and a first cousin of Leonard Bocage. Gus “Bubba” Fontenette Jr. played alto and appeared with the Guitar Slim Band in the Swing era.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

FORTUNEA, Boo Boo - Trombone
? ?
“The only man playing a slide trombone at that time .….. the first ragtime jazz band I heard” said Alphonse Picou. Apart from that intriguing piece of oral history, nothing else is known.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

FRENCH, Maurice (Morris) - Trombone
c1890: LaPlace, LA ?
One of the great pre-WW1 virtuosi. He played with Kid Rena in the early 20s; and with the Lyons Brass Band, between 1928 and 1930. Louis Armstrong mentions him as a member of the band Louis formed with Joe Lindsey.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

GALLATY, Bill Sr. - Valve trombone
1880, Nov 9: New Orleans 1943, Sep 29
The outstanding player of the Reliance Brass Band. Papa Laine described him as the greatest of all trombonists. He led his own band before WW1. His son, Bill Gallaty, Jr., born 1910, played trumpet and worked with Santa Pecora. Bill Jr. recorded with Ray Burke in a group called the DandyInn Five in New Orleans in 1939.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

GASPARD, Vic - Trombone; bass horn
1875, Apr 14: New Orleans 1957, Apr 27
Vic Gaspard studied music under Professor Piron, Armand’s father, and had trombone lessons from George Filhe of the Onward Brass Band. Vic played with the Onward until 1910, and was also in the Peerless Orchestra. He sometimes paraded with the Excelsior Brass Band. Played with John Robichaux between 1913 and 1917, and also from 1926-30. Co-leader, with Oak, of the Maple Leaf Orchestra. Rust lists him (Octave Gaspard) as recording with Lillian Glinn (a vocalist) in 1927 in Dallas., and probably again in 1929 247 . Retired from music at the start of the Depression.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

GIBBS, Frank - Trombone
?: Port Arthur, TX
Originally from Texas, Frank Gibbs was a much admired trombonist whose skills on the instrument were spoken of with superlatives in New Orleans. He played with a Billie and DeDe Pierce group including George Lewis, that was hired at the Club Playtime in Bunkie, Louisiana in 1939 (see Tom Bethell’s George Lewis, page 119). Nothing else known, unfortunately.

GIBSON The Gibson Brass Band - or more properly the E. Gibson Brass Band - was formed in 1946 by the previous members of the Jimmy Jackson Brass Band. However, Jimmy Jackson was not a player but merely conducted them. (Wait, it gets better!) Thinking it better to elect their own manager the musicians reformed and chose Alphonse Spears for the position. The name E. Gibson came about because no-one in the band had that name and thus if the leadership changed the band’s name would survive. Only in New Orleans! Jim Holmes reported that in 1961 their line-up was Eddie Richardson & Sammy Williams trumpets; Alphonse Spears alto; Robert Davis tenor sax; Carl Blunt trombone; George Sterling snare; Dave Bailey bass drum.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

GORDON, Wycliffe - Trombone
5/29/1967

See website: www.wycliffegordon.com

HARRIS, Joe - Trombone
1909: St. James Parish, LA ?
Moved to New Orleans around the year 1917. He was a New Orleans bandleader of the 1920s: the Joe Harris Dixieland Band. According to Charters the trumpet player was Harry Venet. Baptiste Mosely, Edgar Moseley’s brother, got his first job with Joe Harris around 1924. I am unable to say whether or not there is any relationship between any of the Harris’s.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

HARTMANN, Charles - Trombone
1898, Jul 1: New Orleans ?
Secretary of the (white) local musician’s union for many years. He played with Johnny Bayersdorffer, and also with Tony Parenti, and Johnny Hyman (better known to most of us as Johnny Wiggs). Brother of George Hartman, according to Len Page (Footnote volume 17-2 p.16) soperhaps the difference in spelling is an R&S typographical error.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

HEAD, Sam - Trombone
?
Played trombone with Wingy Mannone, also with Preacher Rollo, and Armand Hug. Nothing else known at present.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

HENRY, Charles “Sonny” (Sonny) - Trombone
1885, 17 Nov: Magnolia Plantation, LA 1960, 7 Jan
He began at 17 on cornet with the Eclipse Brass Band under Jim Humphrey. Started to play trombone and moved to New Orleans in 1913. Played in the Excelsior Brass Band and Hippolyte Charles’ dance band until 1920. He was a friend of Jim Robinson and helped him with his reading.Sonny worked with both Amos White and John Robichaux. During the 30s he was lead trombone in the WPA band under Louis Dumaine. Joined theYoung Tuxedo Brass Band in the 40s and stayed until 1947, when he switched to the Eureka Brass Band and played with them until his death. Although somewhat moody - possibly on account of his stammer - he was one of the best-liked musicians in New Orleans. Recorded with the Eureka Brass Band in 1954-56. Sonny missed out on a small group recording session with Willie Pajeaud, Ray Burke, and Danny Barker, etc. because a visitor called just as Sonny was about to leave and he was too polite to cut the visit short. His brother, Willie Henry, played alto horn with the Eclipse Brass Band: in fact Sonny started out by playing his brother’s instrument whilst he was out working in the fields. Sonny Henry also had a brother-in-law, Effie (FE?) Jones, (q.v.) who played cornet 281 . Jones apparently led the band when Jim Humphrey wasn’t there.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

THE HEAVYWEIGHTS OF THE STREETS

Some notes on Albert Warner, Sunny Henry and Chicken Henry

'I like to play with Sunny Henry and with Albert Warner, because they play their parts, they did not steal the other man's part and did not try to show off, as some of the others do.' (Eddie Summers)

This article is a 'tribute' to the great trombone players who helped make the sound of the great Eureka Brass Band.

CHARLES 'SONNY' HENRY

'It is difficult to think of the Eureka without thinking of Sonny...Two of the choruses that Sonny and Albert worked out, their chorus on "Lord,Lord, Lord" and on "Panama" were almost standard with some of the brass band men, and sometimes younger players would stand around trying to follow the notes, moving their trombone slide along with the music... Because he was a tall man, with a stern, dignified face, strangers usually approached him a little cautiously. He spoke with a stammer too, so he often seemed to bluster at other musiains, but they had learned to pay little attention to his moods, and he was one of the best liked brass band men in New Orleans.' (Sonny Henry - An appreciation, S.B. Charters - Eureka Magazine, Volume 1 Number 3, May/June 1960)

Magnolia Plantation

I was born on November 17, 1885 on Magnolia Plantation, they used to call it Lawrence Post Office and Govenor H.C. Wallace Plantation. My brother played alto in the band, the Magnolia band, called it the Eclipse Band. I was a kid going to school, but him he was in the fields and every day I used to grab hold of his alto and play it. And one day he'd come jump on me. And so what he did , he took his mouthpiece in the field. And so my brother in law, Effie Jones, he was a cornet player at that time and I used to go there and play his horn. That's how I was starting playing. And he took the trumpet away and then I didn't have a thing to play. And so I told my father about it and so he said : 'You go to the store and you tell the storekeeper to go ahead and get you a trumpet.' I told the storekeeper and he said 'Okay, Henry, I'll have it here for you tonight.' And that train came that night and I took it and went home and 'til three o'clock in the morning I was playing the trumpet. My daddy told me, 'Listen here, I got to go to work and you're going to school. But now you put that thing down.' But in the day when they gone out, I'd play!
I must have been around fifteen years old or so.
I didn't go no further to school than the seventh grade. At that time you know, it ain't like it is now, but the seventh grade in them times was work. The school used to be down there on the plantation. It was a big plantation in those days, we used to raise sugar cane.
Bands from New Orleans didn't come to Magnolia, but they used to go down on excursions. But I remember that Pacific Band from Algiers would come down there. They didn't have much dances down there. If they would, the brass band down there would take charge.
The band used to parade only on Sunday, because the men had to work the rest of the week, sun up, sun down. We used to go to a place called Woodland, to St Sophie and to Dear Range. They had funerals, but it wasn't often. At the plantation, we had a society, The Morning Light. There were about two or three hundred people on the plantation. There was just one church. It was called the Macedonia Baptist Church.

Professor Jim Humphrey

They used to have a good band there. Jim Humphrey used to come down there and teach the boys. Jim Humphrey used to come with the six o'clock in the evening train, stay all night and leave with the eight o'clock train in the morning. There were sixteen pieces in that band. Effie Jones, John Anderson, Pierre Anderson and Harrison Barnes were on trumpet, Thomas and Alfred Barnes were on clarinet. They Harrison's brothers. Harrison Barnes is a good musicianer, he came up a little after me. My brother, Willie Henry played alto. Ybo was the other alto player. On baritone you had Freddy Barnes. My cousin, Wright Reddick played the tuba. Jim McGinnis was the snare drummer. And my other cousin, Robert Reddick played the bass drum. They didn't have no wire beater like Son Lewis uses now. They had two cymbals. They had one on the drums and the other cymbal would beat on top of it. they didn't have no ring like they got to beat now. When Jim Humphrey wasn't there, my brother-in-law, Effie Jones, was the leader of the band.
Of course, me, I'd get right in the window there. Jim Humphrey used to show them fellows everything. Then, when Jim Humphrey was gone, I could go there and show them everything what Jim Humphrey had showed them. And after that, I got in the band. Well, after I growed a little more older, they wanted me in the band.
They had only one trombone player, valve trombone, played by a man called Musterfer Johnson. And so, they wanted him to change, they wanted him to take E-flat trumpet. He told them he would take that if they would give me the trombone, because he knew I would make that. So, they gave me the trombone. And then Jim Humphrey came there then, that night and he said 'Where you get him from?' so my brother said, 'That's my brother. That's that little fella used to be in the window all the time.' Jim Humphrey said 'I'm going to see what he know.' The first piece he brought was 'Whislin' Rufus'. And let me tell you, he jumped on me and said 'Comment ça va…' I don't know what he said in French, but he said 'Go on down, let me see.' And I played the whole thing. And then Jim Humphrey told the boys, 'Now look here, that young boy done come in here and look what he did. You fellas been around here for years and he did come in and beat all of you.'
The first way Jim Humphrey would do, he would get the band on its feet and then he would come in with his trumpet and then, he'd get them all straight first, you see. But the first thing he would, that battery, that's the first thing he would do, that's the bass and trombone and the drum and everything. Because that battery, that's the foundation of the band, you see. And so, when he got that straight, then after that the trumpets. And when he got that straight, he'd say 'Come on, let's go, everybody.' The way he taught the boys, I think was the right way.
Jim Humphrey came out there twice a week sometimes.
Humphrey used to write out some things for the band, little light stuff. When I got in the band, I used to write to H.N. White in Cleveland, Ohio for that music and he used to send me samples. And I used to go around the boys and show 'em all their parts. One time, I never will forget it, we had a piece called 'Greater Pittsburgh March' in split time (2/4). And every time he'd come down, the band used to be out there and meet him at the train. And so, we went there one evening with that piece. He turned and looked around when he got it and he said, 'I didn't give you that! Y'all done get y'all another teacher!' Effie, my brother-in-law told him it was 'that little fellow in the window' who had showed them that music.

New Orleans

I came to the city around 1913 or 1914, something like that, before the war, the First World War. It must have been before the 'Big Storm'. The Big Storm was in 1915. When I came here, I played a little with Amos Riley. Riley led the Tulane Brass Band.
George Fihlé showed me the positions on my trombone. I knew the valve trombone already, but not the slide. Course, I had a book for it, but I wanted to be perfect on it. I wanted to know exactly what I was doing. And I was living back at 2315 Orleans Street and George Fihlé was living in the twentieth block of Orleans Street. And so, I went to there and George showed me and he charged me $0.75 for about twenty minutes. And I went to him twice and he showed me the positions.
Well, I hadn't joined no band at all, but they used to come and get me sometimes. The first funeral I played was with the Excelsior Band. They came here one day to play and I didn't have no uniform, because I wasn't interested in playing, I was working, you see. Vic Gaspard came around with George Moret, they came to get me to play. I was back in the yard and my wife called, 'There are some musicianers out there they want to see you.' I told Vic Gaspard I didn't have no uniform. And he asked me if I could read and I told him I could. So he said Well, I don't want the uniform, I want the man!'
So I went with Vic. I got on the pieces, but I couldn't hardly walk, since it was my first time. I was playing, but I was a little afraid I was going to fall sometime. So Vic showed me the step. August Rousseau was the one who made me play first trombone. He was on me so tight, I had to get out of the way.
Vic Gaspard was good, he played trombone and baritone. And a fellow they called Georgie Hooker, he was pretty good. And this old man, he played baritone, Adolphe Alexander sr, he used to be good. Vic had a beautiful tone, he was so sweet. Let me tell you, that 'West Lawn Dirge', there ain't but one man that ever played that thing on the baritone like it should be played. He was the first one and the best one, that fella called John Porter. When he first got that piece, that man made everybody cry around the church. He had such expression, in the tone and when he'd hold them notes to the value, get off it so nice and smooth. It tore your heart out. Of course Manny paul, he plays nice, but the real baritone is nicer. Old Man Barbarin was good on alto horn. And then in Algiers, they had Joe Pyan. And a man called Flowers, he was good too. George McCullum was outstanding for trumpet solos. And this other fellow, he used to be pretty good too, Lionel Ferbos. Manuel Perez was a strong man on the trumpet. Joe Howard was an outstanding on bass horn too. Because he used to play trumpet.

Sonny Henry and Albert Warner (photo Alden Ashforth - courtesy Terry Dash and Footnote)

Tuxedo

Then, Celestin came for me and then I got in the Original Tuxedo and I stayed in that band until it went down. Ernest Trepagnier was on bass drum, Henry Martyn used to be on snare drum, Eddie Jackson on bass, Isidore Barbarin on alto, George Hooker on baritone, Bébé Ridgley on trombone, Louis Dumaine, Celestin and Willy Edwards on trumpet. Peter Bocage used to play with us too. Lorenzo Tio jr on clarinet. Johnny Dodds used to play clarinet with us too. He played B-flat clarinet. In that band, we all had to read. You couldn't play in that band if you couldn't read. Celestin used to bring the music.
Louis Armstrong left here, playing with us up on Colapissa Street, somewhere up there. He came in and told us Joe Oliver had sent for him and he was going. He was a sweet trumpet player, he could put in anything there.

Henry Allen sr

I played with Joe Oliver with the Henry Allen sr band across the river in Algiers. Old Man Allen had Buddy Johnson and also Yank Johnson. Course Buddy played with the Excelsior. Many times the Excelsior had a job and Buddy had to go with the Excelsior and he sent me to play with Allen. The band played strictly written music. See, Allen wasn't much, but he got good men to play. He paid you like he want. He paid one fellow one thing and the other fellow another. If he's a good man, he'd pay him good, and other fellows that didn't play so well, didn't get no money hardly. But me and him used to get along good.
His son, 'Red' came up playing with us in his daddy's band. He was just a little kid. He used to come there with an alto all the time. He had a little cap and come on in. Of course, we were trying to help him, we didn't care. And then he got a trumpet and he got a little band. Well, I played with him in his little band over in Algiers. I played with him a couple of times. It was a little dance band. I used to help him out. I used to look over his card and I used to play his part on my trombone. He was about four times better than the old man.

Well I played with any band that would come to hire me. If our band didn't have no job, I'd go and play with any of them. When I'd get a job, I didn't work, just lay off and go and play the job and the next day go back to work. When I first came to the city, I used to work for the Sewerage and Water Board. I used to be a flagman. I wouldn't get off that often because it would have made bad business. One day a week I used to get off like that, sometimes two.
I used to play with the Onward too. Manuel Perez had the Onward. I loved to play with them, all them good bands. But them bands where you got nothing but heads, I didn't fool with them. A long time ago, no I couldn't play nothing by ear. In the first place, because I didn't want that. I wanted to learn it the right way. And I always did love to read. Let me tell you : in the Excelsior, the Tuxedo and the Onward Band, you just had to know your stuff. Them people used to put them old heavy marches on you, and you had to jump. I also used to play some with the Terminal Brass Band, a band that Willie Parker used to play with.

WPA

When the Tuxedo went down, I went with the WPA band. Louis Dumaine was director at that time. Then after him they got another guy they called Pinchback. Pinchback had double crossed Louis Dumaine first. Later he himself was replaced by Old Man Martinez.
At the time Martinez joined the band, they had about twenty-five trombone players and Martinez looked all around and said, 'Well, I'm going to have an examination. All them can't make the grade, get a wheelbarrow.' That meant that they had to roll a wheelbarrow instead of playing to remain on the WPA payroll. And one day the old man came in with about fifty different pieces. And he said, 'Now listen, now the ones who can't make the grade, go get a wheelbarrow, because I can't use you!' He jumped on the trombones first. Out of the twenty-five trombones, he kept only four. Louis Nelson, Harrison Barnes, Oscar Henry and I. Them guys had been fooling around, they were just there to make the money. But the old man got in there and he made a band. He made them play overtures and everything.

Dance bands

Sam Charters mentions Sonny as an occasional member of the Chris Kelly Band.

I used to play with Wendell McNeal and Hyppolyte Charles. McNeal played violin. Old Man George, that's George Moret, used to play with us too. And Paul Beaulieu. We played strictly written music. All kinds of music, schottisches, waltzes, polkas, mazurkas and fox trot. We played the 'slow drag' too. That were just any slow blues. I used to play that 'Red Book', 'Maple Leaf', 'Frog Legs' and all them things from that book.'

The Family Album mentions that he played with Professor John Robichaux at the Lyric Theatre until 1927. And that for years, he worked in a taxi dance hall at Carondolet an Canal.

Charters gave the following personnel of the band Hypolyte Charles took into the Moulin Rouge in New Orleans in 1919 : Sonny Henry, Joe Welch, drums, Sam Dutrey, clarinet, Emile Bigard, violin and Camilla Todd, piano. During Piron's second New York tour, they replaced Piron at Tranchina's and they went into the New Orleans Country Club. The only change in personnel was Robert Hall who replaced Sam Dutrey. Hypolite Charles gave up playing in 1925.

'My band went into the Moulin Rouge which was opened by an ex-waiter at Tranchina's. I had the following musicians in my band who came from the Maple Leaf Band, Camilla Todd, Sam Dutrey and Henry Martin who had switched from drums to banjo. I added Sonny Henry on trombone and later Albert Glenny on string bass. Joe Welch was the drummer with the band. Red Dugas was the original drummer with my band, but some of the other members criticised his playing so much that he quit and so Welch came in. My band was also the first band to broadcast on the radio, WSMB, from New Orleans.
When Piron took his band to New York, we had been playing the dinner dances at the New Orleans Country Club and I took over the afternoon tea, although the people there insisted on strings only. I played a number, 'The Rosary', very softly on my cornet with Camilla 'Chick' Todd accompanying. After the number, the people seemed to go wild. We played at the New Orleans Country Club until my health forced me to quit playing altogether. The people who were attending these afternoon teas were old and very rich.' (Hypolite Charles Tulane interview)

Charters mentions that Sonny was playing with Amos White in 1923 at Spanish Fort, occasionally with Professor John Robichaux until 1927 and at the jitney with George McCullum, Eddie Jackson and Butler Gué Rapp on banjo. They played there for three or four years after 1926.
Charters stated that Amos White organised the New Orleans Creole Jazz Band with Red Dugie, drums, Barney Bigard, clarinet, Willie Willigan, second cornet, Sonny Henry, trombone, Wilhelmina Bart, piano and José Ysaguirre, bass.

Sonny Henry, Shorty Johnson and Harrison Barnes were all good readers. At the request of Armand Piron, I organised the Imperial Orchestra for the City of New Orleans. In it were such men as Barney Bigard, Jose Ysaguirre, Albert Nicholas, Sonny Henry, Willie Le Boeuf, Ethel Finney on piano and George Moret played second cornet for a while. We played for the circus acts in the park and at the pavillion for dancing. Across the way was Piron's Orchestra at Tranchina's Restaurant. I used eight pieces except on Sunday nights when I added tuba, besides the regular string bass and banjo, played by Charlie Bocage. Sometimes I would bring in a sax player from Texas, who was a mail carrier. The pay was good.' (Amos White)

In his book 'With Louis and the Duke', Barney Bigard only mentioned that "Meanwhile Amos White had landed a job playing a 'jitney' dance out at Spanish Fort. Lorenzo Tio was playing on the same nights as us at Tranchina's Restaurant at Spanish Fort. We would wind up before them each night so I would be able to go over to hear Tio play every night.'

The Eureka Brass Band May 1960 - Black Happy Goldtson(snr dms) Sunny Henry (tbn) Manny Paul (tnr sx) Albert Fernandez Walters (tpt) - Ernest Cagnolatti (tpt) John Handy (a sx) Chicken Henry (tbn) Fewclothes Lewis (bs dms) Red Clark (b bs) (photo Mona MacMurray collection

Eureka Brass Band

Albert Warner came for me to get in the Eureka. I didn't wanted it, but he insisted. That must have been about 1946 or 1947, I believe. My son, Bernell used to pick both Warner and me up with his automobile. See when they needed a bass player, they put Joe Clark on bass. Dominique Remy put Joe Clark on bass and said he wanted a trombone player. So Warner told them he wanted to play with me and convinced Remy and Clark.
Warner and I were the men who got Sheik in the Eureka. One day Sheik helped us out. We went on a job and we didn't have no trumpet player. We waited for the trumpet player, nobody didn't come. So Sheik held up the band the best he could. So that day Albert and I got together and we said 'Sheik gonna stay in the band because he did a favour for the band.'

A missed opportunity

'Because Sonny's playing was so much a part of the New Orleans tradition, it seemed important to record him with a smaller group. An informal session was set up with Willie Pajeaud to play trumpet, Ray Burke, clarinet, Danny Barker, banjo and guitar and a small rhythm section. The others came and played for three or four hours, but Sonny never arrived. The next day, he came to apologise. Someone had come to visit him that he didn't feel he could bring to the small party. The other person would not go home, so Sonny had sat there with him in his room, his trombone case out on the bed ready to take with him in case the other person had left. There was never again a chance to record him' (Sam Charters, Eureka Vol 1 N° 3 May/June 1960).

Charles Sonny Henry died in New Orleans on January 7, 1960.

Sources : Tulane Jazz Archive interviews with: Adolphe 'Tats' Alexander, Ricard Alexis, Louis Barbarin, Paul Barbarin, Peter Bocage, Ernie Cagnolatti, Jessie Charles, Louis Cottrell jr, Lionel Ferbos, Earl Humphrey, Willie E. and Willie J. Humphrey, Eddie Johnson, Alfred Williams, Charles Henry, Oscar Henry, Albert Warner

Magazines: FOOTNOTE, Jazzinformation, Downbeat, Basin Street, Storyville, The Second Line, Mississippi Rag, Eureka
Family Album, Rose and Souchon
Jazz New Orleans, Charters
The End Of The Beginning, Barry Martyn
Pops Foster
Jazzmen
Jazzmasters

Thanks to: Sue Hall, Mona MacMurray, Louis Nelson
I would like to thank the people from Tulane Jazz Archive in New Orleans, Alma Freeman - Williams and Dirk Van Tourenhout.
Bourbon Street Black, Jack V. Buerkle-Danny Barker
The Baby Dodds Story, as told to Larry Gara
Bill Russell's American Music
New Orleans Style, Bill Russell

The information came from thejazzgazette made by Marcel Joly and
Jempi de Donder

http://www.thejazzgazette.be/march2004.htm

HENRY, Clarence “Frogman” - Piano; trombone; vocals
??
In an interview Sonny Henry said that Effie Jones, John Anderson, Pierre Anderson, and Harrison Barnes all played trumpets at the Magnolia Plantation but I think it was more likely he meant cornets 1937, Mar 19: possibly LA Started out on trombone when he was sixteen, the family having moved to Algiers when he was eleven. Took formal piano lessons, and used to sneak into the Pepper Pot at Gretna to hear Professor Longhair. When he got out of high school he formed his own band. Paul Gayten, at that time an A&R man, signed him for the Chess label and he had a number of vocal hits. His career was in somewhat of a slack period when the Beatles chose him for an opening act on their 1964 tour of the States. He played five nights a week on Bourbon Street through the 1960s and 70s and became a perennial favourite at Jazz Fest.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

HENRY, Corey - Trombone
1976: New Orleans
The grandson of drummer Chester Jones. Tremé Brass Band leader Benny Jones is his uncle, and his father is Grand Marshal Oswald “Bo Monkey” Jones. Began playing drums in Jackson Square when he was but 10 encouraged by Tuba Fats. Played with the Tremé Brass Band, and the Little Rascals, also Derrick Shezbie in 1994, and Kermit Ruffins - with the latter’s band at Café Brasil as recently as October, 2000, on this latter occasion with one, Emile Vinette, on piano. 2002: leads the L’il Rascals, and plays with Kermit’s Barbecue Swingers.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

HENRY, Oscar Joseph “Chicken” - Trombone; piano
1888, Jun 8: New Orleans ?
When he was 10 his father bought him a piano and he had tuition for five years from Mrs Louise Edler, a French Opera House performer. In 1906 having learnt the plastering trade he pursued this profession all over the country, as well as Cuba and Panama, although in between times managed to perform as a bordello “professor", playing at Hattie Rogers’ sporting house in 1906. In 1920 someone gave him a trombone which Charlie Clay taught him to play in Detroit. Whilst playing second trombone with Charlie Elgar he studied theory and technique in Chicago. In 1923 he joined the Elks Concert Band in Chicago and toured with them in a carnival show. He left them in 1929 and subsequently joined a New Orleans large band, the Tonic Triad Band, in Hot Springs, Arkansas. On return to New Orleans he joined the WPA band and at this time began to be known as “Chick” or “Chicken Henry” because - true! - he knew all about chickens.. He sometimes worked with Kid Howard during the Depression days. In the early 1940s he became the alternate trombonist with Eureka Brass Band, filling in for Sonny Henry (no relation) or Albert Warner as required. When Sonny died in 1960, Chicken replaced him. Also played on occasion with most of the other brass bands. R&S claims he switched to trombone after burning his hand in an accident in 1931, but this would seem to be inaccurate. Chicken Henry played at Preservation Hall in the 1960s, and he recorded with the Eureka Brass Band 1960-69, and the Young Tuxedo Brass Band, 1960. R&S list both a Son Henry drums (no other details), and a Trigger Sam Henry, born New Orleans around 1875: one of the best Storyville Professors, 1898-1914, much admired by JellyRoll Morton.

Source: The Song For Me - Brian Wood

THE HEAVYWEIGHTS OF THE STREETS

Some notes on Albert Warner, Sunny Henry and Chicken Henry

'I like to play with Sunny Henry and with Albert Warner, because they play their parts, they did not steal the other man's part and did not try to show off, as some of the others do.' (Eddie Summers)

This article is a 'tribute' to the great trombone players who helped make the sound of the great Eureka Brass Band.

OSCAR 'CHICKEN' HENRY

My name is Oscar Joseph Henry, and I was born June 8, 1888 in New Orleans at 4729 Coliseum Street. My nickname, 'Chicken' or 'Chick' came from the W.P.A. days. I knew more about chickens than any of the other men working in the field as a labourer and at one time I could name all the parts of a chicken. I was first called 'Chicken Man'. And when I went into the musicians union, they called me 'Chick'. I am more known by that name than by my real name.

In my family, only my younger brother and I played music. Our first instrument was the piano and we began studying with Mrs Louise Elder. I was ten or eleven when I took up piano. We knew all our scales before we were twelve years old. My brother did not like the music and didn't continue his studies. Freddie Keppard was a playmate of mine when we were young, but I never did play in a band with him. With my family, we attended St James Church on Roman, between Iberville and Bienville and there was always music in church.
Since piano was not much used then in orchestras, they favoured violins more, I gave up playing piano and I became a plasterer. I took up learning the trade when I was fifteen or sixteen years old. And I became a plasterer when I was twenty-one years old. I liked plastering. I was a plasterer's apprentice under Johnny St Cyr. I alternated plastering and playing music depending on finances.

In 'Bourbon Street Black' by Jack V. Buerkle and Danny Barker, Chicken gave the following details : 'My mother bought a piano. There was a lady that taught piano at the Old French Opera and she was the one that taught me all my scales and chords and arpegios. I was around eight or nine years old. Before I was twelve I could play all the chords on the piano. But I didn't like sitting down on the piano stool for the simple reason the girls liked their dancing and I didn't get to dance with the girls while I was sitting on that stool, so I just quit playing. Later a band was coming down the street and I told a friend of mine as we was standing on the side listening to the band go by, I say 'Emma, I'm gonna learn how to play one of them instruments.' She say, 'Oh, you can't do that', I say, 'Oh, yes I will, you'll see me and I'll be playing' and two and a half year after I told her that I was in a band playing.'

The Family Album mentions that Chicken Henry worked as bordello 'professor' playing piano at Hattie Rogers' sporting house in 1906. He gave up playing piano after his hand was severely burned in an accident.

The bands I heard when I was young were those of Al G. Fields Minstrels, Primrose and Dockstader, Primrose and West, Barnum and Bailey Circus and Dandy Dixie Minstrels. All the minstrel shows played at the Crescent Theatre, (actually the Crescent and Tulane Theatre) which was at Baronne Street. The men in the Al G. Fields band were all white. Those in Pat Chappell's Rabbit Foot were all coloured. In Old Kentucky show was a white show, but they had a coloured pickaninny band that was very good.
Once I carried the flag for Al G. Fields show, to be sure to get a pass.
Every instrument in the band would take a solo. Some of the musicians doubled in the show. Manzie Campbell, a drummer, was a comedian on the stage. In the Al G. Fields show, both Doc Healy and Doc Quigley played trombone, but they were also comedians on the stage. A lot of the band musicians also sang in the chorus on stage. The Six Brothers, a stage act from the Orpheum Circuit, featured saxophones then. The Six Brothers played at the Palace Theatre, which was then the Greenwall, which was behind Maison Blanche on Iberville and Dauphine. The Lyric was on the next corner.
One year Al Jolson came to New Orleans with Fields' band and Jolson had such a good time in New Orleans that his stay with the show was terminated.
Shows never stayed more than a week in New Orleans. The town has never been able to support any show for over a week. The minstrel bands played a parade every day before the matinee. They also played a concert outside the theatre. The minstrel parade bands swung like the New Orleans bands. They sounded as good as the Onward. But they had more men. The parades stayed in the business district and they had some performers in them.

In 'Bourbon Street Black', Chicken gave the following story : 'But those bands we heard and second lined to, was minstrel bands. Like Primrose and West, Primrose and Dockstader. The Dirtz Dixie Minstrels - R.G. Fields, Lew Dockstader. When I was a kid, I heard and saw every band that come to the city of New Orleans. And I watched the trombone players, the baritone players and the brass players. They were the instruments I was interested in. I watched the trombone players - how they'd stand - how they'd play - how they would breathe. I watched everything a professional man did. I used to go to the Orpheum Theatre which was on St Charles and watch the men in the orchestra pits rehearsing Sophie Tucker. I was in the Orpheum Theatre when Sophie Tucker sang 'Some Of These Days'. I studied under a man that really knew music. There was one time in my life I could take the 'William Tell Overture' and just look at the key it was written in and go from the introduction down. And, when it changed key, I'd just look at the key and keep on playing.'

I also heard and followed the parades by the bands led by Old Man Robichaux, Freddy Keppard, Manuel Perez and Bab Frank. And also the Onward. Manuel Perez was supposed to be the king at that time. When you said Manuel Perez, you said everything.

I began liking trombone through hearing Doc Quigley, Billy Fields and others, who played with the minstrel shows. I took up trombone when I was in Detroit in 1918 or 1919. Actually, I always wanted to play trombone, but I didn't had an opportunity until then. When the husband of my first wife died, he left a trombone. Someone stole it, but I recovered it. My wife gave the trombone to me. So I started studying with Charles Clay, who was playing with the 'In Old Kentucky' show. Clay played trombone, baritone, bass, in fact everything.

Trombone players in New Orleans I liked were George Fihlé, Vic Gaspard, Batiste Delisle, who was from uptown, but who was very good, Zue Robertson and another guy who went to Chicago, Roy Palmer. Then, trombone players didn't play solo work much. The trombonists played more a vamp behind the bass. New Orleans is the only place with a second line. I wonder why there are no second lines in other