A Brief History of Jazz at Lake Pontchartrain

Hallowed now in jazz history are the stretches known as Milneburg, Old Spanish Fort, Little Woods, Bucktown, and West End

The fishing camps, dance halls and roadhouses of the Lake Pontchartrain resort communities teemed with pleasure-seekers, both rich and

poor, especially in the early 1900's after the closing of Storyville (1917) and the start of Prohibition (1920) pushed revelers to the city's

fringes.

Souchon recalled that 'Lake Pontchartrain always had an attraction for musicians...Camps would be rented; large

pavillions were reservered for dances and picnics, and...every camp had its own music' (File, 'Bars, Buildings and Where Jazz was Played,

Jazz Archives, Tulane University).




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~~~~
Cited form the The New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park located at 365 Canal Street:

In the early days

'Legitimate theater, vaudeville, music publishing houses and instrument stores employed musicians in the central business district, while

other establishments flourished in and around the 'red-light' district near Canal and Rampart streets. On the shores of Lake Pontchartrain,

bands competed for audiences at amusement parks and resorts.'




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~~~~~
'A number of Crescent City neighborhoods have been associated with the historic development of New Orleans jazz, from

Storyville and the Vieux Carre to Milneburg and Marrero.'

Quote source: African Americans in New Orleans: The Music-New

Orleans Public Library Online Exhibit

>http://www.nutrias.org/~nopl/exhibits/music6.htm




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~~~~
After 1870...the area (Milneburg) evolved into an entertainment district, as the city's passenger train, the Smoky Mary, began

carrying more middle-class visitors to the resort. Entertainment included jazz, with Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong and Danny Barker

performing.

An Excerpt from the 1999 Land Use Plan
New Orleans City Planning Commission




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~~~~
Black and White Intertwined
In New Orleans there were always some whites listening to jazz in black venues, like the

honky-tonks of black Storyville, black picnics on Lake Pontchartrain, in Johnson and Lincoln parks. The legendary riverboats, where some

of the most famous jazz pioneers polished their trade, were in fact segregated, for whites only. Whites were also hiring these jazz pioneers

to play for them at the New Orleans Country Club, fraternity dances at Tulane, and fancy restaurants like Tranchina's on the lake.

>
Source:
The New Republic, Nov 18, 1985 v193 p33(8)
The faking of jazz: how politics distorted the history of the hip.

James Lincoln Collier. COPYRIGHT The New Republic Inc. 1985




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~~~~~
Tom Brown's Band From Dixieland
'...both black and white bands had found plenty of seasonal employment at the

beachfront restaurants, pavilions, and cabarets lining the south shore of 635-square-mile Lake Pontchartrain, less than five miles north of

the city. Tom Brown's band was even one of the few that got to play on the excursion steamers that took tourists to the more exclusive

north shore. But Pontchartrain's heyday ran in cycles, subject to sometimes violent weather and changing fashion. It ended forever when,

in the mid-1920s, construction began on a seawall to extend the existing shoreline out several hundred feet, protecting it from storms and

flooding--and leaving the former resort area stranded inland.
From Lost Chords
White Musicians and Their Contribution to Jazz,

1915-1945

By RICHARD M. SUDHALTER
Oxford University Press

href="http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/sudhalter-chords.html">http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/sudhalter-chords.html

>






~~~~~

'...the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (ODJB)...strongly influenced both black and white bands. The next great event was

the arrival in Chicago, in 1921, of the white band that came to be known as the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. Led by the cornetist Paul

Mares, a disciple of King Oliver, the band had on clarinet Leon Roppolo, whom Sudhalter calls 'the first great jazz soloist to record'. The

trombonist was George Brunis...and the bassist was Steve Brown...The Rhythm Kings...had something of what Sudhalter calls the

'stateliness' of New Orleans black bands like King Oliver's. The great black pianist and composer Jelly Roll Morton took part in one of

the Rhythm Kings' recording sessions -- probably the first racially mixed record date in jazz history.

...jazz originated as dance

music, and dance musicians, if they want to eat regularly, must take into account what the great black drummer Baby Dodds elegantly

called 'the comfort of the people.' King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band -- the first great black band to record, the band that gave Louis

Armstrong his start up north and with which he made his first records -- was famous for being able to play waltzes so softly that you could

hear the dancers' feet shuffling.'

Except from 'Black and White Intertwined', William H. Youngren, professor of English at

Boston College: The Atlantic Montly, August, 1999.

>http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/99feb/jazz.htm




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~~~~
1831-the Pontchartrain
Railroad made Milneburg its lake-end terminal and added to its fame as a resort.


1839-The town of Milneburg consists of a few houses, the Washington and
Arch Hotels, a grocery, two barrooms and a bakery. It was named for Alexander
Milne, a Scottish philanthropist who owned much of what is now the New Orleans
Lakefront.

The Milneburg pier was later built with many camps that could
be rented for parties. Black musicians, bands and jazz flourished there.


1930s-the popularity of Milneburg began to wane as the West End and
Pontchartrain became big attractions. The development of a seawall along the
lake, prohibition and the last run of Smokin’ Mary in 1932 signaled the end of
the village and in 1934 a fire destroyed all that remained.

Sourc:
Louisiana Timeline
href="http://enlou.com/time/year1839.htm">http://enlou.com/time/year1839.htm

After 1870...the area (Milneburg) evolved into an entertainment district, as
the city's passenger train, the Smoky Mary, began carrying more middle-class
visitors to the resort. Entertainment included jazz, with Sidney Bechet, Louis
Armstrong and Danny Barker performing.

An Excerpt from the 1999 Land Use
Plan
New Orleans City Planning Commission
href="http://int.new-orleans.la.us/cnoweb/cpc/1999_dist_six.htm">http://int.new-orleans.la.us/cnoweb/cpc/1999_dist_six.htm

The Italian Connection?

The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, who billed themselves the originators of Jazz, have

long been been dismissed as the White guys who copied African American music, and called it their own. There is a lot of truth to that

statement, but on the other hand, The Original Dixieland Jazz Band's recordings still hold their own unique charm, over 80 years after their

initial release. How ever unfair, and indicative of the racism of the era, the record 'Livery Stable Blues', coupled with 'Dixie Jass Band

One Step' became the first Jazz record ever released on February 26, 1917 for the Victor Talking Machine Company. It was wildly

successful. It's release signaled the begining of the Jazz age and helped define the the wild, exhuberent era we call the 'Roaring Twenties'.

(Red Hot Jazz Archives)

However '...all citizens had access to the music which was performed on the streets, at the camps at

West End, and in the cabarets and dance halls...The Original Dixieland Jass Band (ODJB) was, in 1917, the first jazz group to be

recorded.
It included Nick LaRocca and Tony Sbarbaro.

Other notable Italian jazz originators are Leon Roppolo, Tony

Parenti, Charlie Scaglioni, Santo Pecora, Sherwood Mangiapane, Joseph Manone, Curly Lizana, Charlie Cordilla, Joseph 'Wingy'

Manone, Sharkey Bonano, Tony Parenti, and Louis Prima.

The Italian connection was but one strand of many, yet the presence

of Italian musicians in so many of the early New Orleans jazz bands tells us that it was a significant factor in the development of the music

and deserves recognition. LaRocca and Sbarbaro with the ODJB, Roppolo with The New Orleans Rhythm Kings (NORK), Curly Lizana

with the New Orleans Jazz Babies, Charlie Cordilla with the Halfway House Orchestra or the subsequent activities of Joseph 'Wingy'

Manone, Sharkey Bonano, Tony Parenti, Louis Prima, Irving Fazola (an honorary Italian) and others all attest to an Italian jazz connection

which was deep and abiding.

The impact of the ODJB on black New Orleanians was no less telling. When Dink Johnson, a

drummer and clarinetist who worked with the Original Creole Orchestra, Jelly Roll Morton, and Kid Ory, was interviewed by Floyd Levin

in 1950, he had some interesting observations concerning his reaction to the ODJB: 'I was actually a drummer, you know. I had always

wanted to play the clarinet since hearing Larry Shields with the Original Dixieland Jazz Band.' The effect of the ODJB's recordings on the

most popular black dance band in New Orleans in 1917, Kid Ory's, is another case in point. What was known as the Ory-Oliver band

included future stars such as Joe Oliver, Johnny Dodds, and occasionally Louis Armstrong and held forth at dance halls like the Economy

and Cooperators, where its popularity was unassailable. Testimony by Manuel Manetta, the Violinist in Kid Ory's band, illustrates what

happened throughout the city in the wake of the ODJB recordings. The two 'readers' in the band were Oliver and Manetta, with the latter

serving as 'straw boss' for Ory in the selection of material and direction of the band. Yet Manetta was fired because 'Joe Oliver and Kid

Ory wanted to follow the format of the Dixieland Jazz Band and use only five pieces.'

Prior to 1917, many New Orleans dance

bands either carried or were led by violinists. After that year, violins all but disappeared. Manetta ended up dropping violin, offering

saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and piano to prospective employers. The success of the ODJB through the medium of the phonograph

completed the revolution in dance-band instrumentation begun by Buddy Bolden two decades earlier, supplanting violinists with cornetists

and standardizing the jazz-band lineup. The success of the ODJB vindicated 'faking' and fused the term 'jazz' to the New Orleans style of

instrumental ragtime, collectively improvised, which had been developing since the turn of the century. The term itself became a rallying

point for New Orleans musicians of all ethnic and racial backgrounds, creating conditions for the formation of a community of interest in

support of the new music, which was perceived as a local product. While the roots of Jazz were undoubtedly nourished largely within the

African-American community (which was itself extremely diversified), its subsequent development before 1917 was a more broadly

communitarian phenomenon, drawing on a variety of musical cultures extant in New Orleans. Music, in other words, brought people of all

affiliations together, in spite of the social conditions which were often designed to keep them apart.

Source: Jazz and the Italian

Connection: - By Dr. Bruce Raeburn

href="http://members.aol.com/ODJBjazz/odjbhistory.html">http://members.aol.com/ODJBjazz/odjbhistory.html




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~~~~
Cuban Influences On New Orleans Music

'...Baby Dodds noted that the 'blues were played in New Orleans in

the early days very, very slow, and not like today, but in a Spanish rhythm.'(liii) Trombonist Emile Christian also uses a habanera bass line

behind a cornet-clarinet duet on I Lost My Heart In Dixieland recorded by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1920.(liv)

Pamela

J. Smith's extensive analysis of Cuban influences on New Orleans music uses such pieces as Creepy Feeling, The Crave, and Spanish

Swat, by Jelly Roll Morton, New Orleans Stomp, by Louis Armstrong and Lil Hardin, as recorded by King Oliver in 1923, Stock Yard

Strut, as recorded by Freddie Keppard in 1926, Sweet Lorraine, as recored by Natty Dominique and Johnny Dodds in 1928, Panama, as

recorded in 1922 by the Friars Society Orchestra, West Indies Blues as recorded by A. J. Piron in 1928 and Tampeekoe as recorded by the

New Orleans Owls in 1928, to illustrate both the Cuban rhythms and how New Orleans jazz musicians modified them.(lv) The heavy use of

such musical devices in New Orleans jazz was referred to by Jelly Roll Morton as the 'Spanish tinge' and is sometimes called the 'Latin

tinge.'(lvi)
Essay by Jack Stewart

href="http://www.arhoolie.com/catalog/titles/7032c.shtml">http://www.arhoolie.com/catalog/titles/7032c.shtml





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~~~~~

On Sunday afternoons, New Orleanians of the era (c. 1915) often traveled to lakeside camps and resorts such as West

End, Bucktown and Milneburg, where they would eat boiled seafood and listen to bands playing the latest musical styles
Source:

>HISTORIC JAZZ CLUB DAMAGED FORMER HALFWAY HOUSE NEAR CEMETERIES BURNS [ORLEANS Edition]
Times

- Picayune, New Orleans, La. Jun 19, 2000
Author: Chris Gray Staff
writer, Page: B01




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~~~~~

While Papa Jack Laine's Reliance Bands were not the only good white bands in the city, they were among the most

prominent. Laine even, tantalizingly, claimed to have sent a band to play at the great St. Louis Exposition of 1904. His 'Reliance' bands

were particularly active in the seasonal social life of the Lake Pontchartrain south shore.

href="http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/sudhalter-chords.html">http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/sudhalter-chords.html

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~~~

In 1954 'Lincoln Beach opened to a throng of 10,000 eager citizens, who spilled onto the elaborately landscaped midway

and gathered around the stage where Papa Celestin's jazz band played...'

Over the next few years, Lincoln Beach became a

vacation destination for
blacks. New rides sprang up on the midway; and the park hosted concerts
by such popular acts as the Ink

Spots and local favorites Fats Domino and
Earl King. In April 1957, Lincoln Beach was selected as the site of the
annual Negro

State Fair, a gathering that highlighted education and culture.

Source:
High tide, New Orleans Magazine, New Orleans.

Mar 1999
Authors: Russell McCulley - Volume: 33, Issue: 6, Pagination: 66-69



~~~~

Important early Jazz venues along

the Lake included:

Milneburg, New Orleans
An incorporated village on Lake Pontchartrain, it was an active resort from the 19th century. It was the

site of the Pontchartrain Amusement Park until 1984, and during its heyday (to the mid-1930s) it boasted numerous venues, both public and

private, which engaged jazz bands to play residencies or for individual functions. On the pier, for example, were Morgan's Saloon, the Joy

Club, Romer's Café, The Inn, Quarelles, Nick's Restaurant, and The Lighthouse, and there were 100 more such venues close by. Its

memory is preserved (though its name is misspelled) in the often performed and recorded tune Milenberg Joys.'

'Mama Lou's


Off Little Woods Road. It was a wooden building erected on piles and set about 75 feet out from the shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

Jazz was played there from at least the 1940s: Herb Morand led his band in a residency that lasted for much of the decade and the

trumpeter Louis 'Kid Shots' Madison appeared in the mid-1940s. The club remained in operation until at least 1961, but was closed by the

time that Hurricane Betsy damaged the area in 1965.'

Tokyo Gardens
Ballroom. It was situated in the resort at Spanish

Fort, near where the Bayou St. John runs into Lake Pontchartrain. Among the jazz groups that performed there was a band led by the

cornetist Johnny Bayersdorffer, which was resident in the summer of 1924.

Tranchina's Restaurant
It was situated in the

resort at Spanish Fort, near where the Bayou St. John runs into Lake Pontchartrain. Jazz was performed there from at least 1918, when A.

J. Piron formed an orchestra to begin an engagement at the restaurant, which continued intermittently until 1923.

Source: The

New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Macmillan Reference Ltd 1988

~~~~

'Much of what was called Milneburg early in

the first third of this century was actually IN Lake Pontchartrain... the buidings and dock walkways connecting them were on wooden

pilings in the shallows of the lake. It was indeed a very important area for music. It was very popular for dances and parties every weekend

of New Orleans long summer, and I think important in being a place where, in those days of racial segregation being mandated by law,

musicians on different sides of the Jim Crow barrier had extended chances to listen to eachother and informally jam. Milneburg was at the

end of Elysian Fields Avenue. An early steam railway was put on this thouroghfare connecting the city by the river to the lake some 5 miles

away in the 1830s. It was officially called the Pontchartrain Rail Road, but the early 20th century New Orleanians refered to the line by the

nickname of the archaic steam engine, 'Smoky Mary'.
Source:
href="http://www.geocities.com/infrogmation/Milenburg.html">http://www.geocities.com/infrogmation/Milenburg.html
~~~~~


It was at Milneburg's bandstands, dance halls and honky-talks that much of New Orleans' early jazz was first heard.



Milneburg was the other popular early resort area on the Lake, at the terminus of the Pontchartrain Railroad line, which began

operation in 1831. New Orleanians rode the famous 'Smokey Mary' out to the many camps that dotted the shoreline and to the hotels,

restaurants, roadhouses, shooting galleries, bathing facilities and fishing piers. It was at Milneburg's bandstands, dance halls and honky-

talks that much of New Orleans' early jazz was first heard.
Like Spanish Fort, Milneburg fell victim to changing tastes and to the

massive construction projects undertaken by the Orleans Levee Board and the WPA in the late 1920s and 1930s. This Levee Board

photograph (included among the WPA photographs of Lakefront projects) was taken on October 5, 1927 from the famous Milneburg

lighthouse looking to the east after demolition of the camps and other structures that occupied the shoreline.

Source:
href="http://nutrias.org/~nopl/monthly/july2001/3jul01.htm">http://nutrias.org/~nopl/monthly/july2001/3jul01.htm

-----
Jazz Timeline (by birth of Artist)
1887-1931
Charles “Buddy” Bolden

1895- “Buddy” Bolden forms his

band
Sidney Bechet, and Bunk Johnson
Play in Bolden’s band

1907-Bolden committed to a mental intsitute. Frank

Dusen(1880-1940)takes over the band & renames it the Eagle Band

1907-1917 -The Eagle Band

1880-1940-Frankie

Dusen

1907- Frankie Dusen takes over Buddy Bolden’s Renames it 'The Eagle Band'

1917-Dusen & Buddy Petit

leave for Los Angeles to join Jelly Roll Morton at Baron Long's night club in Watts. Morton ridiculed them about their clothes and

downhome ways--Dusen & Petit soon returned to New Orleans

1872-1972-Bill Johnson
Played in the Eagle Band

>brother in law of Jelly Roll Morton
1909-Leaves New Orleans. Plays with
Freddie Keppard & King Oliver (The Original

Creole Orchestra), King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Johnny Dodds' bands.

1873-1946-Manuel Perez-Cornet
Famous for

his work in New Orleans' brass bands.
played in the Onward Brass Band before the turn of the century
1900-Organized the

Imperial Orchestr
Led bands in Storyville
Played withs with Fate Marable (SS Capitol)
1920s-played parades with the

Maple Leaf Orchestra
Left New Orleans in 1915 (Charles Elgar's Creole Orchestra-- Arsonia Cafe in Chicago, Arthur Sims Band in

Chicago. Elgar's Creole Orchestra


1873-1966-Papa Jack Lain
Drums & Saxaphone
Often credited with being

the first White Jazz musician
Formed his first brass band in 1888
Lead the Reliance Brass Band, which became popular enough

for him to have several units playing under that name
Early New Orlean's White Jazz musicians such as, Tom Brown, Johnny Stein,

Albert and George Brunies, Tony Parenti, Nick La Rocca and all of the other members of the Original Dixleland Jass Band played in the

Reliance Brass Band at one time or the other.


1878-1961

Alphonse Picou

Clarinet credited with

developing the clarinet part for “High Society “- turn of the century Picou was playing in Excelsior Brass Band
joined Freddie

Keppard's Olympia Orchestra
before World War I he was playing with the Tuxedo Brass Band
Left New Orleans in 1915


(Chicago- Manuel Perez at the Arsonia Cafe, but soon afterward returned to New Orleans. In 1918-Wooden Joe Nichols. 1940s-with Papa

Celestin and Kid Rena


1884-1934

Alcide “Yellow” Nuñez

Clarinet
played with Papa Jack

Laine's the Reliance Brass Band, Frank Christian's Ragtime Band, and Tom Brown's Band From Dixieland
Left New Orleans. Was

an original member of the Stein's Dixieland Jass Band and the Original Dixieland Jass Band

1884-1954

Oscar

“Papa” Celestin

Cornet
1908
became a member of Henry Allen Sr.’s Excelsior band
1910
started the

Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra ( Peter Bocage, Louis Armstrong, Bebe Ridgley, Lorenzo Tio, Jr and Isidore Barbarin (guitarist Danny

Barker’s grandfather).


During World War II he worked in a shipyard.


After the war Celestin reformed his

band and began recording for various companies and doing live broadcasts from local radion stations. He was also a mainstay and tourist

attraction on Bourbon Street until his death.
1885-1938
Joe “King” Oliver
Cornet
Played in The Eagle Band In 1917

he was being billed as 'King' by the Kid Ory who’s band he played in. Mentor of Louis Armstrong

In 1917 he was being billed as

'King' by the Kid Ory who’s band he played in. Began playing around 1908
Member of The Olympia, The Onward Brass Band, The

Original Superior, and the Eagle Band.
Leaves New Orleans in 1919 (King Ory’s Band, Bill Johnson's The Original Creole Orchestra


Formed King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band , imported his protégé Louis Armstrong from New Orleans, The band also included Johnny

Dodds , Honore Dutrey, Lil Hardin and Baby Dodds. The group's 1923 sessions were a milestone in Jazz, introducing the playing of Louis

Armstrong to the world. Recorded a pair of duets with . Jelly Roll Morton . took over Dave Peyton's band- renaming it the Dixie

Syncopators. that went on to catapult Duke Ellington to fame. In 1929 Luis Russell took over the Dixie Syncopators and changed the name

to Luis Russell and his Orchestra.

1887-1967)
Peter Bocage Trumpet, Guitar








>Played in The Eagle Band

A mentor of Bunk Johnson
Joined Fate Marable
in 1917 formed the first inter-racial

band on the Strekfus steamboat line. 1918 played in the Onward band with Joe “King” Oliver , in Henry Allen Sr.’s band., The Tuxedo

Orchestra, with Louis Armstrong. Led the Excelsior band (1922-1932. Rejoined Piron's New Orleans Orchestra in 1923 Leader and

violinist for the Superior Orchestra
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.


1888-

Armand J. (A.J.) Piron

Violin
remembered most today as the early

business partner of Clarence Williams
owned The Piron-Williams Publishing Company
started Piron's New Orleans Orchestra in

1918
Published Piron's song 'I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate' (Louis Armstrong claims that he wrote it and sold it to

them and didn't receive credit) started playing professionally in New Orleans in 1904 and led his own band in 1908
joined Papa

Celestin's Tuxedo Orchestra in 1916
traveled to New York in 1923 and returned the following year to play at the Roseland Ballroom.

Piron returned to New Orleans and played for many years at the New Orleans Country Club on Lake Pontchartrain, in night clubs, and on

Mississippi river boats

1888-1958
Tom “Red” Brown
Trombone
Played with Papa Jack Laine's Reliance

>Band Organized Brown's Ragtime Band
(1910)
and Tom Brown and his New Orleans Jazz Band.
claimed to be Claimed

to be the first to use the word 'Jass Brother of Steve Brown

Played with Johnny Bayersdorffer and his Jazzola Novelty

Orchestra
Left New Orleans in 1915 when he took Brown's Ragtime Band to Chicago making him the first to bring a White Jazz band

north from New Orleans

(1889-1949):
Geary “Bunk” Johnson

Played in the Eagle Band
(joined in 1910)


Louis Armstrong, recalled that Bunk Johnson was as one of the early influential jazz musicans in New Orleans Johson played with

Clarence Williams
(1898-1965) Played in the Superior Orchestra Leaves New Orleans in 1915 (Black Eagles)

(1889-1949):


Geary “Bunk” Johnson

Played in the Eagle Band
(joined in 1910)
Louis Armstrong, recalled that Bunk Johnson

was as one of the early influential jazz musicans in New Orleans Johson played with Clarence Williams
(1898-1965) Played in the

Superior Orchestra Leaves New Orleans in 1915
1889-1934
Jack Carey
Cornet Played in The Eagle Band Leader of The

Cresent City Orchestra
Author of “Tiger Rag”,
play in parade bands in New Orleans throughout the 1920s Some claim that

many of the songs that the Cresent City Orchestra developed were later recorded by the Original Dixieland Jass Band and copyrighted as

their own

1889-1933
Freddie “King” Keppard
Cornet

Played in The Eagle Band succeeded Buddy Bolden

as 'king' of the cornet players
Began playing around 1906. Leader of the Olympia Orchestra Leaves New Orleans in 1912 (Bill

Johnson-- Original Creole Orchestra, Doc Cook's Dreamland Orchestra, Erskine Tate, Ollie Powers, Charles Elgar Creole Orchestra at

the Savoy Ballroom. And his ownJazz Cardinals

1889-1945

Richard Myknee Jones

Piano
played in

Armand Piron's Olympia Orchestra
led his own band called The Four Hot Hounds which included Sugar Johnny Smith and occassionly

King Oliver
During World War One he played with Papa Celestin.
Left New Oleans in 1919 (Clarence Williams, Richard M.

Jones' Jazz Wizards, Jones is best remembered today as the composer of such Jazz standards as 'Trouble In Mind' and 'Riverside Blues'.



(1889-1949):
Geary “Bunk” Johnson

Played in the Eagle Band
(joined in 1910)
Louis Armstrong,

recalled that Bunk Johnson was as one of the early influential jazz musicans in New Orleans Johson played with Clarence Williams


(1898-1965) Played in the Superior Orchestra Leaves New Orleans in 1915
1889-1961

Dominic “Nick” LaRocca


>
Trumpet
claimed to have invented Jazz and often complained that African American musicians have been given too much

credit for the birth of Jazz 1914
Formed the Original Dixieland Jass Band (referred to itself as America's first Jazz band) with La

Rocca on Trumpet; Larry Shields on clarinet; Eddie Edwards on trombone; and Tony Sbarbaro on drums and Henry Ragas on the piano

started playing with the Papa Laine's Reliance Brass Band
released the worlds's first Jazz record on February 26, 1917 with 'Livery

Stable Blues', coupled with 'Dixie Jass Band One Step' for the Victor Talking Machine Company
Left New Orleans for Chicago (as

Stein's Dixie Jass Band with Yellow Nuñez . The band moved to New York in 1917 & change it’s name to the Orignal Dixieland Jass Band



1889- 1970

Raymond “Ray” Lopez

Trumpet Around 1906 he was playing in Papa Jack Laine's Reliance

Brass Band
Left New Orleans in 1912( Tom Brown's Band From Dixieland in Chicago. with Brown under the name of The Five

Rubes, Started his own band in Chicago in 1916 and then played in Bert Kelley's band, 1920 with Clint Brush's Jazz Babies and with

Tommy Rodgers. In 1917 the Original Dixieland Jass Band

1890-1947

Fate Marabale

Piano
Was

renowned for his steam calliope playing
The bands he led on the Strekfus Mississsippi river boat lines served as a training grounds

for many of the great Jazz musicians of the 1920s.
Members of Marables bands include Louis Armstrong, Baby and Johnny Dodds,

Zutty Singleton, King Oliver, Johnny St. Cyr, Tommy Ladnier, Red Allen, Pops Foster led bands on the boats up until the 1940s.
In

the mid-1940s he played in clubs in St. Louis.
1890-1966

Johnny St. Cyr

Banjo
Guitar
had his own

bands in New Orleans as far back as 1905
played with A.J. Piron, the Superior, Olympia and Tuxedo bands
played on the

riverboats with Fate Marable
1930
Returned to New Orleans where he made his living as a plasterer but still played with local

groups including with Paul Barbarin and Alphonse Picou
Left New Orleans in 1923
was with King Oliver when he went north to

Chicago. Recorded with King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton and with Louis Armstrong as a key member of the Hot Five and Hot Seven

sessions. He also performed with Doc Cooke's Dreamland Orchestra.
1955 -to Los Angeles, leading the Young Men from New

Orleans at Disneyland (which also featured Barney Bigard) from 1961 until his death in 1966.

1890-1941

“Jelly Roll”


Morton

Piano

1890-1949

Bud Scott

Banjo
Six-string guitar
Violin
began

playing Guitar at the age of four.
By his teens he played with Buddy Bolden's banjoist and joind the John Robichaux band in 1904

>played with Freddie Keppard's Olympia Orchestra
Left New Orleans in 1913
(to New York City-made his living playing violin

in pit orchestras and concert groups. 1919- Chicago (King Oliver's Jazz Band with Kid Ory , 'Dippermouth Blues' sessions in the

1923.1928- Jimmie Noone's Apex Club Orchestra. 1929-Los Angeles, freelancing and work for movie studios. Mid-1940's-New Orleans

revival, joined trumpeter Mutt Carey in the newly reformed Kid Ory's Creole Orchestra
1891-1948

Thomas Mutt”

>Carey

Trumpet
Played in marching bands in the New Orleans sometime around 1913
played with Kid Ory in 1914 ,

rejoined Kid Ory's Creole Orchestra in 1944
Brother of Jack Carey

Played in Jack’s Cresent City Orchestra
Left

New Orleans in 1917 for California ('Spike's Seven Pods of Pepper Orchestra' record--the first Jazz record released by African Americans.

Took over & renamed the band the Jeffersonians when Ory it in 1925. Worked regularly for the Hollywood film studios. Rejoined Kid

Ory's Creole Orchestra in 1944. In 1947 formed his own band
1892-1940

Johhny Dodds

Clarinet
Played in

The Eagle Band Played on riverboats with Fate Marable in 1917
Played In Kid Ory's band in New Orleans from 1912 to 1919

Brother of Baby Dodds Leaves New Orleans in 1921 to play in Chacago with King Oliver. Baby Dodds were an important part of Louis

Armstrong's classic Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings for Okeh. During the 1920's he also recorded with Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Jelly

Roll Morton, and on most of Lil Hardin-Armstrong's sessions.

1892-1969

Geroge “Pops” Foster

Tuba

playing in bands around New Orleans as early as 1906
played tuba with Fate Marable's group on riverboats from 1918 to 1921

>Left New Orleans to play in Kid Ory 's band in California. In St. Louis in the mid 1920s, with both Charlie Creath and Dewy Jackson . In

New York in 1928, with King Oliver , then he Luis Russell Orchestra. though out the period of 1935 to 1940 when the orchestra was really

the backup group for Louis Armstrong . Dixieland revival, with Mezz Mezzrow , and Sidney Bechet.with Earl Hines in San Francisco from

1956 to 1961 and then spent 1963 to 1964 with Elmer Snowden's trio.

1894-1933

Honore Dutrey

Trombone

1910 Honore Dutrey started playing trombone in various bands in New Orleans, including Jimmie Noone's band
Left New Orleans in

1917—played with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Carrol Dickerson, Johnny Dodds, Louis Armstrong's Stompers

1895-1973



Kid Ory

Trombone 1912 to 1919-- led one of the most popular bands in New Orleans featuring, at various times, King

Oliver, a young Louis Armstrong ,Johnny Dodds, Sidney Bechet and Jimmie Noone. Left New Orleans in In 1919
(Kid Ory's Creole

Orchestra-1922 they became the first black jazz band to record. They used the name of 'Spike's Seven Pods of Pepper Orchestra'-recorded

'Ory's Creole Trombone' and 'Society Blues'. 1925- Chicago playing regularly with King Oliver, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five and Hot

Seven and with Jelly Roll Morton . Dixieland revival-1940's, revived Kid Ory's Creole Orchestra.

1895-1944

Jimmie

Noone

Clarinet considered one of the best clarinetists of the Twenties
Growing up in New Orleans Jimmie took clarinet

lessons from Lorenzo Tio, Jr. and a 13 yr.s old Sidney Bechet play with Freddie Keppard in the Olympia Band Left New Orleans in 1917

(followed Freddie to Chicago to join Keppard's Original Creole Orchestra. 1918- became a member of King Oliver's band. 1920-joined Doc

Cooke's Dreamland Orchestra. 1927- started leading a band at the Apex Club in Chicago. 1928-was joined by pianist Earl Hines A young

Joe Williams was in Noone's band (1930s) Played with Kid Ory's band in the California (1940s)
1895-1936
Esther Bigeou

>Singer Recorded with Rickett's Stars
(1923) Recorded with Piron's New Orleans Orchestra
(1923) Recorded with by Clarence

Williams
(1923) cousin of drummer Paul Barbarin

1895-1931
Buddy Petit
(born Joseph Crawford)


>Cornet
Played in the Eagle Band
(joins in 1914)
Louis Armstrong was one of the pall-bearers at Petit’s funeral

>Louis Armstrong as a young man played second-line cornet in one of Petit’s marching bands. his stepfather, learned to play from one of

jazz most infamous characters Bunk Johnson
Leaves New Orleans in 1917 to play in Los Angeles, joining Jelly Roll Morton’s band


in San Francisco
1895-1963

Lizzie Miles
(born Elizabeth Landreaux)

Singer was born on Bourbon

Street and she was singing with the New Orleans Jazz bands of King Oliver, Kid Ory, A.J. Piron while she was still a teenager She worked

as a song plugger for Clarence Williams' and A.J. Piron's publishing company
In the late 1930s, Miles returned to New Orleans l950s

she resumed her career performing and recording (Bob Scobey Band,. Lizzie Miles half sister of Blues singer Edna Hicks and trumpet

player Herb Morand. Some of Lizzie Miles' records where released under the seudonyms of Mandy Smith and Jane Howard. Left New

Orleans in the early 1920s (worked with Elgars Creole Orchestra, Freddie Keppard and with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, the Sam

Wooding Orchestra, Piron's New Orleans Orchestra Fats Waller, Paul Barbarin. . In 1924 she toured Europe

1896-1982

>
Anatie
’Natty’ Dominique

Trumpet
Played with Hot Jazz groups & Brass Bands
Left New Orleans in

1913. Rrecorded with Jelly Roll Morton in 1923 and played with Carroll Dickerson and Jimmie Noone. Best remembered for his

association with Johnny Dodds & Baby Dodds.

1898-1949

Henry 'Kid' Rena's (pronouced ruh-NAY)



>
is said to have taken lessons from Manuel Perez.
When Louis Armstrong took a job on the S.S. Capitol, Rena replaced him in

Kid Ory's band
began his own 'dixieland band
in 1923-- won a loving cup at the Jerusalem Temple from Celestin's Tuxedo Jazz

Band.
he took over leadership of the Eureka Brass Band, and departed from them when he founded his own Brass Band circa 1932.





1898-1975

Arthur
“Zutty”
Singleton

Drummer
one of the most influential

drummers of early Jazz
popularized the use of brushes and drum solos in Jazz and had some of the best technique of the era
got

his start at the Rosebud Theater in New Orleans with Steve Lewis in 1915
after The 1st World War played with Papa Celestin, Luis

Russell, and with Fate Marable on the riverboats.
Left New Orleans
-to St. Louis(Charlie Creath and married his sister

Marge.To Chicago ( Doc Cooke, he and Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines tried to open a club, but it was unsuccessful. played on several of

the Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five sides, including 'A Monday Date', where Armstrong says, 'Come on Zutty, whip those cymbals

Pops!'. 1931-to New York City (Fats Waller). 1933 to Chicago (Carroll Dickerson at the Grand Terrace)1930s-Roy Eldridge, Mezz

Mezzrow, and Sidney Bechet. 1941-Los Angeles retired in 1970
1898-1959

Omer Simeon

Clarinet took lessons

from Lorenzo Tio Jr.
Left New Orleans in 1914
Chicago- in his brother Al Simeon's Hot Six , Charlie Elgar's Creole Orchestra

(1923-27.Recorded with Jelly Roll Morton and was featured on 'Black Bottom Stomp.' . King Oliver's Dixie Syncopators -1927 . Rejoined

Elgar's Orchestra. New York-1928, Luis Russell and Jelly Roll Morton,returned to Chicago-Erskine Tate. 1931-Earl Hines Orchestra .

1942-Jimmie Lunceford's orchestra. 1944 –45, Kid Ory's Creole Orchestra . Wilbur de Paris
(1898-1959)
Warren “Baby”

Dodds
Played in the Eagle Band joined Fate Marable's riverboat band in 1918-playin with played with Louis Armstrong, Johnny St.

Cyr, Pops Foster
Brother of Johnny Dodds who he played with in Kid Ory’s Band Left New Orleans in 1921 for San Francisco (King

Oliver ‘s band, to Chicago as the drumer in King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, with Honore Dutrey , Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers

and Louis Armstrong's Hot Seven, with his his brother Johnny Dodds’s band, with Jimmy Noone, and with Bunk Johnson.



>



1897-1959 Sidney Bechet (clarinet) Plays in Buddy Bolden’s Band Bechet leaves New Orleans in 1917 to play in

Chicago. Later in Europe,
1899-1969
Paul Barbarin
Drummer Played in Buddy Petit's Young Olympians
Played with

Luis Russell ‘s band
After World War Two led his own bands.. In 1960 he re-formed his father's Onward Brass Band and played at

Preservation Hall and also made several recordings. He died in 1969 while he was leading The Onward Brass Band in a street parade.

>Son of Isidore Barbain, leader of The Onward Brass Band. His brothrs were also active New Orleans musicians
Left New Orleans

many times but always returned
1899-1970

Alfonso “Lonnie” Johnson

Guitar
Banjo
pioneering

Blues and Jazz guitarist, and banjoist
1920 played with Fate Marable in their Mississippi riverboat bands.
Left New Orleans in

1917 (Will Marion Cook's Southern Syncopated Orchestra, Charlie Creath's Jazz-O-Maniacs, Eddie Lang, Louis Armstrong and his Hot

Five, the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Johnny Dodds, and Jimmy Noone.

1900-1972

Anthony
“Tony”

>Parenti


Clarinet with Johnny De Droit's Jazz Orchestra,-- the first to play Jazz as we know it for the elite of New Orleans

social functions 1924
he was leading his own band at La Vida
Left New Orleans
(Irving Mills' , The Dorsey Brothers

Orchestra ,Ted Lewis , Muggsy Spanier, Preacher Rollo and his Five Saints
1900-1968

George Lewis
(born George

Zenon)

Played with the Black Eagle Band
Played with , Buddy Petit, Kid Rena, Bunk Johnson Played with the Eureka

Brass Band Played with The Olympia Orchestra
1900-1982

Joseph
Wingy Manone

Trumpet
Vocals

lost his right arm in a streetcar accident when he was ten years old
He started out playing on Mississippi riverboats and with the

Original Crescent City Jazzers. The band later changed their name to the Arcadian Serenaders
Left New Orleans to work in a series

of bands (ocassionally as a leader) all over the country, started his own band Joe Manone's Harmony Kings, 1927 in Chicago before

relocating to New York. In 1929 recorded with Benny Goodman's Boys, back to Chicago and led a band called the Cellar Boys, His 1930

song 'Tar Paper Stomp' is the basis for the riff that would later become Glen Miller's famous 'In the Mood'. Appeared in the Bing Crosby

movie 'Rhythm on the River', and appeared regularly on Bing's radio shows.
1900-1949

Paul Mares

Trumpet a

childhood friend of Leon Roppolo, Abbie and George Brunies
While still a teenager Mares played in Tom Brown's band and with his

friend Leon Roppolo Left New Orleans in 1919 (to Chicago and ended up playing in Tom Brown's Band From Dixieland, with George

Brunies - on the Missippissipi riverboat S.S. Capitol. On the boat Mares was reunited with their old friend Roppolo.
left the boat and

took a job at the Friars Inn, a gangster hangout in Chicago (Friars Society Orchestra- one of the most infulencial Jazz bands of the

1920s—later known as the New Orleans Rhythm Kings.. Jelly Roll Morton recorded five songs with the band (1923)--generally considered

the first 'racially mixed' Jazz record, although Jelly didn't consider himself to be Black, but rather Creole. In 1925 Mares returned to New

Orleans and reformed the New Orleans Rhythm Kings with Roppolo Mares reformed the New Orleans Rhythm Kings again in 1934

>1900-1973

Albert Nicholas

played with Buddy Petit, King Oliver and Manuel Perez while still a teenager in New

Orleans studied clarinet with Lorenzo Tio, Jr
led his own band with Luis Russell and Barney Bigard.
Left New Orleans in 1924

(King Oliver's Dixie Syncopators in Chicago, Played in Cairo, Shanghi, and Alexandria. 1928 joined the Luis Russell Orchestra rejoined

Russell in 1937 with the Louis Armstrong Orchestra recorded with Jelly Roll Morton in 1939.. Dixieland revival of the late 1940s, playing

with Art Hodes, Bunk Johnson and Kid Ory. In

1900-1971
Louis Armstrong
Cornet, vocals Played in Zutty

Singleton's band & with , the Silver Leaf Band. Played in the Allen Brass Band

Played in Papa Celestin's Tuxedo Orchestra

Took King Oliver ‘s place in Kid Ory's band (1919) Left New Orleans in 1919 for the first time to join Fate Marable's band in St. Louis

which played on the Strekfus Mississsippi river boat lines. In 1922 he joined his mentor Joe Oliver in Chicago to join his Creole Jazz Band

at Lincoln in Chicago



1901-1948
Sidney Arodin
(born Sidney Arnondrin)
Clarinet
played with

Wingy Manone
early in his career then in a revival version of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings
Played with Sharkey Bonano

>Played with Louis Prima's band (1930s)

writer of the song Lazy River
Left New Orleans to play in New York with Johnny

Stein's New Orleans Jazz Band (1922) but returned

1901-1960

Lee Collins

Trumpet as a teenager. He

played in Pops Foster's Young Eagles

Left New Orleans in In 1924 for Chicago to replace Louis Armstrong in King Olivers

Creole Jazz Band. Also played with with Jelly Roll Morton's Kings of Jazz, To New York with New York to play in Luis Russell's

Orchestra



1902-1943

Leon Roppolo


was considered a genius by his contemporaries and

like Bix Beiderbecke and Buddy Bolden
By 1913-14 he was playing music professionally at Lake Pontchartrain and Bucktown played

with Carlisle Evans on the Mississippi River boat bands where he was reunited with his boyhood friends Paul Mares and George Brunnies


Back home he reunited with Mares who had put together another version of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings and recorded with Abbie

Brunnies' Left New Orleans in 1921 with Paul Mares and George Brunnies to Chicago where they joined the Friars Society Orchestra

which later became known as the New Orleans Rhythm Kings . 1924 -Mares and Roppolo went to New York, (Al Siegal's Orchestra).

Recorded with the Original Memphis Five and California Ramblers. 1924-, Texas - Pecks Bad Boys. North again-Carlisle Evans band on a

river boat that ended up in New Orleans. Back home (mid 20s) reunited with Mares -New Orleans Rhythm Kings and recorded with Abbie

Brunnies' Halfway House Orchestra.
1902-1974

George Brunies

Trombone at age eight playing with Papa Jack

Laine's band
Played with Papa Jack Laine's son Alfred in 'Baby' Laine's band Played in Abbie Brunies,
(his brother) Halfway

House Orchestra,
Left New Orleans for Chicago in 1919
1906-1980
Albany “Barney” Biggard
Clarinet
Tenor

Sax took clarinet lessons with Lorenzo Tio Jr. and Papa Tio
Left New Orleans for Chicago to play with King Oliver in 1925


>1908-1967
Henry “Red” Allen Played in The Excelsior Band
Played with George Lewis Played with the Sam Morgan Band

Son of Henry Allen who was the leader of the Allen Brass Band of Algiers
Left New Orleans in 1926 for St. Louis to play with Sidney

Desvigne's Southern Syncopaters , King Oliver's Dixie Syncopators, Recorded with Jelly Roll Morton, and Sidney Bechet.



>
1909-1994
Danny Barker
'Banjo King of New Orleans'.


Guitar & Banjo
Took clarinet lessons from

Barney Bigard
Played in Kid Rena's band
Took banjo lessons from George Augustin of the Imperial band, and came under the

direct influence of Lorenzo Stall, Buddy Bolden's banjoist
Nephew of drummer Paul Barbarin
Left New Orleans in 1930 for New

York City. By 1965 Barker had back to New Orleans and married singer Blue Lu Barker splitting his time between performing with his

wife and the Fairview Baptist Church Christian Band which he founded, lecturing on traditional jazz and working as Assistant to the Curator

of the New Orleans Jazz museum up until his death in 1994.

• Music Info
  • A Brief History of Jazz at Lake Pontchartrain