New Orleans Musicians

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Joe “King” Oliver

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Joe “King”Oliver 1885-1938

• one of the most important figures in early Jazz. When we use the phrase Hot Jazz, we are really referring to his style of collective improvisation (rather than solos)

• He was the mentor and teacher of Louis Armstrong

• Louis idolized him and called him Papa Joe. Oliver even gave Armstrong the first cornet that Louis was to own.

King Oliver

• Joe was famous for his using mutes, derbies, bottles and cups to alter the sound of his cornet. He was able to get a wild array of sounds out of his horn. Bubber Miley is said to have been inspired by his sound

• Oliver started playing in New Orleans around 1908. At various times he was a member of several of the marching bands like The Olympia, The Onward Brass Band, The Original Superior and the Eagle Band

King Oliver

• He often worked in Kid Ory's band and in 1917 he was being billed as "King" by the bandleader. In 1919 he moved to Chicago with Ory and played in Bill Johnson's The Original Creole Orchestra at the Dreamland Ballroom

• in 1922 he started King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band at Lincoln Gardens (459 East 31st Street). Oliver imported his protégé Louis Armstrong from New Orleans. The band also included Johnny Dodds , Honore Dutrey, Lil Hardin and Baby Dodds among others.

King Oliver

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King Oliver

• The group's 1923 sessions were a milestone in Jazz, introducing the playing of Louis Armstrong to the world. Unfortunately the Creole Jazz Band gradually fell apart in 1924

• Oliver went on to record a pair of duets with pianist Jelly Roll Morton that same year, and then took over Dave Peyton's band in 1925, renaming it the Dixie Syncopators

King Oliver

• In NYC he made some lousy business decisions, like turning down the regular gig at the Cotton Club, that went on to catapult Duke Ellington to fame.

• had a life long sweet tooth. He was famous for his love of sugar sandwiches, This of course led to dental problems that made playing his cornet very painful

King Oliver

• Oliver continued to record until 1931, but he was quickly becoming a forgotten name. He continued to tour the South with various groups, until he ran out of money and settled in Georgia, where he worked as a janitor in a poolroom up until his death in 1938.

Edward “Kid”Ory 1886-1973

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Kid Ory

• the greatest trombone player in the early years of Jazz. He originally played banjo, but then switched to trombone. Perhaps his banjo playing helped shape the "tailgate" style of playing he later developed on the trombone.

Kid Ory

• from 1912 to 1919 he led one of the most popular bands in New Orleans. Ory's Band featured many of the great musicians who would go on to define the Hot Jazz style.

• At various times King Oliver, a young Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, Sidney Bechet and Jimmie Noone all played in Ory's band.

Kid Ory

• In 1919 Ory relocated to California for health reasons. He assembled a new group of New Orleans musicians on the West Coast and played regularly under the name of Kid Ory's Creole Orchestra. In 1922 they became the first African-American jazz band from New Orleans to record.

Kid Ory

• They used the name of "Spike's Seven Pods of Pepper Orchestra" and recorded the songs "Ory's Creole Trombone" and "Society Blues". 1925 he moved to Chicago, and played regularly with King Oliver, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five and Hot Seven and with Jelly Roll Morton and several other Chicago groups. During the Depression Ory played very little and ran a chicken ranch with his brother. When the Dixieland revival occurred in the 1940's, Ory found his style of music back in vogue. He revived Kid Ory's Creole Orchestra in 1943 and was able to continue to play, tour and record Jazz until he retired in 1966.

Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton1890-1941

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Jelly Roll Morton

• was the first great composer and piano player of Jazz. He was a talented arranger who wrote special scores that took advantage of the three-minute limitations of the 78 rpm records.

• he was a real character whose spirit shines brightly through history, like his diamond studded smile

Jelly Roll Morton

• As a teenager Jelly Roll Morton worked in the whorehouses of Storyville as a piano player. From 1904 to 1917 Jelly Roll rambled around the South. He worked as a gambler, pool shark, pimp, vaudeville comedian and as a pianist.

Jelly Roll Morton

• He was an important transitional figure between ragtime and jazz piano styles. He played on the West Coast from 1917 to 1922 and then moved to Chicago and where he hit his stride.

• Morton's 1923 and 1924 recordings of piano solos for the Gennett label were very popular and influential. He formed the band the Red Hot Peppers and made a series of classic records for Victor. The recordings he made in Chicago featured some of the best New Orleans sidemen like Kid Ory, Barney Bigard, Johnny Dodds, Johnny St. Cyr and Baby Dodds.

Jelly Roll Morton

• Morton relocated to New York in 1928 and continued to record for Victor until 1930. His New York version of The Red Hot Peppers featured sidemen like Bubber Miley, Pops Foster and Zutty Singleton. Like so many of the Hot Jazz musicians, the Depression was hard on Jelly Roll. Hot Jazz was out of style. The public preferred the smoother sounds of the big bands. He fell upon hard times after 1930

Jelly Roll Morton

• ended up playing piano in a dive bar in Washington D.C. In 1938 Alan Lomax recorded him in for series of interviews about early Jazz for the Library of Congress, but it wasn't until a decade later that these interviews were released to the public. Jelly Roll died just before the Dixieland revival rescued so many of his peers from musical obscurity. He blamed his declining health on a voodoo spell.

Musicians

• The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, who billed themselves "The Creators of Jazz", have long been been dismissed as the White guys who copied African-American music, and called it their own.

• The Original Dixieland Jazz Band's recordings still hold their own unique charm

Original Dixieland Jazz Band

• 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

• Its release signaled the beginning of the Jazz age and helped define the wild, exuberent era we call the "Roaring Twenties"

Original Dixieland Jazz Band

• The group had formed in New Orleans, all of the musicians had played in Papa Jack Laine's Reliance Brass Band at one time or another. In 1916 the band moved from New Orleans to Chicago, just like so many of the African-American and Creole musicians from that city