EncyclopediaOfEarlyJazz
Contents
Japanese Encyclopedia of Early Jazz (translated by Google & edited by PoJ.fm)
Buddy Bolden — Trumpeter & Bandleader
Career
Charles "Buddy" Bolden is said to have been the first band leader to play improvised music that would later be called jazz, and he was a cornet player in New Orleans and was first called "King." . . . The musicians at that time remembered his loud and clear tone, and according to their testimony, the sound of Buddy Bolden's sound of the cornet echoed twwlve miles beyond the Delta in Mississippi.
When Buddy Bolden was only six years old, his father, who was a cart, died of pneumonia, and his sister died before Buddy Bolden was born, so he lived with his mother and sister. His family was forced to live in poverty, but it is said that it was a solid family that believed in Baptism. Fascinated by gospel music he listened to at church, Buddy Bolden began to want to know more about music, and when he was a teenager, he started learning the cornet with the money his mother managed to save.
In the early 1890s, he began to play the cornet regularly, and in 1895, he began to make money with music. However, it seems that he worked as a plasterer during the day until he became a professional musician in 1901.
A well-known legend about Buddy Bolden is that Buddy Bolden was a barber and published a bulletin collecting city gossip to earn pocket money, but in fact Buddy Bolden wasn't a barber, and he didn't sell the city scandal sheet.
The first band Buddy Bolden joined was a small dance band led by guitar player Charlie Galloway, but the anecdote about barbers in the legend of Buddy Bolden is that it seems to belong to Charlie Galloway. Among the musicians who gather at Charlie Galloway's hair salon is the clarinetist Frank Lewis, who will later be added to Buddy Bolden's band.
Buddy Bolden's band, formed in the 1890s, was simply named Buddy Bolden's Band, while many of the other orchestras at that time had an exaggerated meaning, not a personal name. . . . . There is a story that Buddy Bolden's Band played at the wharf to see off transport ships heading to Cuba in 1898, when the Spanish-American War broke out, but according to Ray Lopez's testimony at that time, it's not yet "jazz. . . . On the other hand, it is a performance that shakes the hearts of soldiers going to war, and it is said that a riot occurred because of this performance. According to Ray Lopez, it has been banned to play "Habu no Yado" as a song when sending out the army.
Around 1902, Buddy Bolden began to perform hot performances, which was the prototype of jazz. The story that Buddy Bolden's Band played hot rhythms and was enthusiastically received by the audience and took away the audience gathered in Johnson Park for the John Robichaux Orchestra in 1904.
However, Buddy Bolden's career, which seemed to be going well, also begins to see a shadow. In March 1906, Buddy Bolden was in a state of psychosis due to alcoholism, making it difficult for him to continue playing. When the leader of Buddy Bolden's Band was taken over by Frank Duson, there was no place for Buddy Bolden in this orchestra, and it seems to have deepened his isolation.
Buddy Bolden's last performance was with the Allen Brass Band. While this brass band was on the parade, Buddy Bolden could not only not play properly but also had difficulty walking. It is said that the brass band left Buddy Bolden behind and continued the parade.
When he was taken into a mental hospital on June 5, 1907, Buddy Bolden spent the rest of his life there. According to the testimony of the person who was the caretaker of the ward, Buddy Bolden joined the band in the hospital, and the performance was wonderful even when his mental condition was getting worse. It is said that Buddy Bolden was only alive when he was playing, and sometimes he produced enthusiastic performances.
John Robichaux — Violinist, Drummer, Bandleader
Career
John Robichaux is known as the leader of a dance band called John Robichaux's Orchestra, which was popular at the time of the birthplace of jazz.
He was born in a Creole family, studied brass, bass, horns, etc., and was also good at drumming. It was around 1891 that he came to New Orleans from his hometown of Thibodaux, Louisiana, and it was the beginning of his music career when he joined the Excelsior Brass Band as a bass drummer. In 1893, he formed his own orchestra and raised this orchestra into a presence that divided popularity with Buddy Bolden's Band.
Many of the early John Robichaux's Orchestra members were musicians related to the Excelsior Brass Band, Baptiste Delisle and James MacNeil, James Williams, Charles McCundy and others supported the orchestra with John Robichaux. With John Robichaux's Orchestra, he mainly played the violin. John Robichaux's Orchestra is said to have undertaken most of the good jobs in the downtown area of New Orleans. Also, when drummer Dee Dee Chandler invented the style of playing snare drums and bass drums at the same time by using wooden foot pedals (the prototype of modern drum sets), this also generated a great reputation. It solidified the fame of John Robichaux's Orchestra.
A crisis came to John Robichaux around 1898. Dee Dee Chandler, Baptiste Delisle, James MacNeil, and Wendell MacNeil, who were key members of the John Robichaux's Orchestra were requisitioned by the army. In order to maintain the orchestra, John Robichaux needed to gather substitute musicians, and joined Bud Scott, Lorenzo Tio Jr., Paul Beaulieu, etc. It is said that Manuel Perez sometimes participated to make up for the band's vacancy.
John Robichaux also continued to work with the Excelsior Brass Band, but in 1904, he took over the role of bass drummer to Clay Jiles, his hometown, and Excelsior B I left the brass band and became devoted to his own band. (There is a record that he played as a member of the Excelsior Brass Band at a concert held at the fairground in 1913.)
It was from 1919 to 1927 that he led the John Robichaux's Orchestra at the Lyric Theater. It is also said that he appeared at the La Louisiane restaurant.
Jimmy Harrison — Trombonist
It is the testimony of Rex Stewart that Duke Ellington and Elmer Snowden fought a fierce battle over a trombone player, but it is certainly Jimmy Harrison, who had that much ability. The trombone players who influenced him include, Jack Teagarden, Dicky Wells, and Tommy Dorsey. In addition, J.C. It is also Rex Stewart's remark that Higginbotham, Sandy Williams, Vic Dickenson and others can feel the influence of Jimmy Harrison. He was a great trombone player called the father of swing trombone.
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Jimmy Harrison moved to Detroit when he was six years old and grew up there. He learned the trombone on his own, and by the age of fifteen, he started playing in a small band. However, Jimmy Harrison became tired of the music, so he quickly gets out of the band and spent his high school days playing baseball. He was a well known first baseman, and when he joined the traveling local semi-professional team, he never returned to high school.
Jimmy's family moved to Toledo, Ohio, but after quitting high school, Jimmy worked at a restaurant run by his father and started becoming known as a chef. In fact, even after he established himself as a musician, he was proud of his cooking skills. However, his career as a cook was short-lived. . . . After that, he joined a traveling minstrel show and lived by singing songs and playing the trombone. This is said to have happened around 1919.
His footprints after this local tour seem to have led his forming his own trio and playing with Hunk Duncan in Detroit, according to testimony. Then, in the city of Toledo, he met June Clark and James P. Johnson and hit it off. He worked with them from 1921 to 1923 and went on tour. In 1923, he joined the Fess Williams band and came to New York. After that, he also played at clubs with his best friend June Clark, but it is said that Bill Basie (later nicknamed Count) was in charge of the piano there. He also had a chance to play with Duke Ellington, and eventually joining many other bands, including Elmer Snowden's orchestra.
From 1927 to 1931, he played in the Fletcher Henderson orchestra. Once he was fired because he couldn't read the sheet music, but when he realized that he had made a terrible mistake, Fletcher Henderson rehired him in a panic. He gained popularity as a soloist, and he seems to have been a good friend of his colleague, Coleman Hawkins, who respected each other. In 1930, Harrison was hospitalized for stomach cancer, but he continued playing music. By the way, he also played with the Chick Webb Orchestra in 1931.
It has been said that he was on good terms with Jack Teagarden and had several jam sessions, but the co-starring between the two was limited to informal places such as late-night clubs and rent parties. The racial wall prevented two people from playing in an official place (for example, recording). However, it has been revealed by the testimony of the musicians at that time that there was a co-starring of these two great trombone players. Sometimes Coleman Hawkins also joined these two and enjoyed the performance. There is also a story that Jack Teagarden joined the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, and even in a time when black discrimination was still strong, Jimmy Harrison and Jack Teagarden respected and continued to interact with each other.
Jimmy Harrison died in 1931. He was 30 years old. The cause of death was gastric cancer from the previous year. Since he died young, he has been surprisingly underestimated, but it can be said that he determined the direction of the next ten years of trombone methods. He was the father of swing trombone.
Tommy Ladnier — Trumpeter
Career
His real name was Thomas Ladnier, born in Mandeville, Louisiana in 1900. He started playing the trumpet when he was ten years old and learning from Bunk Johnson. He moved to Chicago in 1917 and started working as a professional musician around 1921.
It seems that he worked in the Charlie Creath and Fate Marable bands in St. Louis in 1921. After that, when he returned to Chicago, he was active in King Oliver's band. He recorded with blues singers such as Ma Rainey and Ida Cox, and these series of recordings were highly praised by jazz friends and were called "King of The Blues".
In 1925, he joined Sam Wooding's band and toured Europe with this band. When he returned to Japan in 1926, he joined the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in New York. From 1928 to 1929, he once again worked in Sam Wooding's orchestra and on a European tour. After that, he worked in Europe until the spring of 1931.
From 1930 to the following year, he worked in Noble Sissle's orchestra and performed in Paris, London, and New York. It was only around this time that his friendship with Sidney Bechet deepened. After returning to Japan in 1932, he teamed up with Sidney Bechet to form the New Orleans Feetwarmers.
Unfortunately, this band didn't last long and broke up in the spring of 1933. It was due to the great recession that hit the United States and other countries around the world. From 1933 to 1934, he and Sidney Bechet co-owned a clothing store, but when Sidney Bechet returned to Noble Sissle's Orchestra in 1934, Ladnier left for New York. After that, Tommy Ladnier was active in his own combos, etc., as well as a trumpet teacher, but after a while he became unrecognized.
It was from October to November 1938 that French jazz critic Hughes Panassie re-evaluated black musicians of New Orleans jazz, and as a result, Tommy Ladnier was rediscovered. According to drummer Zutty Singleton, it was found that Tommy Ladnier lived near New York. In this way, a series of recordings called Panassie Sessions were performed. In this session, Tommy Ladnier played with Mezz Mezzrow, Sidney Bechet, and Teddy Bunn. Sidney De Paris also participated in the first Panassie Sessions, but it seems that his musicality did not suit Ladnier's taste.
Tommy Ladnier, who performed as a hot player at the Panassie Sessions, passed away in 1939 due to heart disease.
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