St. Louis and Riverboats (Bio part 6: 1925-1932)

 The SS Capitol was based in New Orleans during the winter; during the summer months its base of operations shifted upriver to St. Louis. For seven years, Willie Humphrey's life followed the same pattern; he lived in St. Louis when the boat was based there. When the Capitol was in New Orleans, he used the Humphrey home at 4225 South Liberty as his base of operations. The city directories list him at that address until 1931. By that point, he had apparently made enough money on the boat to buy a small house at 2413 Cadiz Street. Willie lived there until the end of his life.

The SS Capitol, from a 1925 postcard

The Capitol band Humphrey joined was led by St. Louis trumpeter Dewey Jackson. Jackson had recently replaced the legendary New Orleans riverboat bandleader Fate Marable. The Capitol had a day band and a night band; as a member of the night band, Willie would meet the boat at the wharf around 6 PM, rehearse with the band for a little over an hour and half, and play a moonlight excursion dance from 8 PM until 11:30 or midnight.

Just after Easter, the boat steamed upriver toward St. Louis. The trip took two or three weeks, since the boat stopped for dances at towns along the way. Willie recalled entertaining the residents of Donaldsonville, Plaquemines, Baton Rouge, Greenville (Mississippi), Memphis, and Helena (Arkansas) on the way to St. Louis. After Labor Day, the boat began the slow journey back to New Orleans, again taking several weeks to make the trip.

Life for an itinerant musician on the riverboat was restricted, but comfortable. The Streckfus brothers demanded strict discipline, but if a musician was willing to play by the owners' rules he would be taken care of and paid well. Willie said of the Streckfus brothers, "As long as you satisfy 'em, you can stay long.... As long as you do right you've got the job."

During those weeks when the Capitol was on the move, the musicians ate and slept on board the boat. Humphrey described the food and accommodations positively. The pay was also good; Willie said, "At the time, I made a little money." He described the money as slightly better than he could make gigging in New Orleans, with the added benefit of job security. He didn't like being away from home for long periods, but summed up his experience on the boat, "It was all right; it was a job.... I wasn't crazy about it."

But the positive aspects of a riverboat musician's life outweighed the negative aspects long enough to keep him working for the Streckfus brothers for the rest of the decade and into the 1930s. Perhaps one factor that influenced his decision to keep the job so long was the then-single young musician's fondness for "big-legged St. Louis women," as he told Richard Allen many years later.

Jackson's Capitol band was made up of a mix of New Orleans and St. Louis musicians. Ironically, during their winter residency in New Orleans the band was known as the St. Louis Peacock Charleston Orchestra; when the boat returned to St. Louis the band was renamed the New Orleans Cotton Pickers. Apparently, the appeal of a dance band was enhanced if it claimed to be from a distant city.

Dewey Jackson six months older than Humphrey. He was one of a long line of fine jazz trumpeters that came out of St. Louis. Charlie Creath, Leonard Davis, Harold "Shorty" Baker, Irving "Mousie" Randolph, Joe Thomas, Clark Terry, and Miles Davis are all part of that St. Louis trumpet tradition. Jackson had played in riverboat bands led by Charlie Creath and Fate Marable before taking over the leadership of the Capitol band.

The riverboat bands were not primarily jazz bands, although jazz was part of what they played. Jackson's band played mostly published stock arrangements. Willie remembered that they "played a few numbers by head, but not many."

Under Jackson's leadership, the band played a St. Louis style of music rather than the New Orleans style Humphrey was used to. The St. Louis musicians played with a different beat, described as "toddle time." They also didn't play many of the New Orleans tunes that Willie was familiar with. However, he did recall several Jelly Roll Morton compositions: "We used to play a lot of Jelly Roll's numbers on the boat: 'King Porter,' 'Milenberg Joys,' 'Wolverine' - I think we recorded that one once. We used to play 'Grandpa's Spells' and 'The Pearls' - that was a very good number. We used to play all of them on the boat; some were special arrangements and stocks."

Humphrey primarily played tenor saxophone with Jackson's band. He, along with many other clarinet players, had picked up the saxophone in the early 1920s when the instrument was enjoying unprecedented popularity. He said of the saxophone, "You had to play that. Course, I featured the clarinet."

In June, 1926, Willie Humphrey made his first recordings. The Jackson band recorded four sides in St. Louis as Dewey Jackson's Peacock Orchestra. I'll discuss these recordings in a later post.

Fate Marable's band on the SS Sydney, c. 1919

Sometime during 1927, Fate Marable was reinstated as the leader of the Capitol band. Kentucky-born Marable enjoys legendary status in New Orleans jazz lore. He was a demanding bandleader, and his bands provided training for dozens of New Orleans musicians. One photograph from around 1919 shows a Marable band aboard the SS Sydney,, with Louis Armstrong, Johnny and Baby Dodds, Johnny St. Cyr, and Pops Foster among the personnel. New Orleans drummer Zutty Singleton said of Marable, "There was a saying in New Orleans. When some musician would get a job on the riverboat with Fate Marable, they'd say, 'Well, you're going to the conservatory.'"

Willie Humphrey remembered his association with Marable's band with pride:

I played with Fate Marable in one of the greatest bands there ever was - that went for the music we were playing. We didn't play specials, like the special rags or nothing like that. But he had a great band. He was a driver. If you didn't play it right, he tried to give you two weeks' notice and get you out of there. And there were a lot of musicians in there that weren't stars and they worked together. We had a nice little band, and the people liked the band.

At the end of the decade, probably in 1929, Willie left Marable's band and returned to New Orleans, where he married Ora Mathieu - a union which lasted until Willie's death in 1994. The hiatus from the riverboats did not last long, however. The Humphreys' first child, William James, Jr., was born on November 7, 1930. When Dewey Jackson asked Willie to return to the riverboat band, he did so. Presumably, the steady income of a riverboat musician was a strong incentive for the new husband and father.

During one of his summer stays in St. Louis (1930, 1931, or 1932 - Humphrey could not recall which year), Willie encountered a legendary jazz figure, Jelly Roll Morton. Although Humphrey had played Morton's music, he had never met the great pianist and composer. He later told Bill Russell:

I remember seeing Jelly Roll in St. Louis. Jelly was traveling with Sunshine Sammy's show and was in charge of the band. When Sunshine Sammy was a boy, he used to be in moving pictures - the Our Gang comedies. So he grew up to be a young man, and I guess he was singing or dancing. I never did see the show. I believe Sammy had a little mixup with his daddy and thought he could make it on his own. So he had this show barnstorming around, playing theaters. I don't think it clicked like they had expected, and they weren't doing so well on the road.

So Jelly Roll was traveling with the band when they were stranded in St. Louis where I saw him. Bill Mathews was the trombone player, but I don't remember anyone else from New Orleans in Jelly's band. At the time I was working on the steamer J.S. with Dewey Jackson's band and lived out on Lucas Avenue. I can't remember just where I met Jelly, but it was in some rooming house, and it was summertime, I'm sure. He was just in his shirt sleeves, you know. Jelly had a big old Cadillac. That's what they used to move around in, the Cadillac. So a friend of mine, Al Morgan, the bass player, we all pitched in and gave a little money to get gas. I think Jelly was pulling out for Chicago. So we contributed a little money for gas, because they weren't in good shape. 

Jelly was sort of a slim fellow. He talked very fast. He was smart, and the talk was intelligent-like. Although I'd never seen Jelly in New Orleans, I'd heard plenty talk about him.

Shortly afterwards, Jelly sent for Willie to join Morton's band:

Now, one year when I was on the boat in St. Louis, Jelly asked me to come and join his band in New York. I can't remember how he got word to me, or if he wrote me a letter. Most likely somebody had recommended me to him because I don't think he had ever heard me play. But I didn't leave my job and join him.

Humphrey elaborated to Charlie DeVore about his reasons for rejecting Morton's offer: "I got word that Jelly was not sincere. Jelly was a bad man with his money."

In 1932, Willie had had enough of life on the riverboats and of living away from his family for much of the year. In the midst of the Great Depression, Willie Humphrey returned home to New Orleans.

Sources:

Soards' New Orleans City Directories.

Conversation with Richard Allen, April 4, 2001

William Russell and Ralph Collins: interview with Willie Eli Humphrey and Willie James Humphrey, New Orleans, March 15, 1959; Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University.

William Russell: interview with Willie Humphrey, New orleans, July 25, 1969; Williams Research Center, New Orleans

Charlie DeVore: "Talking With Willie," Mississippi Rag, June, 1982.

James Cahn: interview with Willie Humphrey, New Orleans, November 29, 1979; Hogan Jazz Archive.

Your Blogger, Listening to Willie Humphrey in Person

 Below you'll find a low-quality photograph of Your Blogger, Jeff, looking raptly at Percy and Willie Humphrey before a performance at Preservation Hall in New Orleans in 1992. It's not a good picture, but I'm glad I have it. This will be a more personal post than is usual with this blog; I'll give my impressions (as best as I remember) of the three times I heard Willie Humphrey in person. There are many people who heard him far more often, but those three times were very meaningful to me.

I first visited New Orleans in 1990, when I was 31 years old. Of course, I went to Preservation Hall; I had been looking forward to that experience for years. The evening just mysterious enough to be exciting: When do you show up? Is that the line? Who is playing tonight? The band that night was led by trumpeter Kid Sheik. Besides George "Kid Sheik" Colar, the band included veteran pianist Jeanette Kimball and a real pioneer of the jazz bass, Chester Zardis. Zardis was 90, and played powerful, imaginative jazz that night. There's a picture of him with the legendary, unrecorded cornetist Buddy Petit's band, supposedly taken when Chester was 15. He died four months after I heard him; I feel very fortunate to have seen him in person. Manny Crusto was on clarinet that night, not Willie Humphrey.

I returned to Preservation Hall on my second visit to the Crescent City in the fall of 1991. Although my visit corresponded with the regular night for the Humphrey Brothers Band, they were on tour. Willie, though, had come home to take care of a sick wife, and so played that night. The pickup band was led by English expat trumpeter Clive Wilson, and Phamous Lambert, part of a famous New Orleans musical family, was on piano. I sat at Willie's feet with his clarinet pointed right at my head. He played with more volume than anyone else in the band, and his sound filled the room. He was featured on a nice version of "Just a Closer Walk with Thee." Humphrey was pushing 90, but the only obvious age-related weakness I noticed in his playing was some sloppiness in the 16th-note clarinet breaks in "Fidgety Feet." Otherwise, I was very impressed with his powers, and came away with a sense of fulfilment on hearing a musician I had come to revere.

One potentially unpleasant moment during the evening turned into a nice one. Clive Wilson asked Phamous Lambert to sing on “Pennies from Heaven” and got annoyed when Lambert didn’t. It was obvious to me that Lambert hadn't heard or didn’t understand what Wilson had said. When Lambert didn't start singing at the obvious place, Wilson scowled, than launched into the vocal himself. The audience spontaneously joined in, sang well, and created a warm feeling, wiping out what might have turned into a "humbug," as New Orleans musicians call a disagreement.

Percy and Willie Humphrey
Preservation Hall; November, 1992

I heard Willie Humphrey for the second time a year and a half later, back at Preservation Hall in November, 1992. It was the regular night for the Humphrey Brothers Band, and they were there with the usual lineup of the time: Frank Demond on trombone, pianist Lars Edegran, Narvin Kimball on banjo, bassist James Prevost, and Joe Lastie on drums. As an added bonus, Leroy Jones walked in, wearing his Harry Connick tour jacket, and sat in for a set. I don't remember much about the music that night except that Jones added some very tasteful second trumpet parts. My only surviving note about the evening's music says that "Willie played particularly well." I do remember my feeling of quiet awe before the first set - just being in the presence of those two jazz pioneers, Willie and Percy Humphrey, was something special. They didn't say much to each other, but shared a few softly-spoken sentences as they took their instruments out of their battered cases. My then-wife took a discreet photograph with a cheap camera. That's me to the left.

The last time I saw Willie Humphrey was also at Preservation Hall, on April 2, 1994, just nine and a half weeks before he died. The personnel was the same as in 1992, except that Benjamin Jaffe had replaced James Prevost on bass. I spent part of the evening in the Hall's small performance space, and part of the evening listening from the carriageway, with one of the ubiquitous Preservation Hall cats sitting in my lap.  It was the night before Easter, and the band opened with Irving Berlin's “The Easter Parade.”  Willie sang “Bourbon Street Parade,” gesturing toward Bourbon Street every time he sang the words “on Bourbon Street,” and he marched around in a circle when he sang, “I’ll parade you” - some nice show business from a 93-year-old musician/entertainer. Willie only had a few more gigs after this, and I feel lucky to have caught one of his last performances. But each of those three times I heard him in person was special.

Excelsior Brass Band, Kid Rena, Ma Rainey (Bio part 5: 1923-1925)

Sometime during Willie Humphrey's 1920-1925 period in New Orleans, he joined the Excelsior Brass Band, considered to be one of the finest musical organizations in the city. George Moret, Willie's colleague in the Pythian Roof Garden band, was the music director of the Excelsior band, so Humphrey was probably invited to join the Excelsior while he was sharing the bandstand with Moret at the Roof Garden. 

The Excelsior Brass Band was a well-rehearsed group full of highly literate musicians; they played published arrangements, Moret's own handwritten arrangements, and less formal music. Humphrey said of the band, "To me, at the time, it was best 'cause we used music. We used to play head numbers, too." As was customary in New Orleans street bands, Willie played the smaller E flat clarinet with the Excelsior, rather than the standard B flat instrument. He played with the band at least until he began his second stint of playing on the riverboats in 1925, and he apparently played with them after that when it was possible; Leonard Bocage mentions Humphrey being part of the band around 1927. Willie was proud of his connection with the band, and kept his Excelsior Brass Band cap until the end of his life.

Of course, Humphrey played with other bands and musicians during this period. He mentions playing with Johnny St. Cyr for a long time, and he often subbed for Alphonse Picou in theater pit bands when that pioneer clarinetist was unable to play a job. Willie also played with the great blues singers Ida Cox and Ma Rainey during this period. The engagement with Rainey (a tent show) stood out in his memory; he called her “the greatest blues singer I ever heard,” but “ugly as old babe sin.” On this job he played violin; Buddy Christian played piano.

Percy, Willie James, and Willie Eli Humphrey

One memorable engagement was a gig with his father on Delacroix Island, southeast of New Orleans. Willie played clarinet while the elder Humphrey played saxophone. During one of the band’s breaks, the Humphreys were reminiscing about the days of Storyville with a guest from New Orleans when an armed drunk came into the dance hall and started shooting. The building emptied; Willie Eli remembered that he beat everyone out of the hall and was almost to the lake by the time most people got out. His son chided him, “I thought you such a brave man.”

Willie’s last regular gig during this period was with another legendary New Orleans cornet man, Kid Rena. Henry Rena is usually mentioned as one of the great early jazz players by musicians who were around in those days. Fellow trumpeter Lee Collins said of him, “Rena had a most beautiful tone and a range which was more perfect than any cornet players' I ever heard. He could play the high register so clear and beautiful. In the early days he used to really cut me when we would meet on the corners advertising some club.”

Although Rena was only 41 when he made his only recordings, he was apparently long past his prime. The records show a relaxed New Orleans lead trumpet style, but nothing of the brilliance Collins and other New Orleanians ascribed to him. Collins gives reason for Rena’s decline: “It’s too bad he drank so much and his lip gave out early.” However, Willie stated that during his stint with Rena, the cornetist was not drinking. Willie played with Kid Rena for about a year.

While playing with Rena in the fall of 1925, Willie went down to the river for one night’s work filling in with the band on the Streckfus boat S.S. Capitol. He didn’t return to Rena; he signed on with the riverboat band permanently. For the next seven years the Streckfus riverboats would provide Humphrey the bulk of his musical employment.

Sources:

Leonard Bocage interview, 1972; cited in Richard Knowles: Fallen Heroes, Jazzology Press, 1996

Allen, Richard, liner notes to Two Clarinets on the Porch,  GHB Records, 1992

William Russell and Ralph Collins: interview with Willie Eli Humphrey and Willie James Humphrey, New Orleans, March 15, 1959; Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University.

Charlie DeVore: "Talking With Willie," Mississippi Rag, June, 1982.

Lee Collins:  Oh, Didn’t He Ramble, University of Illinois Press, 1974.

Maurice Durand

Here's a little more about Maurice Durand, Willie Humphrey's co-leader of the Durand-Humphrey band. 

Durand was born in St. Bernard Parish just east of New Orleans in 1893. As mentioned in the previous post, he studied with Professor Jim Humphrey, but was a protégé of Manuel Perez. He often played second cornet with Perez on parades, and he modeled his style after that of the more famous cornetist. It is said that Durand's technique and power were such that Perez dispensed with the hiring of the customary third cornet for brass band jobs when Durand was the second cornetist. Durand played with the Excelsior, Onward, Tuxedo, Imperial, Terminal, and Eureka brass bands (practically all of the great early New Orleans brass bands), as well as dance jobs. According to saxophonist Harold Dejan, 

Maurice Durand had his own little band too, so I played with him too. Durand lived on Deslonde Street in the 9th Ward and used to get all the jobs down St. Bernard Parish. During the day he worked at a broom factory. He played on all the weddings and St. Joseph Day parties. Maurice used to play in the Alley Cabaret by the St. Bernard Market, that's on Clairborne and St. Bernard and in the back was the Alley Cabaret. 

During World War I, Durand was in the army, playing with the New Orleans-based 816th Pioneer Regimental Brass Band, led by cornetist Amos White. The band, which saw service in England and France, already had enough cornetists, so White switched Durand to E-flat clarinet and gave him lessons on the instrument. Sometime during their stint in France, he switched to trumpet - his first time playing that instrument rather than its cousin, the cornet.

Victory Arch, Ninth Ward

Durand's military service earned him a spot on an impressive monument in his old neighborhood. On Burgundy Street in the Ninth Ward's Bywater neighborhood there is a large arch, erected in 1919 "by the people of this the Ninth Ward in honor of its citizens who were enlisted in combative service and in memory of those who made the supreme sacrifice in the triumph of right over might in the Great World War." There is a website on the monument and its history here. There are four brass plaques on the arch, listing the names of all the World War I veterans from the Ninth Ward. Of course, given the year it was erected, the names are separated by race; three of the plaques contain the names of the white soldiers who served, while one honors the "colored" soldiers. Maurice Durand's name is included on that plaque.

Durand became frustrated with the meagre Depression-era wages he was earning as a musician, and gave up playing in 1933. He moved to San Francisco in 1944.

Maurice Durand's name on the Victory Arch

Jazz historian Bill Russell tracked down Durand in 1958, and recorded an interview (see link below). During the interview, Russell persuaded him to play a little trumpet, and Durand consented to play 16 measures of "I'm Confessing." His lip is out of shape, but you can tell that he once had an impressive command of the instrument. That brief glimpse of Durand's playing was included on the CD which accompanies Richard H. Knowles' Fallen Heroes: A History of New Orleans Brass Bands.

Maurice Durand died in San Francisco in 1961. 

Sources: 

William Russell: interview with Maurice Durand, August 22, 1958; Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University. 

Richard H. Knowles:  Fallen Heroes: A History of New Orleans Brass Bands; Jazzology Press, 1996.

Mick Burns: The Great Olympia Band; Jazzology Press, 2001.

The Harold Dejan quote was taken from a brass band history page on the Hurricane Brand Band (Netherlands) website which has now disappeared.

Young Bandleader in New Orleans (Bio part 4: 1920-1923)

 When Willie Humphrey returned to New Orleans from Chicago in 1920, he was surprised to discover that musicians in his hometown were earning more money than their Chicago counterparts. So he decided to try his luck back home for awhile. He moved back to his grandparents' house at 4225 South Liberty Street; this address would be his base of operations for the next five years. 

His first job after arriving back in the Crescent City was with Amos Riley's Tulane Orchestra. Riley was a cornetist, and led one of the best-known dance bands in the city at the time. (Riley's son Teddy, born in 1924, became a popular trumpet player in his own right.) Also in Riley's band was trombonist Frankie Dusen, who was famously a member of jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden's band. Dusen, some 20 years older than Humphrey, was described by Willie as "rough" and "fly" (hip). 

Riley's band had a regular gig at the Pythian Roof Garden at South Saratoga and Gravier Streets. Willie found playing with Riley educational:

Amos Riley was not a great trumpet player I would say, but he was a nice musician. He had his own way of playing, a soft way. I wouldn't call him a jazz player but he played a nice horn. He could read real well and that meant a lot to me. If you work with good musicians and you're just mediocre, you can learn from them. It helps you.

Tension soon developed, however, due to Riley's difficulty making the eight o'clock starting time; his daytime work as a barber sometimes made him late. The management of the Pythian Roof Garden effectively fired Riley from his own band; he was replaced by George Moret. "Old Man Moret," born in 1861, had been the leader of the Excelsior Brass Band since 1905. Although Moret was not a jazz musician, he was highly respected as one of the finest cornetists in the city. Willie said of him, "He was one of the best, to me. At that time, he was the best street cornet player they had." Like many New Orleans musicians, Moret had a day job; he was a cigar maker.

This is a good place for a digression about the Pythian Roof Garden, and the Pythian Temple in which it was housed. The Temple was built by the Colored Order of the Knights of Pythias of Louisiana, a branch of a fraternal order similar to the Masons. Completed in 1909, this impressive building housed offices for black-owned businesses, a theater, and on the top floor, an open air dancing/entertainment venue, the Roof Garden. The Roof Garden became one of the most popular nightspots for Black New Orleans society; it was enclosed in 1923 - more on that later. The Pythian Order went bankrupt in 1941 and lost the building. After years of ups and downs, the building is now a multi-use apartment/business complex.

Thom's Roadhouse

When Moret took over the cornet spot in the Roof Garden band, Frankie Dusen took over its leadership. According to Willie, Dusen was "a terrible manager," and Humphrey eventually had a falling out with the trombonist. Willie quit the band to work with drummer Zutty Singleton at Thom's Roadhouse, a large restaurant and bar in West End, near Lake Pontchatrain. Singleton was eventually recognized as one of the great New Orleans drummers, but during the Thom's job, Zutty was having trouble mastering his new spring-loaded bass drum pedal. Willie described the problem: "You hit it, it would bounce back a couple of times." 

After playing with Singleton for awhile, Humphrey went back to the Pythian Roof Garden, this time as co-leader of the band. With Maurice Durand on cornet and Buddy Johnson in the trombone spot, the band was known, rather straightforwardly, as the Durand-Humphrey band. Durand, born in 1893, was closer to Willie's age than most of the celebrated cornet men Humphrey had been playing with. A former student of Willie's grandfather, Durand "wasn't such a fast reader but he did all right.... He had pretty good chops," according to his co-leader. Durand was an admirer of Manuel Perez's cornet style, so he was particularly pleased when Willie complimented him after they played a parade together; Humphrey said that he couldn't distinguish Durand's playing from that of Perez.

Pythian Roof Garden - first night with the new roof.

Apparently the young clarinetist impressed the management of the Roof Garden with his musicianship and professionalism, because he soon was given sole control of the band - he was the nightspot's "preference man," as he put it. "Boy, we used to pack that place up there," he remembered. The open-air club was only open in the summer until the space was enclosed. A picture of the first night the Roof Garden was open after the new roof was installed allegedly shows the Humphrey band on the balcony, but the faces are difficult to distinguish at that distance from the camera.

As Willie became established as a bandleader, quite a few excellent musicians passed through the ranks of his band. At one point the Humphrey band was a four-piece outfit with Charlie Love on trumpet and Fats Pichon on piano; According to Willie, his band usually did not use a piano, but "when I had occasion, I'd hire a piano player." One of the piano players he sometimes used was Buddy Christian. Christian (who dressed "fancy-like," according to Willie) also played banjo and guitar, and is possibly the banjoist who recorded many sides with Clarence Williams in the 1920s. When asked about that possibility later, Willie was uncertain if it was the same Buddy Christian. 

The bass chair in the Humphrey band was filled for a time by Jimmy Johnson, another veteran of the Bolden band. Willie was apparently not happy with Johnson, however, and fired him in favor of Henry Kimball, father of banjoist Narvin Kimball, who would be one of Willie's colleagues in the Preservation Hall Jazz Band many years later. Bebe Mathews, brother of trombonist Bill Mathews, was Willie's drummer. Finally, Willie Green was in the banjo chair. "He was a pretty good banjo player, and he was a very nice man to get along with," recalled Humphrey.

What did the Willie Humphrey band sound like? We can't really know at this point, but the band was probably an all-around dance band rather than a hard-core jazz unit. The fact that the band played at such upscale venues as the Pythian Roof Garden and the New Orleans Country Club (where Willie had a regular Saturday night gig) suggests that the band played in the relatively smooth style exhibited by A. J. Piron's New Orleans Orchestra in their recordings from the period. On the Piron sides, the band swings in the New Orleans style but does not get too heated. The musicians improvise, but the melody is always in view. It is easy to imagine that the Humphrey band played in a similar style. In any case, Willie later recalled some of the tunes in the band's repertoire: "Nice and Nifty," "Nickel in the Slot," and selections from the famous "Red Back Book" ragtime folio, including "Maple Leaf Rag."

The next biographical post will cover the rest of Willie Humphrey's activities in New Orleans during the 1920s

Sources:

William Russell and Ralph Collins: interview with Willie Eli Humphrey and Willie James Humphrey, New Orleans, March 15, 1959; Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University.

Charlie DeVore: "Talking With Willie," Mississippi Rag, June, 1982.

Richard Knowles: Fallen Heroes: A History of New Orleans Brass Bands; Jazzology Press, 1996

Final Recording

 Well, I got off to a pretty good start with this blog, then got busy with other projects. But I'm back, with a short entry and the promise of more to come.

The Maryland Jazz Band of Cologne is a fine traditional New Orleans-style band from Germany. For many years they were led by trombonist Gerhard "Doggy" Hund (1943-2015). (His nickname is a nice bilingual pun!) They have made a practice of inviting guest musicians from New Orleans to tour with them in Europe. Willie Humphrey was such a guest, touring with them in 1982, 1990, 1992, and 1993.

"Doggy" Hund

That last visit produced Humphrey's last issued recording, as far as I know. The band and their guest played at the Breda Jazz Festival in The Netherlands on May 21, 1993. A sampler album from each year's festival is generally issued, and the 1993 CD includes the Maryland Jazz Band's  spirited performance of "Quand Moi Etais Petit." 

Willie plays well in the style of his final years - by which I mean that he sounds like a 92-year-old clarinetist: but a good 92-year-old clarinetist! In his last years his sound became somewhat gnarled, and his fingering was sometimes a little uncertain. But these flaws end up being minor, considering that his imagination and musicianship remained intact until the end. He even joins trumpet Joris De Cock for a vocal chorus, resorting to some pretty funny fake French, since he doesn't really know the words. (I think I heard "Rice-a-Roni" in there.)

I'm including this recording because of its rarity - I searched for my copy for a long time. But if requested by the copyright owner, I will gladly remove it.

Personnel is: Willie Humphrey - clarinet & vocal; Joris De Cock - trumpet & vocal; Gerhard "Doggy" Hund - trombone; Hans-Martin "Buli" Schöning - banjo; Rowan Smith - piano; Benny Dombrowe - bass; Peter Wechlin - drums.

Quand Moi Etais Petit

A Few Months in Chicago (Bio part 3: 1919-1920)

When Willie Humphrey left the band of the Streckfus steamboat J.S. at the end of the 1919 season, he headed for Chicago, one of the country's major centers of black entertainment. The young musician managed to get a job his first night in the city. Many of Chicago's jazz musicians were from New Orleans; one of them, George Filhe, was leading the band at the Deluxe Cafe, at 35th and State Streets at the edge of the city's Bronzeville neighborhood. Shortly before Willie's arrival in Chicago, Filhe's clarinetist, Lorenzo Tio, Jr., quit.

For awhile, Filhe made do with a clarinetist named Fernandez, but Fernandez was also playing with the band at the nearby Grand Theater, and could only arrive for Filhe's gig when the Grand's show was over. Willie, newly arrived, walked into the Grand and introduced himself to the band; he didn't know any of the musicians, but many of the New Orleans-born players knew his family and thought that it would be worth taking a chance on his abilities. He was sent to the Deluxe to play with Filhe, who was apparently pleased with the clarinetist's abilities, since Willie stayed with the band until the Deluxe closed for repairs.

George Filhe, some 28 years older than Humphrey, had a distinguished background that included stints with the Onward Brass Band, the Peerless Orchestra, and the Imperial Orchestra in New Orleans. The young clarinetist admired Filhe's musicianship: "George Filhe - he had a wonderful lip - he said he could make a chromatic scale in each position.... He was a great baritone player, too." Filhe's band at the Deluxe included a truly legendary New Orleans musician, cornetist Manuel Perez. The band played from stock arrangements,Willie recalled.

We didn't play nothing by ear. I used to go around to all the publishing houses and pick up the music after I was introduced down there by George Filhe. I'd come back with a pack of music every Monday. It was our rehearsal. We'd put the music out.

During his stint with Filhe, Humphrey became friends with fellow clarinetists Darnell Howard and Buster Bailey. Apparently, the three men formed something of a mutual admiration society. Howard, working with Charles Elgar's orchestra, and Bailey, playing at the time with Erskine Tate at the Vendome Theater, would come to the Deluxe to hear Willie play. He would return the compliment by listening to then at their gigs. He considered Howard to be a better violinist that clarinetist, however.

Filhe and Humphrey played a pickup gig of some renown during this period. A group of Chicago

White Sox baseball fans engaged a jazz band to play in the bleachers at the infamous, scandal-plagued 1919 "Black Sox" World Series. The band was led by clarinetist Lawrence Duhé; besides Filhe and Humphrey, it included King Oliver on cornet, tenor saxophonist Jimmie Palao, But Scott on banjo, bassist Wellman Braud, and Willie's cousin Tubby Hall on drums. (This personnel does not completely match those given in other sources; it is a composite of those given by Frank Driggs and Harris Lewine in Black Beauty, White Heat and in interviews by Willie Humphrey.) The group of fans payed the band's way into the game; the musicians then played for tips, picking up about thirty dollars apiece. Years later Willie described the band as "satisfied" with the arrangement. "They wanted to see the game, you know." And who were these fans who brought King Oliver and Willie Humphrey to the World Series at Comiskey Park? Pointing to the fans surrounding the band in the famous photograph of the event, Willie said, "And these were all the gamblers and pimps and hustlers." Commenting on this photo many years later, Allan Jaffe, longtime proprietor of Preservation Hall, described his hypothetical ideal day to jazz historian Richard Allen: "watching the World Series and listening to King Oliver."

1919 World Series band. Willie is fifth from left, partially obscured by the tenor sax neck.

When the Deluxe closed for repairs, Filhe's band was temporarily out of work. Willie was soon offered a job by the great New Orleans cornetist Freddie Keppard, who was enjoying great popularity in Chicago at the time. Humphrey felt indebted to George Filhe for giving him a steady job, so he asked the trombonist's permission before accepting Keppard's offer. Filhe gave Willie his blessing, but with a condition: if Filhe found another steady gig, Willie had to promise to quit Keppard's band and return. Humphrey agreed to this condition and began playing with Keppard.

The young clarinetist was now playing with one of the most famous and respected early New Orleans musicians. Keppard was considered by his peers to be one of the very best cornetists of early jazz. His true stature is difficult to verify today; it is generally agreed that he did not record until he was past his prime. In any case, Willie was extremely impressed by Keppard's playing:

Such beautiful tone. Good ideas. Freddie played all over his horn. He had a different style altogether from King Oliver. Oliver was much rougher, you understand. Freddie was nice and light. Clear. You could be sitting right under him, and it would sound just as nice. But you could hear him two, three blocks away.

Keppard's repertoire included selections from the "Red Back Book," as musicians of the time called the collection of ragtime arrangements published by Stark Music under the more formal title Standard High-Class Rags. Willie recalls "The Entertainer" and "The Easy Winners" as two of the selections Keppard favored. He said of playing the Stark arrangements, "That was my first experience with them. It was hard. It's easier after get accustomed to it." Of his music reading skills during this period, he said, "I considered myself to be a fair reader at the time. Of course, we had guys that could outread me but I used to get compliments anyway."

Before long, George Filhe came calling with the news that he had secured another job. Willie kept his word and rejoined Filhe's band at Freiberg's at 22nd St. and Wabash Avenue on the Near South Side. In retrospect, he believed that this was a mistake; the job at Freiberg's did not last long.

 After three or four months in Chicago, Willie fell ill and decided to return home to New Orleans in early 1920. He had left the city as a promising youngster from a well-known musical family, but he would return as a full-fledged professional musician.

Sources:

William Russell and Ralph Collins: interview with Willie Eli Humphrey and Willie James Humphrey, New Orleans, March 15, 1959; Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University.

Charlie DeVore: "Talking With Willie," Mississippi Rag, June, 1982.

Al Rose & Edmond Souchon: New Orleans Jazz: A Family Album; Louisiana State University Press, 1984.

Frank Driggs & Harris Lewine: Black Beauty, White Heat; Da Capo Press, 1995.

Frederick Turner: Renembering Song; Viking Press, 1982.

Conversation with Richard Allen, April 4, 2001.