Note: for clarity, the single name "Willie" below always refers to Willie James Humphrey; his father will be referred to as "Willie Eli."
Willie was born on Freret Street between Napoleon Avenue and Jena Street in the same Uptown neighborhood he subsequently lived most of his life. James Brown Humphrey owned a lot of property in this part of town at the time, including the house in which Willie was born. Willie told jazz researcher Karl Konig:
Grandfather made his money in real estate. At one time he owned all the land around Cadiz and Liberty Streets. When he needed money he would just sell some land. He never had any money problems. He lived a very comfortable life from his land. He had a garden for much of his food and I think teaching music was a labor of love.... He was always down at city hall, looking up deeds and other things. He was known by all the city officials and very well liked and respected by them and by everyone that knew him. He had a half-brother who was a minor public official.William Humphrey (Willie Eli) is listed in the 1901 New Orleans City Directory as living at 4431 Freret. After James Humphrey died in 1937, Willie Eli sold the property as part of the settlement of the estate. There are now no houses on this block; the site of Willie Humphrey’s birthplace is a parking lot for Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School (or it was when I last visited several years ago).
Willie’s birth was followed by that of his brother Earl (who became a much-traveled trombonist) on September 9, 1902. Percy, the youngest brother (and later a distinguished trumpet player), was born on January 13, 1905. Sometime around Percy’s arrival, the family moved around the corner to 2537 Jena Street. During this period, Willie Eli’s occupation was usually given in the annual city directories as driver or teamster, but he was also gigging as a musician.
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| Professor James Brown Humphrey |
Willie’s mother died when he was eight years old; he and his brothers were thereafter raised by his grandparents. He told William Carter of his father, “He was on the road a lot, playing with shows and circuses. My father had nothing to do with us after my Mama died. She was real young. My grandmama raised us.” The estrangement Willie hints at seems to be somewhat exaggerated, since Willie played musical jobs with his father beginning in his teenage years.
James Humphrey and his extended family lived at 4523 South Liberty Street until 1910 or 1911, when they moved next door to 4525, a house that was still standing on my last visit to the area. Willie Eli apparently continued to use 2537 Jena as his base of operations for his touring. “William Humphrey” is still listed at this address in the city directories as late as 1915. This is the first year in which he is listed as a musician, rather than a driver or mover.
James Humphrey and his wife raised their grandchildren in a strict but loving environment. They were religious, and the Humphreys regularly attended Simpson African Methodist Episcopal Church on Valence Street in their neighborhood. (The name of the church was later changed to Trinity A.M.E.) Professor Humphrey's abilities as a gardener came in handy, as he harvested enough figs from his garden to pay the property taxes on the house in which he lived. Willie “used to make garden, too,” to use his own words. His grandfather had him cutting grass and working in the garden to help out.
Music was always in the air at the Humphrey house. Older boys would come by for their music lessons with Willie’s grandfather, often paying for them by work rather than cash. Among these students was Fred “Tubby” Hall, who, along with his brother Minor, was a cousin of young Willie. Both Hall brothers become professional drummers and are well known to followers of early jazz. James Humphrey kept a variety of instruments in the house, and it was not surprising when Willie began violin lessons with his grandfather at the age of nine.
“Professor” James Humphrey’s teaching style was strict; late in his life Willie recounted, “His teaching was almost like punishment. I’d get cramps in my hands because if I made a mistake on the music paper, which was very rough, I had to write it a hundred times.” The “rough” paper was not commercial music manuscript paper, it was ordinary brown wrapping paper which would have to be ruled for music notation. His tuition also included the usual scales and exercises. In addition to playing and writing music, young Willie was drilled with whatever teaching aids were at hand: “Man, this was my staff: five fingers.”
Willie described his youthful practice sessions:
My granddaddy was in the front of the house and he'd give me his lessons or he'd be up there reading. He read all Shakespeare's books, Dickens, and all that kind of stuff. I had an adopted uncle and he used to send Chicago papers and all that to my granddaddy. He'd read them them all and play the piano. He wasn't much of a piano player but he knew the instrument just like I know a little about the piano, too. Of course, I'd be in the back practicing and my grandma would get mad hearing all that noise and say, "Get on out in the yard." ...So I'd go back in the yard and practice. I practiced a lot.James Humphrey’s rigid teaching style did not prevent a close relationship from forming between Willie and his grandfather. The elder Humphrey went to bed early, sometimes as early as six or seven o’clock. Willie would take him a jug of ice water in the summer and often stay in the room as long as an hour, talking about music and life. Later in life he spoke highly of his grandfather’s abilities and indicated that he was perhaps not the best of students. “I should be the greatest musician in the world but a lot of stuff he would tell me would go in and out.” He summed up his grandfather’s teaching by saying, “My granddaddy was very dutiful; he made a fair musician out of me.”
Professor Humphrey soon had his grandson playing in public. "At first I played in a church choir with my granddaddy. I'd get about a dollar." This was the first paying job he could remember; Willie was about 11 years old. Soon afterwards he began playing in an orchestra comprised of James Humphrey’s students. This orchestra played fairly regular public engagements, including one at Chalmette, La. every May 30. Willie remembered pianist Emma Barrett (with whom he later frequently played and recorded) being at this job, which was a “church affair.” The Humphrey student orchestra also shared jobs with Captain Jones’s Colored Waifs’ Home Band, which contained cornetists Louis Armstrong and Kid Rena at the time. Willie later spoke of having “led” a 22-piece orchestra at New Orleans University in his youth, but he meant that he was the concertmaster, or first-chair violinist, in a student orchestra conducted by his grandfather.
The young violinist was attracted to the clarinets that his grandfather kept standing in a corner of the house, and at the age of 14 began lessons on the C clarinet with "Professor" James. With five years of musical fundamentals under his belt, he apparently progressed quickly. When asked in 1979 why he changed instruments he stated that he thought he could make a better living playing clarinet and that “I guess I liked it better.” At the time of that interview he still owned a violin but had not played it for many years.
This seems like an appropriate point for me to insert a story from later in Willie's life. In the early 1980s, clarinetist Brian O'Connell witnessed Willie walk into Preservation Hall for his regular gig with a violin in addition to his clarinet. He put the violin under his chair, but pulled it out when the band played "Stumbling," and played a solo chorus on the instrument. Jazz historian William Russell was in the audience; he pulled 15 cents out of his pocket and asked for another chorus.
After taking up the clarinet, Willie did not abandon the violin right away; he played his first professional job (as opposed to engagements with student groups) on the violin. His clarinetist father had kept up with his progress and hired the young musician for a gig. As Willie described it:
My daddy, who used to work in the district, used to go to the Poydras Market, where he got acquainted with the butcher. This butcher lived back of Canal Street. He had a party and hired my daddy for it. My daddy took time off from his regular work in the district, and he brought me along to play. I must have been around 16 or 17.Willie Eli wrote out parts for his son to play at this gig. The "district" was New Orleans' red-light district of quasi-legal prostitution, popularly known as "Storyville." Contrary to common legend, the brothels in Storyville seldom employed jazz bands, although they commonly had pianists. The area's many bars did provide employment for jazz bands, however.
After this first job the young musician subbed around New Orleans on violin, filling in when regular players could not make the gig. Among the bandleaders that occasionally hired him was trombonist Kid Ory, whose band included King Oliver on cornet. Willie said of this period, “I wasn’t that great a violin player but they needed a violin player, and if they couldn’t get anybody else, they’d hire me."
In a later post I'll write about Willie Humphrey's first regular gigs with established bands in New Orleans.
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.
Karl Konig: Five Legendary Music Teachers; self-published and undated.
Soards' New Orleans City Directories, 1901-1915.
William Carter: Preservation Hall, W.W. Norton & Co., 1991.
Vincent Fumar: "A Quiet Afternoon With Willie Humphrey," Dixie, February 3, 1985.
Charlie DeVore: "Talking With Willie," Mississippi Rag, June, 1982.
James Cahn: interview with Willie Humphrey, New Orleans, November 29, 1979; Hogan Jazz Archive.
Conversation with Brian O'Connell, New Orleans, April 4, 2001.
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