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.