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 |
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.
