The 1950s - Kohlman and Barbarin (Bio part 9: 1950-1959)

Drummer Freddie Kohlman was one of the more popular bandleaders in New Orleans in the 1950s. Born in the Crescent City in 1918, Kohlman had played with A. J. Piron, Joe Robichaux, Papa Celestin, and Sam Morgan before moving north in the 1930s. After working in Chicago and Detroit, he returned to New Orleans in 1941. In the early 1950s he began a long residency at Sid Davilla's Mardi Gras Lounge on Bourbon Street. Willie Humphrey joined the Kohlman band while it was based at Davilla's bar. The other members of the band at the time were Thomas Jefferson on trumpet, Wendell Eugene on trombone, Dave "Fat Man" Williams on piano, and Clement Tervalon, better known as a trombonist, on bass.

Kohlman's band played in an eclectic style, mixing elements of traditional New Orleans jazz, swing, modern jazz, and rhythm-and-blues. The band was popular with tourists, but not with purists. In his 1958 book The Collector's Jazz: Traditional and Swing, New York Times critic John Wilson said of the band:

Kohlman's band plays a strained extension of New Orleans music, strengthened on one had by such a valid veteran as clarinetist Willie Humphrey and as striking a newcomer as Thomas Jefferson, trumpet and vocalist, but diluted and cheapened by some of the more reprehensible hangovers from the swing period - the screaming trumpet, the tedious riff - plus the saloonkeeper who wants to play with the band. Quentin Batiste has some good piano interludes on Jazz in New Orleans, MGM 3493, but although the band frequently hits a swinging groove, it works in an aura of tastelessness.

Despite the critical misgivings, the Kohlman band proved to be quite successful at entertaining the tourists at the Mardi Gras Lounge. As Wilson indicated, clubowner Sid Davilla would sometimes sit in with the band on clarinet. Richard Allen, who met Willie during this period, says that Humphrey could be something of a clown on the bandstand, and at times would "maybe get a little drunk."

Freddie Kohlman band at the Mardi Gras Lounge 

The Jazz in New Orleans album Wilson refers to was one of the two live recordings of the Kohlman band to be made during Humphrey's tenure. After recording only once during the 1920s, a handful of times in the 1930s, and not at all during the 1940s, Willie's recording career exploded during the 1950s. He participated in at least ten recording sessions during this decade, and his recording schedule continued to expand exponentially over the next three decades.

Willie's first recording of the LP era came from a concert at Artisan Hall on December 14, 1952. Artisan Hal (commonly referred to locally as "Artesian Hall") was the site of an important 1945 recording session by trumpeter Wooden Joe Nicholas. The Kohlman group shared the bill with George Lewis and his Ragtime Band. The Decca record label subsequently issued a 10" LP featuring each band on one side. 

The George Lewis side spotlights one of the strongest lineups of the Ragtime Band, with Willie's brother Percy on trumpet. Lewis and his musicians deliver strong, moving performances of traditional New Orleans material. The first of the Kohlman selections on side two comes as something of a shock after the sincere and affecting music of Lewis's band. "Salty Serenade" is a fast, frantic hurtle through "I Got Rhythm" changes. Trumpet Thomas Jefferson plays a brash solo and the leader helps himself to tow loud and frenzied drum solos. Perhaps we should be grateful that Willie is barely audible on this track. 

Willie Humphrey at the Mardi Gras

The rest of the side is somewhat better, although still disappointing in light of what Humphrey was to
later accomplish on records. Willie has a couple of solos, and plays well, for the most part. But he is sometimes repetitive, leaves other ideas unfinished, and at times doesn't swing well. However, his clarinet tone is well recorded for the first time, giving listeners a taste of a clarinet timbre that is somehow piercing and warm at the same time - a tone that would become more individual and distinctive as the years passed. 

Several weeks after the Artisan Hall concert, Willie and the rest of the Kohlman band were featured on national television. On Mardi Gras day, 1953, Kohlman's group played an hour of jazz during the CBS broadcast of the Comus parade. There is a somewhat mysterious, partial video (consisting of two takes of "When the Saints Go Marching In" with lots of cuts, plus a couple of other fragments) which may be derived from the raw tape of session - you can watch it here. In any case, this is probably the earliest video documentation of Willie Humphrey on the bandstand.

In May of the same year the band, now billed as Freddie Kohlman and His Mardi Gras Loungers, played a benefit concert for the Magnolia School for Handicapped Children. The performance took place in the Municipal Auditorium at the site of Congo Square, famous for the African drumming and dancing kept alive by enslaved New Orleanians before the Civil War. The concert was recorded my MGM and issued on 10" and 12" LPs. The 12-incher is the record described by John Wilson in the quote above.

By this time, trombonist Waldren "Frog" Joseph and pianist Quentin Batiste had replaced Wendell Eugene and Dave Williams. Although the band's eclectic approach is still likely to displease purists, Kohlman's band makes a better impression here. Humphrey, while still sounding uncomfortable times, plays some very nice solos, particularly on "Milenberg Joys" and on his first recorded crack at "Just a Closer Walk With Thee," which inspires a magnificent solo from the clarinetist. We also get Willie's first recording of the clarinet showpiece "High Society." Humphrey plays the traditional solo well - his articulation is a tribute to his grandfather's training. But he does sound a little breathless in spots, and it's interesting that Willie told Richard Allen that he didn't like to play the "High Society" solo.

There is another recording session (not listed in most discographies) by the Kohlman band that I believe Willie played on. The band, augmented by Sam Butera's tenor sax and vocals by Cousin Joe, made a rhythm-and-blues session for the Jubilee label in late 1953. The session produced a single, "Hole in the Ground" backed with "Easy Rockin'." Two more tunes were not issued until 1995. A clarinet is audible in the ensembles, and it sounds like Willie's distinctive tone, particularly on "Ramblin' Woman," where the clarinet is well-recorded. Unfortunately, there are no clarinet solos. But it is interesting to hear Humphrey contributing to an R & B session, as so many New Orleans jazz musicians have done.

Around that same time Humphrey began his next major musical association as part of Paul Barbarin's band. Barbarin was born in 1901 into a music New Orleans family as distinguished as Willie's own family. Paul's father, Isidore Barbarin, was a highly respected brass player; he played alto horn with the Onward Brass Band for many years, beginning in the late 19th century. All of Isidore's four sons became musicians; Paul and Louis, both drummers, are the most well-known. Guitarist/banjoist Danny Barker was Isidore's grandson, and Isidore's great-grandson Lucien was one of the busiest trombone players in New Orleans until his death in 2020.

Paul Barbarin had a long and fruitful career in music. After leaving New Orleans in 1917 he played with numerous bands, but his most well-known alliances were with King Oliver, Luis Russell, and Louis Armstrong. Barbarin occasionally returned to New Orleans for brief periods, but he came band to stay in August, 1953, and quickly set about forming his own band.

The most well-known version of the Barbarin band included Willie's former student John Brunious on trumpet, Bob Thomas on trombone, Willie on clarinet, pianist Lester Santiago, and Paul's nephew Danny Barker on banjo. This group toured and recorded frequently, giving Willie's reputation a boost. Humphrey participated in five studio recording sessions with Barbarin's band as well as recording live with the group, so record buyers had more chances that ever to take notice of his talents.

In 1954 this lineup of the band traveled to New York for a residency at Child's Restaurant. While in the city the group recorded two LPs, one for the Jazztone label and one for Atlantic. The Jazztone session has a few elements of crowd-pleasing Dixieland, but Humphrey plays very well, offering one well-shaped, exciting solo after another as well as maintaining a high standard in the ensemble passages. His solo on "Careless Love" shows off his lovely and unique low-register sound (although Willie and Danny Barker disagree on the harmony here and there), while his other solos use the full range of the clarinet quite strikingly. To select one of Willie's performances from the album as outstanding would be almost arbitrary, but his solo on "First Choice" is noteworthy. Humphrey never strays too far from the melody, but the solo is interspersed with attractive embellishments, including one particularly felicitous leap from the lower register into the upper.

The Jazztone album also marks Willie's recorded singing debut: his pleasant tenor voice is featuring on "Little Liza Jane." This song would become a regular feature of his performances, and he would record it several more times during his career.

Barbarin's Atlantic album is discussed here in a previous post. That post also has links to all the tracks on that album.

In March, 1956, the Barbarin band also traveled to Oxford, Ohio at the behest of the Miami Folklore Group of the Miami University English Department. Since 1952 this organization had been bringing the George Lewis band up from New Orlens for periodic concerts, which were recorded for documentary purposes. Barbarin's group, now with Ricard Alexis on bass, played two concerts at Wilminton College, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. Like the George Lewis appearances, these concerts were recorded and can now be heard on the American Music label.

Back in New Orleans, there were more gigs and recording sessions, often for the Southland label. Willie recorded often with Paul Barbarin, but also with veteran jazz guitarist/banjoist Johnny St. Cyr.

At some point during the 1950s, Humphrey began gigging with the mighty Eureka Brass Band, which was led by his brother Percy. According to Richard Allen, Willie first played alto saxophone with that great street band before switching to clarinet. In the 1960s he would record with the Eureka; more on that later and in this previous post.

I'll end this post with Humphrey's words about Paul Barbarin. He told Charlie DeVore in 1982:

He tried to back me up .He was one of the few drummers I know - not that the others couldn't do it - but he would try to back you up and he'd give me what I wanted. He did the same for Louis (Armstrong). His style coincided with what Louis liked. He had a very simple New Orleans beat that musicians always had down there and that's what I liked.

Willie told William Carter that Barbarin's showmanship contributed to the success of the band:

Paul would sell. I been knowin' him since way back in 1918. And after he was doin' his solos - that's what Louis Armstrong used to like about him - Louis would get up there, singin' "Dat, dat, dee-dee, dah," and Paul be right there with him. He's try to push him with them drums. And he'd be smilin' and the people out there be eatin' it up.

Sources:

Kernfield, Berry (ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz; St. Martins Press, 1988

Wilson, John S.: The Collector's Jazz: Traditional and Swing; J. B. Lippincott Co., 1958

Interviews with Richard Allen, New Orleans, April 3 & May 28, 2001

Delaney, Joe: liner notes to New Orleans Jazz Concert, Decca DL 5483, 1953

Chilton, John: Who's Who of Jazz, Time-Life, 1978

DeVore, Charlie: "Talking with Willie," Mississippi Rag, June, 1982

Carter, William, Preservation Hall, W. W. Norton, 1991

Hoefer, George: liner notes to Paul Barbarin and His New Orleans Jazz, Atlantic 1215, 1955

Lee, Raymond: New Orleans Clarinet: A Discography of Willie Humphrey, Gerard Bielderman, 1996

The Depression and the 1940s (Bio part 8: 1936-1950)

 Upon leaving the Blue Rhythm Band, Willie Humphrey returned to New Orleans. Back in his home town, Willie gigged with "short" bands (small bands with less than the standard number of instruments) and filled in with some well-known bands, such as A. J. Piron's dance band, Louis Dumaine's band and Oscar Celestin's Original Tuxedo Orchestra.

Depression life continued to be tough for the Humphreys, as well as for most black New Orleanians. Willie took a number of extra-musical jobs in order to make ends meet. His wife Ora remembered:

He had a truck. He'd put on his clothes to sell wood and coal. He'd say, "Well, I'm goin' out now. I'm the coal man." Come back around one o'clock and put his other clothes on: now he was a teacher, a musician. He'd put a dollar on the mantel at night; that was his food for the next day. We used to call it "My Blue Heaven," a very small house. We stayed there until we had three children. I never complained about it. I had one dress I could put on when I'd go out. We weren't hungry, that's one thing."

Willie elaborated on the struggle to make a living during that period: 

You had to be a hustler. I used to sell wood and coal and everything. I was a grocer and a butcher. I wasn't much of a butcher but I learned.

We all had money in a store... my sisters' husbands and all, we set it up. When I got out of the service, they saved the butcher part for me. So I was the butcher and I sold vegetables, shrimp and crabs and all that stuff. I never made no money. I ate out of the store, and that was about all. And you see, I had my wife working for me, and I'm the boss on my side. Course, I'd help on the grocery side, too, and my sister was in there. She would help me, too.

Then I worked in a barroom. My brother-in-law had one - they wanted to give me the barroom, but I didn't want it. I didn't like the set-up. This Italian owned it, you know, and he was in, what you call it, wholesale wine - the had wine all lined up in there. And see, I don't like that kind of business. my brother-in-law, he accepted it. He took the place, building and all and I was working there for him. So my children used to bring me my lunch and ride a bicycle. We was about 12-15 blocks and they'd bring my food there in the barroom. And finally, my brother-in-law, he fired me because I like to go play music and I wouldn't be there and he had to get somebody else in there. I got fired in a funny way. I was getting a little salary now and then. It wasn't much, I think $10 or $15. At any rate, I've done a little of everything to make ends meet and I've done a little wrong, too. But not too much.

Willie's granddaughter, Renee Lapeyrolerie, says that the family-owned store was on Louisiana Avenue.

The "service" Humphrey referred to was service in the United States Navy. When World War II broke out, Willie joined the Navy and played in the Lakefront Naval Air Station band. Alex Albright has a very interesting account of the band here. As he describes it: "Formed with 23 New Orleans musicians who enlisted at the Custom House, it was also one of the first African-American bands recruited en masse and with a promise of service in their home territory for the war’s duration."

Lakefront Naval Air Station Band
Willie Humphrey is at the back right corner.

At some point during the 1940s, Willie spent some time in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. (This has been the most difficult episode of Humphrey's life to find information on, so this account is sketchy.) His granddaughter Renee thought his Watts residency was during his Navy days. There is a story I read (or was told) that Kid Ory wanted Willie to join his band after Jimmie Noone died. I can no longer remember the source of that, but if it's true, then Willie's California stay probably included the spring of 1944, since Noone died in April of that year.

In any case, prospects in Los Angeles were not encouraging enough to keep Humphrey there, and he was soon back in New Orleans. Out of the navy, he began teaching at Grunewald's School of Music. Grunewald's was the biggest music store in New Orleans, and their music school was located on Camp Street. Many famous names in New Orleans jazz taught there. One of Willie's more famous pupils at Grunewald's was drummer Earl Palmer, who played on many hit recordings by Fats Domino and Little Richard. Palmer, considered one of the fathers of rock and roll drumming, tells of his time at Grunewald's:

It was two schools actually - white downstairs, black upstairs - in an old warehouse building on Camp Street. Around the corner was a little grocery where you could get po'boy sandwiches, drink a beer.

Willie Humphrey was my best teacher. He took special pains with me and taught me all about my favorite subject, harmony. Willie always said that he was surprised that I'd come to Grunewald when I already played so good and knew all the New Orleans styles. He had known me as a kid, and I think he was proud that here I was, a dancer and a musician that wanted to formally learn what I had been doing. Willie was a nice man.

Willie Humphrey continued teaching, gigging, and scuffling into the 1950s. In that decade he then began a series of musical associations that would bring him more recognition and financial security.

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.

William Carter: Preservation Hall; Norton, 1991

Conversation with Renee Lapeyrolerie, New Orleans, April 9, 2003.

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

Tony Scherman: Backbeat: The Earl Palmer Story; Da Capo, 2003

Recordings with Mills Blue Rhythm Band and Red Allen

The question of whether Willie Humphrey recorded with Mills Blue Rhythm Band is still unsettled, but common sense suggests that he did. While we don't know the exact dates of his tenure with the band, he has said that he was with the band for about six months, beginning in December, 1935. As I said in my last post, the band recorded three times during that period, on December 20, 1935, January 21, 1936, and May 20, 1936. 

The standard discography of early jazz, Brian Rust's Jazz Records 1897 - 1942, does not list Humphrey in the band at all. Tom Lord's discography has Humphrey joining for the December 20, 1935 session, but at least in my edition (Version 17) it's unclear if Lord meant to list Humphrey for the next two sessions. In any case, I've listened to all the relevant recordings, and here are the Mills Blue Rhythm Band recordings on which I think the clarinet work is likely by Willie.

From December 20, 1935:

Blue Mood  - This tune features a long low-register melody statement by the clarinet after the introduction. The clarinetist has a liquid, but slightly reedy tone. It sounds like Willie to me.

Yes! Yes! - There is an eight-bar clarinet solo at 2:23. The final cascading final phase in particular makes me think that it's Humphrey.

From May 20, 1936:

St. Louis Wiggle Rhythm - Another eight-bar clarinet solo, at 2:01. The articulation, especially in the last two measures, sounds very "Humphrey-esque."

There is also a short, four-bar alto sax solo on "Midnight Ramble" (from January 21, 1936) that could possibly be played by Willie, who of course doubled on alto with the Mills band. There really isn't enough recorded evidence in terms of Humphrey's saxophone playing to make a determination. The alto solos from May 20 are surely by Tab Smith. 

There is one confirmed recorded glimpse of Humphrey's clarinet from the Mills days. In 1935, Red Allen began a series of small-band recordings for the Vocalion label, and on April 1, 1936, he included his Mills bandmate Willie Humphrey in the personnel. Willie mostly plays background notes on alto saxophone, but he gets one two-bar break in "Every Minute of the Hour," presumably to give Allen time to take down his trumpet and prepare for his vocal chorus. But wow - what a break! Willie soars from the top to the bottom of the clarinet's range, using extremely fast note values. The break comes at the 34-second mark.

The Depression and Mills Blue Rhythm Band (Bio part 7: 1932-1936)

 Willie Humphrey returned to New Orleans at the height of the Great Depression. He later said of the Depression, "I didn't feel it right away." After all, he had a secure job playing on the riverboats. Upon returning to New Orleans, the picture was very different: "When I came home from St. Louis, there was no work." Musical jobs were few and far between, since what money people had went toward the basics of life, not frills like entertainment. "Fortunately, I had a few dollars," Humphrey said; he had managed to save some money from his salary while working on the river.

Willie did manage to find a little musical work - gigs with Herbert Leary's band - but his main musical employment during the Depression was as a teacher. Beginning in 1933, Willie began teaching in the Black schools of New Orleans. On various occasions, he credited his father, well-known bandleader and music "professor" Pinchback Touro, and music store owner Morris Karnofsky with facilitating his teaching career. In any case, Willie and his father traveled to several different schools, teaching instrumental music from three until five o'clock in the afternoon. For each lesson they were paid 25 or 35 cents, part of which went to the school to establish a fund to buy instruments. Among Willie's students was trumpeter John Brunious, who would later be Humphrey's bandmate in the Paul Barbarin band. The Barbarin band was interviewed collectively in the spring of 1956 for the Miami University Archive of Folklore in Oxford, Ohio. On that occasion Brunious said, "Well, I learnt music when I  was goin' to grammar school. And Willie Humphrey, our clarinet player, was my first teacher. He start me off when I was 'bout, oh, in the third, fourth grade."

WPA Band, New Orleans, 1936

Willie also taught lessons in students' homes; for these, he was paid 50 cents per lesson. He said of these small payments, "It didn't look like much, but do you know you pile those nickels and dimes up they sort of amount to something."

Humphrey also found some work with the WPA band. The Works Projects Administration was one of the the New Deal agencies initiated by the federal government to help alleviate the effects of the Depression. The WPA tried to provide employment for the out-of-work musicians of New Orleans by forming a large concert band under the direction of Pinchback Touro. Many well-known New Orleans musicians turned to the WPA band to provide themselves with a small income. Humphrey was not able to get into the band at first; he said, "Looked like they tried to keep me out." In any case, the WPA did not pay much, and when a better opportunity presented itself, Willie quickly took it.

That opportunity was a spot in Mills Blue Rhythm Band, a New York-based big band. The Blue Rhythm band was formed in 1930 by drummer Willie Lynch. Music publisher and promoter Irving Mills took over management of the band in 1931 - hence the addition to the band's name. In 1934 singer Lucky Millinder took over as front man of the band, and the great New Orleans trumpeter Henry "Red" Allen joined the group that year, quickly becoming the band's major soloist.

Mills Blue Rhythm Band was a second-tier band during those days - the heyday of the big band - not on the musical or commercial level of the Ellington or Henderson bands. As Albert McCarthy has said, "Musically, Mills Blue Rhythm Band was a highly efficient unit with a number of good soloists. It failed to rise from the ranks of the secondary units of its day mainly because it never really established an identity."

I had long suspected that Willie owed the Rhythm Band job offer to fellow New Orleanian Red Allen. This was confirmed by a telegram now owned by Renee Lapeyrolerie, Humphrey's granddaughter:

1935 Dec. 8

Washington, DC

Willie J. Humphrey - 1004 Valett St. Care Pete Bocage NRLNS

RECEIVED YOUR WIRE JOB HERE IS OKAY LUCKY WILL SEE YOU THRU AFTER YOU ARRIVE AS FOR ADVANCEMENTS I DON'T KNOW BUT SO FAR AS A GOOD JOB IS CONCERNED ITS HERE FOR YOU IF YOU DONT WAIT TOO LONG BORROW MONEY FROM SOMEONE AND PAY BACK LATER WIRE LUCKY

HENRY ALLEN JR.

Humphrey joined the band in December, 1935, shortly after receiving the telegram, and stayed for about six months, playing mostly alto saxophone. As was usual for a big band at the time, The Blue Rhythm Band toured extensively. Willie recalled playing in Washington, New York, Pittsburgh, and San Antonio, among other places. Although he enjoyed the steady income a touring band provided, Willie found that playing with Millinder's orchestra was not as lucrative as he expected. Touring created expenses, such as lodging, that didn't exist for a band playing in its hometown. Some expenses were unexpected - for example, the valet's tips. The band traveled with a valet who took care of having the musicians' suits and uniforms cleaned and their shoes shined. Although the valet was a salaried employee of the band, he still expected to be tipped for his services.

Touring on the big band circuit provided Humphrey with the opportunity to hear and appreciate other bands. During this period he heard and admired the orchestras of Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington. Like many other musicians, he greatly admired a band that never made it big: that of Alphonso Trent. Willie described Trent's group as "a hell of a band."

The question of whether or not Humphrey recorded with the Mills Blue Rhythm Band is surprisingly unsettled. Although for many years the standard jazz discographies didn't list Willie among the personnel, the band recorded on December 20, 1935 and both January 21 and May 20, 1936. It seems logical that he must have participated in at least a couple of these recording sessions. And he is confirmed on a Red Allen session from the period. I'll discuss these sessions and weigh the evidence in a future post.

Sources:

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

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

Al Kershaw and John Ball: interview with Paul Barbarin band, Oxford, Ohio, March 3, 1956. Reprinted in liner notes to Paul Barbarin's Jazz Band of New Orleans - The Oxford Series Vol. 16 (American Music).

Conversation with Renee Lapeyrolerie, New Orleans, April 9, 2003.

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

First Recordings with Dewey Jackson

 At age 25, Willie Humphrey made his first verified visit to a recording studio - the first of dozens of such visits he would make over the next seven decades. Dewey Jackson's Peacock Orchestra made three sides for Vocalion in St. Louis on June 21, 1926. A fourth side featured the band's drummer, Floyd Campbell, as a blues vocalist, accompanied by piano and Jackson's trumpet. Two 78s were issued: Vocalion 1039, which paired "Go 'won to Town" (as the original label reads) and the Campbell vocal, "What do You Want Poor Me to Do." Vocalion 1040 had "She's Crying for Me" and "Capitol Blues."

Dewey Jackson's Peacock Orchestra, c. 1926
Willie Humphrey: kneeling, third from left

Jackson's band followed the usual instrumentation for a large dance orchestra of the time: three brass, three saxophones (doubling clarinet), and a four-piece rhythm section. Willie was the third saxophone, playing tenor sax and clarinet. He was probably overshadowed by William Thornton Blue, a St. Louis clarinetist who was a more famous musician than Humphrey at the time. It's Blue who plays the clarinet solo in "Capitol Blues," which (by the way) features a cut-down version of the band, with only three of the horns playing. Blue is an accomplished, technically adept clarinetist, but his improvising leans toward the "gaspipe," novelty style of clarinet playing that was all too common in the 1920s. 

"She's Cryin' for Me" is the only fully-scored piece recorded at the session; "Capitol Blues" and "Go 'won to Town" sound like head arrangements. "Cryin'" was written by New Orleanian Santo Pecora; it was a popular tune at the time - there are several other recorded versions of the piece from the same period. The Peacock Orchestra's version is well-rehearsed, although the clarinet trio is kind of sloppy, and the tempo drops as the performance progresses. 

Willie makes his real mark on the session with his clarinet solo on "Go 'won to Town." It's a searing statement, displaying the fine technique, rhythmic freedom, and deep blues feeling that would characterize his music in later years. This well-constructed solo shows Humphrey's attitude toward blues improvisation to be totally committed and serious. Unfortunately, it would be ten years before he would have another chance to record. 

Listen to "Go 'won to Town" here.

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 the back of my head 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.