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.

First Working Bands & Riverboat J.S. (Bio part 2: 1917-1919)

After gigging casually around New Orleans, mostly on violin, Willie Humphrey was hired (as a clarinetist) for his first regular position in a working band, that of cornetist George McCullum, in 1917 or 1918. McCullum (1865-1920) was a well-known New Orleanian who had played in both John Robichaux's and A.J. Piron's famous dance orchestras. McCullum knew and liked Willie's grandfather, so he was willing to give the young musician a chance. Other members of this band included saxophonist Louis Warnecke, Joe Robinson, Philip Nixon on guitar, Philip's brother Sam on bass, and drummer Chris Minor. ("Joe Robinson" might in fact be pianist Joe Robertson.)

After spending some time with McCullum, Willie went on to what he described as "my first big job," playing with violinist Albert Baptiste's Silver Leaf Orchestra, a well-known, well-respected dance band. Humphrey named cornetist Hyppolyte Charles, Paul Ben on trombone, pioneering bassist Jimmy Johnson, and "Little Cato" on drums as member of the band during his tenure. Among the places they played was the now legendary Tom Anderson's Cafe on North Rampart Street.

As member of the Silver Leaf Orchestra, Willie began to be recognized as a good musician in his own right, not just as Professor Humphrey's grandson or Willie Eli Humphrey's son. The Streckfus family, who operated a line of excursion steamboats on the Mississippi River, hired the Silver Leaf band to fill in for one of their regular bands for a week or two in the summer of 1918. John Streckfus had a keen ear for musicians and was impressed with the playing of two of the Silver Leafers, Willie and Jimmy Johnson. The two musicians were offered regular jobs on the boat; Willie declined, but Streckfus remembered his playing and renewed the offer the next year.

The Streckfus steamboat J.S.

The Streckfus riverboats were strictly pleasure boats, not intended primarily for transportation. Among the attractions was the prospect of dancing to the music of the excellent orchestras on the boats. Kentuckian Fate Marable directed the band on the Streckfus boat Sidney for many years; this band has become legendary in jazz history as the finishing school for young Louis Armstrong. Many other renowned New Orleans musicians played in Marable's Sidney band, including Pops Foster, Johnny St. Cyr, Zutty Singleton, and the Dodds brothers, Johnny and Baby.

In Pops Foster, New Orleans Jazzman, Ross Russell gives an overview of the music on the riverboats:

The riverboats were floating dance halls, the natural successors to the romantic sidewheelers eulogized by Mark Twain in Life on the Mississippi, and of the showboats that bought opera and minstrelry to the river towns at the turn of the century. Few towns boasted ballrooms; what could have been more convenient than to bring both dance hall and authentic New Orleans orchestra to the town dock for an afternoon or evening of fun?... Aboard ship musicians ate, slept, lived, and played together for weeks or months at a stretch. Bandleaders, often older than the sidemen, acted as head of their musical families. Discipline was strict; drunkards and agitators were weeded out and discharged along the way. Most veterans of the riverboats have described the food and accommodations as good; in addition to one's keep, the salaries paid, although not princely, afforded the more provident an opportunity to accumulate a stake. The riverboats ran as far north as St. Paul; occasionally they found their way up the Missouri and Ohio Rivers. In this fashion New Orleans jazz spread through the cultural corpus of middle America. Without exception the towns where the boats stopped and their bands played made significant contributions to jazz style in the following generation. Bix Beiderbecke lost no opportunity to hear the floating orchestras when they played his home town of Davenport. St. Louis was much impressed by the New Orleans trumpet stars, Keppard, Armstrong, and Oliver, and ended up becoming a trumpet player's town and the center of brilliant brass style beginning with Dewey Jackson and ending up with the contemporary Miles Davis.

John Streckfus and his sons kept tight reins on their bands, hiring and firing musicians and specifying the types of music (and sometimes the actual selections) to be played. The music on their boats consisted of then-current popular tunes and some semi-classical numbers. Bassist Pops Foster, who later worked with Willie on the Streckfus boat Capitol, said:

The Streckfus people were funny to work for. You played music to suit them, not the public. As long as they were happy you had the job. You had fourteen numbers to play in an evening and you changed numbers every two weeks. The numbers were long. You'd play the whole number and maybe two or three encores, and sometimes two choruses. A lot of guys didn't like that and quit. The Streckfus people made musicians out of whole lot of guys that way. Louis Armstrong, Johnny St. Cyr, and I didn't know nothin' about readin' when we on the boats, but we did when came off.

Baby Dodds gave a similar description of the music on the boats:

The band played strictly for dancing. We played all the standards of the day and we used to make the classics into dance tunes. There was a sign up: "Requests filled," and the people could ask for special numbers. We played eleven or twelve numbers, and every one of them had an encore to it. Then we had only a fifteen minute intermission, and started all over again. We worked pretty hard with that band.

Humhrey and Jimmy Johnson were hired for the Streckfus boat the J.S. Already in the J.S. band were trombonist Honore Dutrey and Walter Brundy. Willie replaced the latter; although the Streckfus family had hired Brundy as a drummer, he switched to clarinet, and John Streckfus did not care for his playing on his new instrument. Jimmy Johnson was ill when the time came for the job to start, so Octave "Oak" Gaspard was selected to take his place. Humphrey and Gaspard were to meet the boat in St. Louis, but Gaspard missed the train, so Humphrey traveled with trumpeter Arnold Metoyer, some 25 years his senior. Willie's grandmother had prepared a shoebox full of food for the journey, much of which was consumed by Metoyer on the train.

The eighteen-year-old clarinet was a little frightened to be leaving New Orleans to play with a fairly big-time band of professionals. However, his grandfather's training served him well. In spite of his relative inexperience, Willie performed well enough to last the entire season. "It was a first-class boat I was on - the J.S." He also confirmed Baby Dodds' description of the musical workload; he later said that he "worked day and night" on the boat.

The end of the season found the J.S. in Davenport, Iowa. After his time with the J.S. band, Willie felt confident enough to try his hand in the city that was one of the country's major centers of black entertainment at the time. He took the train from Davenport to Chicago. We'll pick up the story there in a later post.

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.

Vincent Fumar: "A Quiet Afternoon With Willie Humphrey," Dixie, February 3, 1985.

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

Pops Foster & Tom Stoddard: The Autobiography of Pops Foster, New Orleans Jazzman; University of California Press, 1971.

Baby Dodds & Larry Gara: The Baby Dodds Story, revised edition; Louisiana State University Press, 1992

Online Steamboat Museum: https://steamboats.com/museum/jc.html

Paul Barbarin's Atlantic Album

Let's look at a recording session from almost exactly halfway through Willie Humphrey's recording career. The information about the differences between some of the mono and stereo takes has not been published before, I don't believe, except in a post I made a few years back on an online jazz forum.

In the mid 1950s Willie often worked and recorded with bands led by New Orleans drummer Paul Barbarin. Toward the end of 1954, Barbarin took an excellent band to New York for a residency at Child's Paramount Restaurant. While in the Big Apple, the band recorded two albums, one for Jazztone, followed by a disc for Atlantic.

The Atlantic album, titled Paul Barbarin and His New Orleans Jazz, was recorded at Capitol Studios on January 7, 1955. Atlantic was not yet the powerhouse label they would become, but they already had an impressive stable of R & B stars under contract by 1955: Ray Charles, Big Joe Turner, and The Clovers were among their biggest hit-makers. Atlantic's president, Nesuhi Ertegun, also strove to have a representative jazz catalog. He was personally fond of traditional New Orleans jazz, and produced Barbarin's album himself.

Paul Barbarin had a distinguished career and reputation in jazz, and was perhaps best known for his work with King Oliver and Louis Armstrong in the 1920s. The band Barbarin brought to New York was an interesting one, linked by familial and pedagogical connections, as so many New Orleans bands are. Trumpeter John Brunious and banjoist Danny Barker were Barbarin's nephews, and Willie Humphrey had been Brunious's teacher. Bob Thomas, the trombonist, was the oldest member of the band, being born in 1898; he was taught by Willie's grandfather, Professor James Humphrey. Lester Santiago was the pianist; he was Brunious's brother-in-law, if I have the relationships straight. Veteran bassist Milt Hinton was added for the recording session, possibly by Ertegun; at the earlier Jazztone session (and presumably at Child's) the band relied on Santiago's left hand to provide the bass line.

A similar Barbarin band at Sid Davilla's Mardi Gras Lounge,
New Orleans later in 1955. L-R: Barbarin, Bob Thomas,
Willie Humphrey, Andy Anderson, Danny Barker, Richard
Alexis, Joe Robichaux

John Brunious Sr. had big band experience and a style that was poised between modern and traditional jazz. I have always been amused that he was considered "too modern" to play at Preservation Hall during the 1960s, while his two trumpet-playing sons, John Jr. and Wendell, were mainstays at that St. Peter Street venue years later, playing in a style similar to their father's.

Danny Barker's unique banjo style adds a real sparkle to this session. His banjo playing never sounded like anyone else's; in his hands the basic four-beat rhythm was enhanced with syncopated accents and rolling triplets. And like the fine guitarist he was, he spiced his chords with added sixths and ninths. The net result was that Barker's playing gave a tremendously exciting lift to the music.

As for Willie Humphrey, his playing is consistently excellent throughout, both in solo and ensemble passages. He had only recorded half a dozen times previously (over the course of nearly 30 years), and was still obscure enough that his name was misspelled (as "Humphreys") on the back of the album jacket. But with this record, he began to attract the attention of at least a few jazz writers.

Among the details of Humphrey's playing that deserve our attention are a wide-ranging, passionate blues solo in the long "Crescent Blues," a very soulful solo in "Sister Kate," and a wonderful final ensemble chorus of that song in which he plays dissonant neighbor tones which resolve upward. Willie is featured on "Someday Sweetheart," where his low-register playing is at least a distant reflection of Johny Dodds' solo on the 1926 King Oliver recording of the song, a recording on which Barbarin was the drummer.

It's worth quoting Recorded Jazz: A Critical Guide by Rex Harris and Brian Rust, since it's a book not well known in the United States. After discussion some of Barbarin's earlier recordings, Harris and Rust have this to say:

The New York titles have a greater polish and refinement in the best senses of the words. There is a sense of ease in the performances which is partly due to the fact that no restrictions of time were enforced - the beautifully improvised "Crescent Blues," for example, is a superb twelve-bar blues which lasts for nearly nine minutes, which gives the musicians time to explore and develop variations to a logical conclusion - one of the enormous advantages the LP disc has over the old 78 speed time-space concept of three minutes/10 inches. 

Particularly noticeable is the unobtrusive drum work by Barbarin, who has never been one of those "give everything a bash from time to time" drummers who give the impression that their audible prominence is vital to the overall sound. Danny Barker (one of the few well-known members of the band) sings some Creole patois verses in "Eh La Bas," and it is interesting to compare the Barbarin of 1926 with the Barbarin of 1955 in the version of "Someday Sweetheart," a title which he included as a tribute to King Oliver for the days when he worked for him.  

Mention must be made, too, of the gentle tempo at which "Sister Kate" is taken. From Lester Santiago's lazy but compulsive opening piano chorus, through Willie Humphrey's following typical clarinet solo in the strict New Orleans vein and the trumpet and trombone contributions from Brunious and Thomas, to the last ringing notes of Danny Barker's banjo this could be cited as one the best treatments of an old favorite on record.

Atlantic had a practice of running a second, stereo tape machine long before stereo records became practical and affordable. When that happened around 1958, Atlantic often issued new, stereo versions of sessions from previous years. But early stereo tape recorders were prone to malfunction, and sometimes the preferred take didn't exist in stereo. In such cases the best available stereo take was issued instead. At Paul Barbarin's Atlantic session, the stereo versions of "Eh La Bas" and "Someday Sweetheart" are different takes from the first-choice mono versions, and the opening piano solo of the stereo "Crescent Blues" is different from the mono version. I'm not sure whether the mono or stereo version has the piano solo spliced on, but one of them apparently does.

In terms of Willie Humphrey's playing, the original mono take of "Someday Sweetheart" is to be preferred, since there is a poorly chosen passing note in the stereo version. Willie's playing on the stereo "Eh La Bas" is arguably more interesting than the mono version, but there was apparently a problem toward the end of the stereo take, since it fades out a minute earlier than the mono version.

The mono version of the album is on YouTube (legally), one track at a time. Links are below - enjoy!

Sing On

Eh La Bas 

Just a Little While to Stay Here

Crescent Blues

Bourbon Street Parade

Sister Kate

Bugle Boy March

Someday Sweetheart

Walking Through the Streets of the City


Quote from - Rex Harris and Brian Rust: Recorded Jazz: A Critical Guide, Penguin Books, 1958.

Early Life and First Gigs (Bio part 1: 1900-1917)

William James Humphrey was born in New Orleans on December 29, 1900, the first son of Josephine Tassin and Willie Eli Humphrey. Willie Eli, a respected clarinetist from New Orleans’ first generation of jazz musicians, was himself the son of a musician. James Brown Humphrey, Willie Eli’s father, was one of the most renowned of the music "professors" who taught many of that first jazz generation. It would have been difficult to grow up in this environment without becoming a musician and, indeed, both of Willie Eli’s other sons, Earl and Percy, also took up instruments and became well-known musicians. 

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.

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.

Why Willie Humphrey Matters

The word "underrated" shows up fairly frequently in writing about jazz. Musicians as varied as Warne Marsh, Joe Albany, Sonny Clark, Booker Little, and Bobby Stark have been described as underrated by jazz commentators. In my opinion, no musician deserves that description more than Willie Humphrey. I would imagine that no more than one in ten jazz fans would recognize Humphrey's name (although this is admittedly just a guess on my part).

Willie is revered, however, among one segment of jazz fans: aficionados of traditional New Orleans jazz, and especially by followers of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. (I would argue that the PHJB is more of a brand than a band; more about that later, perhaps.) The main Preservation Hall touring band from the early 1970s to the early 1990s was co-led by Willie and his brother, trumpeter Percy Humphrey. During this period Willie played for audiences all over the world and recorded frequently, but remains little known to the jazz world at large.

His talent, musical imagination, and accomplishments far outstrip his limited reputation. In my opinion, he was, at his best, one of the finest and most interesting improvisers jazz has known. Although he was born in 1900, the same year as New Orleans clarinetist George Lewis, Humphrey's playing in some respects reminds me more of Charlie Parker's than of Lewis's. I am not saying that Willie sounds like a bebopper, or that his music is necessarily "better" than Lewis's. But a typical Willie Humphrey solo has the instrumental command, varied phrase lengths and sophisticated construction one might find in a Parker solo, even if Humphrey stays within the dialect of traditional jazz.

And there is a wild, unpredictable quality to Willie's musical imagination. One of his longtime musical partners, banjoist Narvin Kimball, put it this way:

Well, a person like Willie is unpredictable. You never know what he's gonna do. When Willie's playing with me, he'll look over at me, and I know what he means. He wants me to be right there behind him, see? And I'll get behind him, and I'll be playing the rhythm just a little bit heavier. When I said he's unpredictable, some of the things that he's making are incredible.

These musical virtues can be heard in the solo that made me a Willie Humphrey fan. During the 1980s, I became fascinated with New Orleans brass band music, that amazing hybrid that could not have developed in any other city. Sometime before the end of that decade, I ordered an album on the Jazzology label called Music of New Orleans: The Brass Bands. Side one reissued the first (1962) recordings of the Harold Dejan's Olympia Brass Band, and side two offered a previously-unissued 1966 live session by the Eureka Brass Band, led by Percy Humphrey. It is, incidentally, the only recording which features all three Humphrey brothers playing together: Percy, Willie, and trombonist Earl Humphrey.

The Olympia tracks were revelatory to me. I instantly got their message, and was extremely moved by the complex and unusual interplay of the band. When I flipped the record over to side two, I was less impressed at first - the poor recording balance made it difficult to hear everything that was going on. But after the clarinet solo on "St. Louis Blues," I remember shaking my head and thinking, "Did I just hear what I thought I heard?" I moved the needle back, and was again astounded by the virtuosity and daring of the clarinetist. Who was this guy?

Here's that solo. For rights reasons, only a short excerpt of the track is presented here. The entire album, now on CD, can be purchased from Jazzology or Amazon.

Willie Humphrey with the Eureka Brass Band: solo on St. Louis Blues

I'm not claiming, of course, that this is Willie Humphrey's "best" recorded solo or anything like that. It's just the one that made me sit up and take notice of this remarkable musician. I'll resist the urge to provide a detailed analysis - just listen.

And then there's Humphrey's place in jazz history. He was born at nearly the same time that jazz was born, and lived for over 93 years, through most of the history of the music. His recording career spans a mind-boggling 67 years. He performed with King Oliver, Freddie Keppard, and Ma Rainey. He played his first professional gig at the age of 16, and played his last one just eleven days before he died on June 7, 1994. And as someone who heard him play in April of that year, I can attest that he retained his creatively and musical unpredictability to the end.

This is a musician who should be known and celebrated by the entire jazz world, not just by "trad jazz" fans. Here's to Willie James Humphrey!


Narvin Kimball quote from the book Preservation Hall by William Carter.

Introductions

Willie Humphrey was a New Orleans jazz clarinetist. Born in 1900, he lived through much of the history of jazz, and was still performing until a few days before his death in 1994.

I am a saxophonist and composer based in Atlanta, 61 years old at the time I write this. My music leans toward avant-garde jazz, but I love all sorts of music, and traditional New Orleans jazz is one of my favorite musical "flavors." As a young man, I became fascinated with Willie Humphrey after hearing one of his recorded solos with the Eureka Brass Band (more about that in the second post), and set out to collect all of his recordings and to find out as much as I could about this extraordinary musician.

At one time, I was planning to write a book on Humphrey, examining his life and music. I eventually realized that for various reasons (time, temperament, other projects) I did not have a book in me. But in the meantime, the internet has provided a medium that now seems like a perfect way to share some of the information I have compiled about Willie, and to share some insights into his music. Biographical posts will be in roughly chronological order; posts about recordings and miscellaneous subjects will not be, for better "programming."

This blog is dedicated to the memory of my fellow Georgian, jazz historian Richard Allen (1927-2007). Richard, who spent most of his life in New Orleans studying, archiving, and promoting the jazz of that city, was incredibly kind and helpful to me in my journey to learn more about Willie Humphrey's life and music.

My blogging tends to be slow, but persistent. Check back regularly or subscribe to keep up with new posts. To continue reading in chronological order, find the "Newer Post" link below and click away. (The "Newer Post" link is a little hard to find - look under "Post a Comment.")

Willie Humphrey; photo by William Carter