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