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

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.

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.

Young Bandleader in New Orleans (Bio part 4: 1920-1923)

 When Willie Humphrey returned to New Orleans from Chicago in 1920, he was surprised to discover that musicians in his hometown were earning more money than their Chicago counterparts. So he decided to try his luck back home for awhile. He moved back to his grandparents' house at 4225 South Liberty Street; this address would be his base of operations for the next five years. 

His first job after arriving back in the Crescent City was with Amos Riley's Tulane Orchestra. Riley was a cornetist, and led one of the best-known dance bands in the city at the time. (Riley's son Teddy, born in 1924, became a popular trumpet player in his own right.) Also in Riley's band was trombonist Frankie Dusen, who was famously a member of jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden's band. Dusen, some 20 years older than Humphrey, was described by Willie as "rough" and "fly" (hip). 

Riley's band had a regular gig at the Pythian Roof Garden at South Saratoga and Gravier Streets. Willie found playing with Riley educational:

Amos Riley was not a great trumpet player I would say, but he was a nice musician. He had his own way of playing, a soft way. I wouldn't call him a jazz player but he played a nice horn. He could read real well and that meant a lot to me. If you work with good musicians and you're just mediocre, you can learn from them. It helps you.

Tension soon developed, however, due to Riley's difficulty making the eight o'clock starting time; his daytime work as a barber sometimes made him late. The management of the Pythian Roof Garden effectively fired Riley from his own band; he was replaced by George Moret. "Old Man Moret," born in 1861, had been the leader of the Excelsior Brass Band since 1905. Although Moret was not a jazz musician, he was highly respected as one of the finest cornetists in the city. Willie said of him, "He was one of the best, to me. At that time, he was the best street cornet player they had." Like many New Orleans musicians, Moret had a day job; he was a cigar maker.

This is a good place for a digression about the Pythian Roof Garden, and the Pythian Temple in which it was housed. The Temple was built by the Colored Order of the Knights of Pythias of Louisiana, a branch of a fraternal order similar to the Masons. Completed in 1909, this impressive building housed offices for black-owned businesses, a theater, and on the top floor, an open air dancing/entertainment venue, the Roof Garden. The Roof Garden became one of the most popular nightspots for Black New Orleans society; it was enclosed in 1923 - more on that later. The Pythian Order went bankrupt in 1941 and lost the building. After years of ups and downs, the building is now a multi-use apartment/business complex.

Thom's Roadhouse

When Moret took over the cornet spot in the Roof Garden band, Frankie Dusen took over its leadership. According to Willie, Dusen was "a terrible manager," and Humphrey eventually had a falling out with the trombonist. Willie quit the band to work with drummer Zutty Singleton at Thom's Roadhouse, a large restaurant and bar in West End, near Lake Pontchatrain. Singleton was eventually recognized as one of the great New Orleans drummers, but during the Thom's job, Zutty was having trouble mastering his new spring-loaded bass drum pedal. Willie described the problem: "You hit it, it would bounce back a couple of times." 

After playing with Singleton for awhile, Humphrey went back to the Pythian Roof Garden, this time as co-leader of the band. With Maurice Durand on cornet and Buddy Johnson in the trombone spot, the band was known, rather straightforwardly, as the Durand-Humphrey band. Durand, born in 1893, was closer to Willie's age than most of the celebrated cornet men Humphrey had been playing with. A former student of Willie's grandfather, Durand "wasn't such a fast reader but he did all right.... He had pretty good chops," according to his co-leader. Durand was an admirer of Manuel Perez's cornet style, so he was particularly pleased when Willie complimented him after they played a parade together; Humphrey said that he couldn't distinguish Durand's playing from that of Perez.

Pythian Roof Garden - first night with the new roof.

Apparently the young clarinetist impressed the management of the Roof Garden with his musicianship and professionalism, because he soon was given sole control of the band - he was the nightspot's "preference man," as he put it. "Boy, we used to pack that place up there," he remembered. The open-air club was only open in the summer until the space was enclosed. A picture of the first night the Roof Garden was open after the new roof was installed allegedly shows the Humphrey band on the balcony, but the faces are difficult to distinguish at that distance from the camera.

As Willie became established as a bandleader, quite a few excellent musicians passed through the ranks of his band. At one point the Humphrey band was a four-piece outfit with Charlie Love on trumpet and Fats Pichon on piano; According to Willie, his band usually did not use a piano, but "when I had occasion, I'd hire a piano player." One of the piano players he sometimes used was Buddy Christian. Christian (who dressed "fancy-like," according to Willie) also played banjo and guitar, and is possibly the banjoist who recorded many sides with Clarence Williams in the 1920s. When asked about that possibility later, Willie was uncertain if it was the same Buddy Christian. 

The bass chair in the Humphrey band was filled for a time by Jimmy Johnson, another veteran of the Bolden band. Willie was apparently not happy with Johnson, however, and fired him in favor of Henry Kimball, father of banjoist Narvin Kimball, who would be one of Willie's colleagues in the Preservation Hall Jazz Band many years later. Bebe Mathews, brother of trombonist Bill Mathews, was Willie's drummer. Finally, Willie Green was in the banjo chair. "He was a pretty good banjo player, and he was a very nice man to get along with," recalled Humphrey.

What did the Willie Humphrey band sound like? We can't really know at this point, but the band was probably an all-around dance band rather than a hard-core jazz unit. The fact that the band played at such upscale venues as the Pythian Roof Garden and the New Orleans Country Club (where Willie had a regular Saturday night gig) suggests that the band played in the relatively smooth style exhibited by A. J. Piron's New Orleans Orchestra in their recordings from the period. On the Piron sides, the band swings in the New Orleans style but does not get too heated. The musicians improvise, but the melody is always in view. It is easy to imagine that the Humphrey band played in a similar style. In any case, Willie later recalled some of the tunes in the band's repertoire: "Nice and Nifty," "Nickel in the Slot," and selections from the famous "Red Back Book" ragtime folio, including "Maple Leaf Rag."

The next biographical post will cover the rest of Willie Humphrey's activities in New Orleans during the 1920s

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.

Richard Knowles: Fallen Heroes: A History of New Orleans Brass Bands; Jazzology Press, 1996

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

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.