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27-618: The band was led by Papa Celestin in around 1910. Many noted jazz greats were played in the band. The group never recorded (though the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band, a dance band using some of the same musicians, did record in the mid-1920s). Personnel varied; as with most such New Orleans brass bands of the era; a group no larger than three trumpets or cornets, two trombones, one or two clarinets, alto horn, baritone horn, bass horn, snare drum, and bass drum considered sufficient for most jobs. The team of Papa Celestin playing

54-684: A better life, he worked as a cook for the Texas and Pacific Railway , saved up money and bought used musical instruments. He played guitar and trombone before deciding on cornet as his main instrument. He took music lessons from Claiborne Williams , who traveled down the Bayou Lafourche from Donaldsonville . He played with the Algiers Brass Band by the early 1900s, and with various small town bands before moving to New Orleans in 1904, at age 20. In New Orleans , he played with

81-482: A downturn in the economy made it more difficult to find bookings. His periodontitis made playing the trumpet progressively difficult. He quit playing music in 1937. As a player, Oliver took great interest in altering his horn's sound. He pioneered the use of mutes, including the rubber plumber's plunger, derby hat, bottles and cups. His favorite mute was a small metal mute made by the C.G. Conn Instrument Company, with which he played his famous solo on his composition

108-626: A driving lead, Manuel Perez with sweet variations and Joe Oliver 's hot bluesy counter melodies was remembered by many musicians of the era as the finest brass band trumpet team heard in the city. Other notables who played in the band included Louis Armstrong , Peter Bocage , Mutt Carey , Louis Dumaine , Eddie Atkins , Harrison Barnes, Sunny Henry , Jim Robinson , John Casimir , Johnny Dodds , Jimmie Noone , Sweet Emma Barrett , Alphonse Picou , George Guesnon , Isidore Barbarin , Louis Keppard , Chinee Foster , Black Benny Williams , and Zutty Singleton . A group of younger musicians formed

135-745: A notable composer, he wrote many tunes still played today, including " Dippermouth Blues ", "Sweet Like This", "Canal Street Blues", and " Doctor Jazz ". He was the mentor and teacher of Louis Armstrong . His influence was such that Armstrong claimed, "if it had not been for Joe Oliver, Jazz would not be what it is today." Joseph Nathan Oliver was born in Aben, Louisiana , near Donaldsonville in Ascension Parish , to Nathan Oliver and Virginia "Jinnie" Jones. He claimed 1881 as his year of birth in his draft registration in September 1918 (two months before

162-585: A regular feature at the Paddock Lounge on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter , and made regular radio broadcasts, television appearances, and more recordings. In 1953 Celestin gave a command performance for President Eisenhower at the White House . His last recording was "Marie LaVeau" (1954), on which he sang. In view of the contribution Celestin made in jazz throughout his lifetime,

189-613: A series of recordings for Columbia Records in the 1920s. Celestin also led the Tuxedo Brass Band , one of the top brass bands in the city. Playing in the Original Tuxedo Orchestra with Celestin over the years were such notables as trombonist Bill Mathews, pianist Octave Crosby, drummer Christopher Goldston, cornetist Joe Oliver , trumpeter Mutt Carey , clarinetist Alphonse Picou , bassist Ricard Alexis and trumpeter Louis Armstrong . In 1932 Celestin

216-498: Is illustrated with photos showing some of the mute techniques he learned from Oliver. Oliver was also a talented composer, and wrote many tunes that are still regularly played, including "Dippermouth Blues," "Sweet Like This," "Canal Street Blues," and "Doctor Jazz." "Dippermouth Blues," for example, was adapted by Don Redman for Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra under the new name of "Sugar Foot Stomp". Oliver performed mostly on cornet, but like many cornetists he switched to trumpet in

243-621: The Young Tuxedo Brass Band , which is still in existence. Papa Celestin Oscar Phillip Celestin (January 1, 1884 – December 15, 1954), better known by his stage name Papa Celestin , was an American jazz trumpeter and bandleader. Celestin was born in Napoleonville, Louisiana , to a Creole family, son of a sugar-cane cutter. In his youth he worked on rural Louisiana plantations . Eager for

270-566: The "Dippermouth Blues" (an early nickname for fellow cornetist Louis Armstrong). His recording "Wa Wa Wa" with the Dixie Syncopators can be credited with giving the name wah-wah to such techniques. This "freak" style of trumpet playing was also featured in his composition, "Eccentric." One of his protégés, Louis Panico (cornetist with the Isham Jones Orchestra), authored a book entitled The Novelty Cornetist , which

297-634: The Imperial, Indiana, Henry Allen senior's Olympia Brass Band, and Jack Carey 's dance band; early in his career he was sometimes known as "Sonny" Celestin. About 1910, he gained a job as leader of the house band at the Tuxedo Dance Hall on North Franklin St. on the edge of Storyville . He kept the name "Tuxedo" for the name of the band after the Dance Hall closed. Dressing the band in tuxedos ,

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324-698: The Jazz Foundation of New Orleans had a bust made and donated to the Delgado Museum in New Orleans. Near the end of his life, he was honored as one of the greats of New Orleans music. 4,000 people marched in his funeral parade when he died in 1954. After his death, Tuxedo Brass Band leadership was briefly taken over by trombonist Eddie Pierson until his death in 1958. The leadership of the band then fell to banjo player Albert "Papa" French . Celestin recorded for Okeh in 1925, then for Columbia for

351-501: The New Orleans style of collective improvisation, also known as Dixieland , and brought it to a larger audience. Because they were recording acousticly into a horn that was directly connected to the needle making the record master, Armstrong notably had to stand in the corner of the room, away from the horn, because his powerful playing bounced the needle off the master. In addition, white musicians would visit Lincoln Gardens in order to learn from Oliver and his band. Because Lincoln Gardens

378-640: The Plantation Café was in direct competition with Louis Armstrong's Sunset Stompers, who performed at the Sunset Café . In 1927 the band went to New York, but he disbanded it to do freelance jobs. In the later 1920s, he struggled with playing trumpet due to his gum disease, so he employed others to handle the solos, including his nephew Dave Nelson, Louis Metcalf, and Red Allen . He reunited the band in 1928, recording for Victor Talking Machine Company one year later. He continued with modest success until

405-600: The Tuxedo became one of the most popular bands hired for society functions, both black and white. For years, Celestin co-led the Tuxedo Band with trombonist William Ridgely. They made their first recordings with the band during the Okeh Records field trip to New Orleans in 1925. After Ridgely and Celestin had a falling out, they led competing "Tuxedo" bands for about 5 years. Celestin's Original Tuxedo Orchestra made

432-449: The end of World War I) but that year is open to debate, with some census records and other sources suggesting 1884 or 1885 as his true year of birth. He moved to New Orleans in his youth. He first studied the trombone, then changed to cornet. From 1908 to 1917, he played cornet in New Orleans brass bands and dance bands and in the city's red-light district, which came to be known as Storyville . A band he co-led with trombonist Kid Ory

459-671: The fighters. He was living in Chicago with his wife, Estelle "Stella" Dominick, whom he had married in New Orleans in September 1911. He continued to work at the Dreamland, forming a band there in January 1920, which included Johnny Dodds, Honoré Dutrey, and Lil Hardin, the nucleus of his famous Creole Jazz Band. After Storyville closed, he moved to Chicago in 1918 with his wife and step-daughter, Ruby Tuesday Oliver (born 1905). Noticeably different in his approach were faster tempos, unlike

486-581: The job and subsequently catapulted to fame. The Great Depression brought hardship to Oliver. He lost his life savings to a collapsed bank in Chicago, and he struggled to keep his band together through a series of hand-to-mouth gigs until the group broke up. Oliver also had health problems, such as pyorrhea , a gum disease that was partly caused by his love of sugar sandwiches and it made it very difficult for him to play and he soon began delegating solos to younger players, but by 1935, he could no longer play

513-736: The late 1920s. He credited jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden as an early influence, and in turn was a major influence on numerous younger cornet/trumpet players in New Orleans and Chicago, including Tommy Ladnier , Paul Mares , Muggsy Spanier , Johnny Wiggs , Frank Guarente and, the most famous of all, Armstrong. As mentor to Armstrong in New Orleans, Oliver taught young Louis and gave him his job in Kid Ory's band when he went to Chicago. A few years later Oliver summoned him to Chicago to play with his band. Louis remembered Oliver as "Papa Joe" and considered him his idol and inspiration. In his autobiography, Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans , Armstrong wrote: "It

540-421: The rest of the decade. He resumed recording in his final decade. A number of air-checks from Celestin's radio broadcasts have also been issued commercially. Joe %22King%22 Oliver Joseph Nathan " King " Oliver (December 19, 1881 – April 8/10, 1938) was an American jazz cornet player and bandleader. He was particularly recognized for his playing style and his pioneering use of mutes in jazz. Also

567-628: The slow drags in the African-American dance halls of New Orleans. In Chicago, he found work with colleagues from New Orleans, such as clarinetist Lawrence Duhé , bassist Bill Johnson , trombonist Roy Palmer , and drummer Paul Barbarin . He became leader of Duhé's band, playing at a number of Chicago clubs. In the summer of 1921, he took a group to the West Coast, playing engagements in San Francisco and Oakland, California. On

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594-496: The trumpet at all. Oliver was stranded in Savannah, Georgia , where he pawned his trumpet and finest suits and briefly ran a fruit stall, then he worked as a janitor at Wimberly's Recreation Hall (526–528 West Broad Street). Oliver died in poverty "of arteriosclerosis , too broke to afford treatment" in a Savannah rooming house on April 8 or 10, 1938. His sister spent her rent money to have his body brought to New York, where he

621-687: The west coast, Oliver and his band engaged with the vaudeville tradition, performing in plantation outfits. Oliver and his band returned to Chicago in 1922, where they started playing in the Lincoln Gardens as King Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band. In addition to Oliver on cornet, the personnel included his protégé Louis Armstrong on second cornet, Baby Dodds on drums, Johnny Dodds on clarinet, Lil Hardin (later Armstrong's wife) on piano, Honoré Dutrey on trombone, and Bill Johnson on double bass. Recordings made by this group in 1923 for Gennett , Okeh , Paramount , and Columbia demonstrated

648-403: Was considered one of the best and hottest in New Orleans in the late 1910s. He was popular in New Orleans across economic and racial lines and was in demand for music jobs of all kinds. According to an oral history interview at Tulane University 's Hogan Jazz Archive with Oliver's widow, Stella, a fight broke out at a dance where Oliver was playing, and the police arrested him, his band, and

675-465: Was forced out of the music business by the impact of the Great Depression . He worked in a shipyard until he was able to form a new band after World War II . The new Tuxedo Brass Band proved tremendously popular and was hailed as a key New Orleans tourist attraction. In 1953, Papa Celestin was filmed leading his band for the travelogue Cinerama Holiday (released in 1955). His band became

702-415: Was in Chicago's black neighborhood and only admitted blacks, the white players listened outside near the front door. A prospective tour in the midwestern states ultimately broke up the band in 1924. In the mid-1920s Oliver enlarged his band to nine musicians, performing under the name King Oliver and his Dixie Syncopators, and began using more written arrangements with jazz solos. This band led by Oliver at

729-593: Was my ambition to play as he did. I still think that if it had not been for Joe Oliver, Jazz would not be what it is today. He was a creator in his own right." Oliver's business acumen could not equal his musical skill. A succession of managers stole money from him, and he tried to negotiate more money for his band than the Savoy Ballroom was willing to pay – losing the job. He lost the chance of an important engagement at New York City's famous Cotton Club when he held out for more money; young Duke Ellington took

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