Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Avery “Kid“ Howard was born on April 22, 1908 in New Orleans, Louisiana and began on drums at about age fourteen, but switched to cornet and then trumpet after playing with Chris Kelly.

In 1920s New Orleans, Howard played with the Eureka Brass Band, Allen’s Brass Band, and the Tuxedo Brass Band. He led his own bands late in the 1920s and early in the 1930s and it was his band which played at the jazz funeral for Buddy Petit. He played in the Palace Theatre pit orchestra from 1938 to 1943.

In 1943, he recorded with George Lewis, considered to be among his best recordings. In 1946, he led the Original Zenith Brass Band, but played only locally for the next few years. 1952 saw the trumpeter returning to playing with Lewis, where he would remain until 1961. Kid’s later recordings with Lewis are uneven because of his battle with alcoholism, which interfered with his abilities as a soloist.

Howard fell ill in 1961 and left Lewis’s band, and upon his recovery he led his own band from 1961 to 1965, and recorded sessions, several of them highly praised.

Trumpeter and bandleader Kid Howard, who was a mainstay on the New Orleans jazz scene, continued to play in New Orleans at Preservation Hall and other venues up until his death of a brain hemorrhage on March 28, 1966 in his hometown.

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