Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Roy Palmer was born on April 2, 1887 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He began his career in 1906 in New Orleans as a guitarist with the Rozelle Orchestra. He played trumpet and then trombone with Richard M. Jones, Freddie Keppard, Willie Hightower, Tuxedo Brass Band, and Onward Brass Band.
In 1917 he left New Orleans and moved to Chicago, Illinois where he worked with King Oliver, Lawrence Duhe, and Doc Cook. Palmer recorded with Johnny Dodds, Jelly Roll Morton, Ida Cox, the Alabama Rascals, and the State Street Ramblers.
In the 1930s, he was a factory worker and music teacher. Trombonist Roy Palmer died on December 22, 1963 in Chicago.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Henry “Bass” Edwards was born on February 22, 1889 in Atlanta. Georgia and by 14 he began playing in local Odd Fellows’ Band, and subsequently studied music at Morris Brown College and Morehouse College.
During the first World War he played in the U.S. Army Bands, including a spell with Lt. J. Tim Brymn’s 350th FA. Band. From 1919 to 1920 he played in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with various concert orchestras, including working with Sam Wooding.
1921 saw him playing for the next four years with several dance bands in the Philadelphia-Atlantic City, New Jersey area. In mid-1925, Bass joined Duke Ellington, but only remained with the band until spring 1926. He then joined Leon Abbey in New York City and toured South America during the spring 1927. Returning to the city, he joined the Allie Ross Orchestra, which played for the Blackbirds shows.
In 1929, he joined Noble Sissle’s band on brass bass, and sailed to Europe with him. On his return Edwards worked with Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, and Eubie Blake, before rejoining Allie Ross for the Rhapsody in Black show. His last major jazz position was with the Charlie Matson Orchestra during 1933. He then worked mainly on string bass with various light and classical orchestras.
Tubist and bassist Bass Edwards died in New York, New York on August 22, 1965.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Louis Keppard was born February 2, 1888 in New Orleans, Louisiana and was the older brother of cornetist Freddie Keppard. The guitarist played in the Cherry Blossom Band before leading his own group, the Magnolia Band, which included King Oliver and Honore Dutrey among its members.
He played with Papa Celestin’s Tuxedo Brass Band, Manuel Perez, and followed that residency with the Olympia Orchestra alongside Freddie. In 1917 he moved briefly to Chicago, Illinois but returned soon after. Playing in several New Orleans brass bands, Louis performed as an alto hornist and guitarist from the 1920s through the 1950s, including in the Gibson Brass Band and the Young Excelsior Brass Band.
Keppard’s style of “shuffle rhythms” was an influence on Danny Barker. He recorded with Wooden Joe Nicholas in 1949, and retired from music some time after 1962.
Guitarist, tubist and alto hornist Louis Keppard, who led a band but never recorded as a leader, died in his hometown sixteen days after his 98th birthday on February 18, 1986.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Albert Warner was born on December 31, 1890, in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana. Though his father was a string bass player, he didn’t seriously pick up the trombone until he was twenty-two years old. Taking lessons from one of his half-brothers, Ulysses Jackson, as well as Arthur Stevens and Honoré Dutrey. His main influences in his youth came from hearing Freddie Keppard, Vic Gaspard, and Baptiste Delisle.
His first professional jobs were playing for dance bands, including those led by “Big Eye” Louis Nelson, Kid Rena, Wooden Joe Nicholas, Buddy Petit, and Chris Kelly. In 1932 Warner joined the Eureka Brass Band and remained a regular member of this group until his death in 1966. His musical interplay with Charles Sonny Henry in the Eureka band during the late 1940s and 1950s is remembered by many for its intricacy and beauty.
The early Forties saw Albert playing and recording with Bunk Johnson and George Lewis. He would record often throughout the 1950s and in the Sixties he could be found playing frequently at Preservation Hall, accompanying the Preservation Hall band on a number of tours with Kid Sheik and the Eureka Brass Band. He went on one Memphis tour with Billie and DeDe Pierce in 1965.
Warner left behind a number of sessions recorded and released by Commodore, Pax, Folkways, Atlantic, and American. The album Bunk Johnson 1942/1945, Eureka Brass Band and The Eureka Brass Band in Rehearsal, a number of recordings with Charlie Love, Peter Bocage with His Creole Serenaders and the Love-Jiles Ragtime Orchestra, released by American. He also appeared on other American label albums recorded by Punch Miller, John Casimir, Kid Sheik and appeared on Atlantic’s Jazz at Preservation Hall series.
Trombonist Albert Warner, who performed in the traditional and brass band genres, transitioned on September 10, 1966 in New Orleans.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Fate Marable was born on December 2, 1890 in Paducah, Kentucky. His mother was a piano teacher who gave her son music lessons, both in reading music and playing piano. At the age of 17 he began playing on the Mississippi River steamboats. John and Joseph Streckfus hired him to replace their piano player, Charles Mills, who had accepted an engagement in New York City.
Later in 1907 he became bandleader for a paddlewheeler on the Streckfus Line running between New Orleans, Louisiana and St. Paul, Minnesota, a position he retained for 33 years. Later he spent late nights in New Orleans’ clubs scouting for talent and playing at jam sessions. There he discovered Louis Armstrong blowing cornet, and recruited him to play for his band on evening riverboat excursions cruising around the Crescent City.
As a bandleader, Marable shared the lessons from his mother with his musicians as many of the musicians he hired played by ear. He augmented their skills by teaching them to read music, and expected them all to learn how to play from sheet music on sight. His training boosted many of the musician’s careers when they were ready to move on. They went on to play with bandleaders such as Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Fats Waller, and Chick Webb.
Members of Marable’s bands were expected to be able to play a wide variety of music, from hot numbers to light classics, playing by memory or ear, and from sheet music. As a strict bandleader he demanded musical proficiency and rigid discipline from all his band members as they developed their individual strong points. His band served as an early musical education for many other players who would later become prominent in jazz, including Red Allen, Baby Dodds, Johnny Dodds, Pops Foster, Erroll Garner, Narvin Kimball, Al Morgan, Jimmy Blanton, Elbert Pee Wee Claybrook, Joe Poston, and Zutty Singleton.
Pianist and bandleader Fate Marable, who published the only original composition of his career, Barrell House Rag, co-written with Clarence Williams in 1916, transitioned from pneumonia in St. Louis, Missouri on January 16, 1947 at 56 years old.
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