Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Captain John Handy was born on June 24, 1900 in Pass Christian, Mississippi. His father, John Handy Sr., had a family band that included two of his brothers, Sylvester and Julius. Although he also played guitar, mandolin, and drums at an early age, he chose reeds to develop his professional musical career, beginning with clarinet and then migrating to saxophone.
He moved to New Orleans, Louisiana in 1915 and during the 1920s played clarinet working with Kid Rena and Punch Miller. He switched to alto saxophone in 1928. From the early 1930s he led the Louisiana Shakers with his brother Sylvester, and toured throughout the South. In the latter 1930s Handy worked with Charles Creath in St. Louis, Missouri.
Captain John returned to New Orleans in the 1940s, where he performed with the Young Tuxedo Brass Band. Handy was interviewed several times for the Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University in New Orleans in the late 1950s and early Sixties. During the 1960s, he played with Kid Sheik Cola and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and recorded for GHB, RCA, and Jazz Crusade.
Alto saxophonist Captain John Handy, who was part of the New Orleans jazz revival, transitioned in New York on January 12, 1971 at the age of 70.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harry Alexander White was born on June 1, 1898 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. As a teenager, he played drums, then switched to trombone after moving to Washington, D.C. around 1919. In the early Twenties he played with Duke Ellington, Elmer Snowden, and Claude Hopkins. Then in 1925 he formed the family band called the White Brothers Orchestra, which played the mid-Atlantic states for several years with regular gigs in New York City and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Late in the 1920s, he played with Luis Russell, then joined the Mills Blue Rhythm Band in 1931. The following year he joined Cab Calloway’s orchestra, working as an arranger and composer in addition to his duties on trombone. One of Calloway’s trumpeters, Edwin Swayze, overheard Harry use the term “jitterbug”, and wrote a tune called The Jitterbug. Calloway’s 1934 recording of the song brought the term into widespread currency.
Returning to play with Russell in 1935 when the band was backing Louis Armstrong, he eventually quit playing for part of the Thirties decade. He would later perform with Manzie Johnson, Hot Lips Page, Edgar Hayes, and Bud Freeman.
Trombonist, pianist, saxophonist, arranger and composer Harry White, who was affectionately known as Father White, transitioned on August 14, 1962 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Edwin Branford “Eddie” Edwards was born on May 22, 1891 in New Orleans, Louisiana and started on violin at age 10 and five years later he picked up the trombone. In 1916, he was chosen to go to Chicago, Illinois by Alcide Nunez to play trombone with Johnny Stein’s Jazz Band. With a few changes of personnel, this band became the Original Dixieland Jass Band, which made the first jazz records in 1917. He played on one of the first commercially released jazz recordings, Livery Stable Blues, later released as Barnyard Blues.
Leaving the band after being drafted into the United States Army, he served from July 1918 to March 1919. After being discharged, Eddie led his own band and worked in Jimmy Durante’s band before returning to the Original Dixieland Jass Band. After that band broke up, he again led a band in New York City for most of the 1920s until retiring from music in the early Thirties. He then ran a newspaper stand and worked as a sports coach.
Coming out of retirement he returned to music in 1936 when Nick LaRocca reformed the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, playing with them until 1938. He played in other bands with Larry Shields, Tony Sbarbaro, and J. Russell Robinson in New York City into the 1940s. He continued playing professionally intermittently until shortly before his death.
His composition Sensation Rag or Sensation was performed at the 1938 Benny Goodman jazz concert at Carnegie Hall and was included on the album The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert. Darktown Strutters’ Ball, composed by Shelton Brooks, a Black man, was recorded by the Original Dixieland Jass Band and inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2006.
Trombonist Eddie Edwards, who played both violin and trombone, and who also played minor-league baseball and worked as an electrician, transitioned on April 9, 1963 in his hometown at the age of 71.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Pete Edward Jacobs was born on May 7, 1899 in Asbury Park, New Jersey. He played in the Musical Aces, then joined the band of Claude Hopkins from 1926 to 1928. He left Hopkins to play with Charlie Skeete in 1928, then returned to play with Hopkins from 1928 until 1938.
During this ten-year tenure in Hopkins’s orchestra, Pete recorded extensively with the group on Brunswick Records, particularly during the period 1927 to 1932. Additionally, he appeared with the band in the short films Barbershop Blues and By Request.
He fell ill in 1938 and had to quit the group, and never returned to active performance. Drummer Pete Jacobs transitioned in 1952.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jimmy Bertrand was born on February 24, 1900 in Biloxi, Mississippi, and moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1913. He began playing in the State Theatre Orchestra before joining Erskine Tate’s Vendome Orchestra from 1918 to 1928. He became active on the blues and jazz scene of the 1920s in Chicago.
During the 1920 he did a great deal of teaching and his pupils included Wallace Bishop, Lionel Hampton, and Big Sid Catlett. He recorded with Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, Erskine Tate, and Blind Blake, amongst many others.
Jimmy went on to play with Don Cooke and Lee Collins. He led own group, Jimmy Bertrand’s Washboard Wizards during that period, and worked often with pianist Jimmy Blythe.
He led his own band during the 1930s and early 40s before retiring and going to work in a meat packing plant. Percussionist and xylophonist Jimmy Bertrand, who was the brother-in-law of Jelly Roll Morton, transitioned in Chicago in August 1960.
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