Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Roy Palmer was born on April 2, 1892 in the Carrollton neighborhood of uptown New Orleans, Louisiana. He learned to play violin, guitar, and trumpet and began his career in 1906 in the Big Easy as a guitarist with the Rozelle Orchestra. Leaving the orchestra he began playing the trombone in Storyville with Papa Celestin, Richard M. Jones, Freddie Keppard, Willie Hightower, during the DepressionTuxedo 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. From the 1920s on Palmer recorded with Johnny Dodds, Jelly Roll Morton, Ida Cox, the Alabama Rascals, and the State Street Ramblers. By the 1930s during the Depression, he curtailed his performing worked in a factory and began his career as a music teacher, which included students Preston Jackson and Albert Wynn.
Trombonist Roy Palmer passed away on December 22, 1963, in Chicago, Illinois.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joseph Robichaux, born March 8, 1900 in New Orleans, Louisiana and played piano from a young age and went on to study at New Orleans University. After working in the O.J. Beatty Carnival, he played with Tig Chambers briefly in 1918 before returning to New Orleans and played with Oscar Celestin, Earl Humphrey, Lee Collins, and The Black Eagles in 1922 and 1923.
He arranged music for and recorded with the Jones-Collins Astoria Hot Eight in 1929 and accompanied Christina Gray on a recording session that same year. In 1931 he formed his own ensemble, featuring Eugene Ware on trumpet, Alfred Guichard on clarinet and alto saxophone, Gene Porter on tenor sax, and Ward Crosby on drums.
They journeyed to New York City to record for Vocalion in August 1933, laying down 22 mostly stomping, uptempo sides and two alternate takes in a marathon 5-day recording schedule. Vocalion issued 10 records over the next year and 2 tracks with vocalist Chick Bullock were issued under his name on Banner, Domino, Oriole, Perfect, and Romeo record labels.
Unfortunately for the musicians and potential audiences problems with the musicians’ union in New York prevented them from being able to play live there, so they returned to New Orleans not long after recording. Robichaux expanded the size of his ensemble over the course of the 1930s and Earl Bostic was among those who joined its ranks.
The band toured Cuba in the mid-1930s and recorded for Decca Records in 1936, recording 4 sides in New Orleans, however, they were all rejected. By 1939 Robichaux’s ensemble disbanded, and he found work performing solo, mostly in New Orleans. He recorded as an accompanist on R&B recordings in the Fifties and played with Lizzie Miles.
Late in his life, he played with George Lewis from 1957 to 1964, Peter Bocage in 1962, and performed at Preservation Hall. Bandleader and pianist Joe Robichaux passed away from a heart attack at the age of 64 in 1965 in his hometown of New Orleans.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Duke Dejan was born Harold Andrew Dejan into a Creole family in New Orleans, Louisiana on February 4, 1909. He took clarinet lessons as a child before switching to the saxophone, and became a professional musician in his teens, joining the Olympia Serenaders and then the Holy Ghost Brass Band. He played regularly in Storyville, at Mahogany Hall, and on Mississippi riverboats.
During World War Two he played in Navy bands. Afterwards, Duke worked in the mail office of the Lykes Brothers Steamship Company for 23 years while maintaining a parallel musical career, leading his own band, Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band, from 1951. The band often appeared at Preservation Hall, recorded nine albums, and also toured internationally, making 30 concert tours of Europe and one of Africa. The band was featured in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die and in many television commercials.
Suffering a stroke in 1991 left him unable to play the saxophone but he continued as a bandleader and singer until shortly before his death on July 5, 2002 at the age of 93. Alto saxophonist and bandleader Harold Dejan best remembered as the leader of the Olympia Brass Band, including during the 1960s and 1970s when it was considered the top band in the city.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Abbie Brunies was born Albert Brunies on January 19, 1900 into a famous New Orleans, Louisiana family, which counted among its members George Brunies and Merritt Brunies.
Brunies was the leader of the Halfway House Orchestra from 1919 to about 1927, playing at the Halfway House club in New Orleans. This ensemble recorded for Okeh Records in 1925. Among the musicians who played in this group were New Orleans Rhythm Kings members Charlie Cordella, Mickey Marcour, Leon Rappolo, Sidney Arodin, Bill Eastwood, Joe Loyacano and Leo Adde.
>He played in New Orleans into the mid-1940s, after which time he moved to Biloxi, Mississippi. There he played with Merritt in the Brunie Brothers Dixieland Jazz Band. This ensemble recorded sparsely. Cornetist Abbie Brunies passed away in Biloxi on October 2, 1978.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ernie Carson was born December 4, 1937 in Portland, Oregon. He played trumpet from elementary school, and played with the Castle Jazz Band in the mid-1950s prior to a stint in the U.S. Marines.
Following his discharge Ernie moved to and worked in Los Angeles, California with Dave Wierbach, Jig Adams, Ray Bauduc, Pat Yankee, and Turk Murphy. He led several of his own groups from the 1970s, including the Capital City Jazz Band and a new version of the Castle Jazz Band.
After more than twenty years of playing based in Atlanta, Georgia he moved back to his hometown in 1995. Dixieland jazz revival cornetist, pianist and singer Ernie Carson, who left a small catalogue of music as his legacy, passed away on January 9, 2012 in Portland, Oregon.