Daily Dose Of Jazz…
De De Pierce was born Joseph De Lacroix Pierce on February 18, 1904 in New Orleans, Louisiana. A trumpeter and cornetist, his first gig was with Arnold Dupas in 1924. During his time playing in New Orleans nightclubs he met Billie Pierce, who became his wife as well as a musical companion. They took residence as the house band at the Luthjens Dance Hall from the 1930s through the 1950s.
They released several albums together but stopped performing in the middle of the 1950s due to illness, which left De De Pierce blind. By 1959 they had returned to performing with De De touring with Ida Cox and playing with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band before further health problems ended his career.
On November 23, 1973, De De Pierce, best remembered for the songs “Peanut Vendor” and “Dippermouth Blues”, passed away at the age of 69.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alonzo “Lonnie” Johnson was born on February 8, 1899 in New Orleans, Louisiana into a musical family. He studied violin, piano and guitar as a child, and learned to play various other instruments including the mandolin, but concentrated on the guitar throughout his professional career. By his late teens, he played guitar and violin in his father’s family band and with trumpeter Punch Miller in the Storyville clubs.
In 1917, Johnson joined a revue that toured England, returning home two years later to find that all of his family, except his brother James, had died in the 1918 influenza epidemic. Settling in St. Lois with his brother James the two embarked on a duo performance, though Lonnie also worked the riverboats in the orchestras of Charlie Creath and Fate Marable.
Johnson would go on to enter a blues contest in 1925 winning a recording contract with Okeh Records, record in New York with Victoria Spivey and tour with Bessie Smith’s T.O.B.A. show. By 1927, he recorded in Chicago as a guest artist with Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five, and in 1928 he was in the studio recording with Duke Ellington and with the group The Chocolate Dandies playing 12 string guitar solos on many these early recordings.
With the temporary demise of the recording industry in the Great Depression, Johnson went to work in the steel mills. However, post WWII he revived his career and would record for Decca, top the Billboard “Race Records” charts, tour England, move to Philadelphia, and record for Prestige Records. He settled in Toronto, Canada until he was sidelined when hit by a car, injuries from which he never fully recovered.
Lonnie is credited with pioneering the role of jazz guitar and is recognized as the first to play single-string guitar solos and who influenced such guitarists as Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt. Guitarist, songwriter, jazz and blues singer Lonnie Johnson passed away on June 16, 1970.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Emanuel Sayles: The Banjoist Who Followed the Music HomeEmanuel Sayles was born on January 31, 1907, in Pensacola, Florida, and began his musical education in the classical tradition, playing violin and viola as a child. But the jazz spirit was calling, and Sayles answered by teaching himself banjo and guitar, the instruments that would define his career and connect him to the early New Orleans jazz tradition.
Following the Music to New Orleans
After high school, Sayles made the pilgrimage that so many musicians made: he relocated to New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz, where he joined William Ridgely’s Tuxedo Orchestra, a prestigious gig that put him in the center of the city’s vibrant music scene.
What followed was a classic New Orleans apprenticeship: Sayles worked with the legendary pianist Fate Marable, violinist Armand Piron, and trumpeter Sidney Desvigne on Mississippi riverboats, those floating conservatories where musicians learned to swing, read charts, and play for dancers night after night. The riverboat gigs were grueling but invaluable, connecting Sayles to the earliest generations of jazz musicians and teaching him the repertoire that would sustain him for decades.
Making History in Chicago
In 1929, Sayles participated in recordings with the Jones-Collins Astoria Hot Eight—sessions that captured the raw, collective improvisation style of early New Orleans jazz before it became codified and nostalgic. These recordings remain treasured documents of a transitional moment in jazz history.
By 1933, Sayles had moved to Chicago, where he led his own group and became a sought-after accompanist on blues and jazz recordings, working frequently with the great barrelhouse pianist Roosevelt Sykes and others. Chicago in the 1930s was electric with blues and swing, and Sayles’ banjo added that distinctive rhythmic drive that made everything move.
Always Returning to New Orleans
In 1949, Sayles returned to New Orleans, the first of several homecomings, and joined forces with clarinetist George Lewis, one of the leading voices in the New Orleans traditional jazz revival. In 1963-64, he toured Japan with Lewis, bringing authentic New Orleans jazz to audiences halfway around the world who were hungry to hear the music in its original form.
Back in New Orleans, he played with the beloved pianist Sweet Emma Barrett, then traveled to Cleveland in 1960 to work with trumpeter Punch Miller. From 1965 to 1967, he was back in Chicago playing in the house band at the Jazz Ltd. Club, one of the premier traditional jazz venues in the country.
Preservation Hall and the Final Chapter
Returning once more to New Orleans in 1968, Sayles found his spiritual home with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, the ensemble dedicated to keeping the traditional New Orleans sound alive for new generations. Preservation Hall wasn’t just a venue, it was a mission, and Sayles was perfectly suited to be part of it.
Documenting the Tradition
Sayles recorded prolifically as a sideman with cornetist Peter Bocage, trumpeter Kid Thomas Valentine, pianist Earl Hines, and drummer Louis Cottrell, each session a masterclass in the early New Orleans ensemble style. As a leader, he recorded extensively throughout the 1960s for GHB, Nobility, Dixie, and Big Lou record labels, ensuring that his particular approach to the banjo, rhythmically propulsive, harmonically sophisticated, never overplaying, would be preserved for future students of the tradition.
The Unsung Rhythm Master
Emanuel Sayles passed away on October 5, 1986, having spent nearly eight decades playing the music he loved. As a master banjoist, he represented something increasingly rare: a direct connection to the earliest days of jazz, when the banjo was king of the rhythm section and New Orleans was the only place the music existed.
Why His Story Matters
Sayles’ career is a reminder that jazz history isn’t just about the innovators who pushed the music forward, it’s also about the dedicated musicians who preserved what came before, who understood that the old New Orleans collective improvisation style had value and beauty that shouldn’t be lost in the rush toward bebop and beyond.
Every time he returned to New Orleans—and he kept returning, Sayles was affirming that the music’s roots mattered, that there was wisdom in the way the old-timers played, that the banjo had a place even as guitars became dominant. From Pensacola to riverboats to Chicago clubs to Preservation Hall, Emanuel Sayles followed the music wherever it led and always, eventually, back home to New Orleans, where it all began.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Robichaux: The Forgotten King of New Orleans Dance Bands
Before there was Louis Armstrong, before jazz became the word on everyone’s lips, there was John Robichaux—a Creole musician born January 16, 1866, in Thibodaux, Louisiana, who quietly ruled New Orleans’ dance scene for nearly half a century.
A Multi-Instrumentalist’s Rise
Picture a young man learning brass bass, alto saxophone, and drums, then maturing into a 25-year-old bass drummer with the prestigious Excelsior Brass Band—one of New Orleans’ most respected musical institutions. But Robichaux wasn’t content to simply keep the beat. From 1892 to 1903, while still performing with the Excelsior, he was simultaneously leading his own ensembles and adding violin to his growing arsenal of instruments. The man believed in keeping busy.
The Bandleader New Orleans Trusted
Here’s what makes his story remarkable: Robichaux’s bands weren’t just popular—they were the bands to hire if you wanted class, precision, and professionalism. At one point in 1913, he was conducting a staggering 36-piece orchestra. Imagine coordinating that many musicians in the early 20th century, long before modern amplification or recording technology!
His reputation attracted New Orleans’ finest musicians—legends like guitarist Bud Scott, clarinetist Lorenzo Tio Jr., and cornetist Manuel Perez all played under his baton. When you could attract that caliber of talent, you weren’t just running a band—you were running an institution.
Forty-Six Years at the Top
For an astonishing 46 years, Robichaux was the most continuously active dance bandleader in New Orleans. Forty-six years! That’s longer than most entire careers, a testament to both his musical excellence and his business acumen in an incredibly competitive city.
When History Changed the Game
But history has a way of complicating even the greatest success stories. When Louisiana’s Black Code amendment passed in 1894, it reclassified Creoles of color, throwing Robichaux’s refined Creole orchestras into direct competition with the grittier Uptown Negro bands that played a rawer, more improvisational style. The musical landscape was shifting beneath his feet, gradually eroding the dominance he’d worked decades to build.
A Prolific Legacy
Still, Robichaux persisted with remarkable productivity. Over his career, he composed more than 350 songs and orchestral arrangements—a staggering output that speaks to both his creativity and work ethic. He remained primarily in New Orleans, occasionally touring with the traveling musical revue One Mo’ Time, but always returning to the city that made him.
The Bridge Between Eras
When John Robichaux died of natural causes in 1939, an entire era of New Orleans music died with him. He represents a crucial bridge between the city’s formal, European-influenced dance orchestras and the raw, revolutionary jazz that would soon conquer the world. His bands were where young musicians learned discipline, arrangement, and professionalism before they went off to create something entirely new.
History remembers the revolutionaries, but it often forgets the masters who created the foundation upon which revolutions are built. John Robichaux deserves better than footnote status—he deserves recognition as one of the architects of New Orleans’ musical golden age.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Wilbur de Paris: From Plantation Shows to the World Stage
Born on January 11, 1900, in Crawfordsville, Indiana, Wilbur de Paris grew up in a household where music wasn’t just entertainment—it was the family business. His father was a multi-instrumentalist who played trombone, banjo, and guitar, and he had big plans for his musically gifted son.
A Childhood on the Road
By the autumn of 1906, when little Wilbur was just five years old, he had already begun learning the alto saxophone. A year later—at an age when most children are still in elementary school—he was working professionally in his father’s plantation shows, crisscrossing the South on the Theater Owners Booking Association (TOBA) circuit. It was a grueling apprenticeship, but one that would serve him well.
The Moment Everything Changed
At sixteen, while performing in a summer show at the Lyric Theatre, de Paris heard jazz for the first time. The experience was transformative. Soon after, while playing saxophone at the legendary Tom Anderson’s Cafe with A. J. Piron’s band, he met a young trumpet player who would change music history: Louis Armstrong. These encounters lit a fire that would burn for the rest of de Paris’s life.
Building His Own Sound
After high school, de Paris continued working with his father before joining various traveling shows in the East. In the early 1920s, he made his way to Philadelphia and took a bold step—forming his first band, Wilbur de Paris and his Cottonpickers. He was building something of his own.
Surviving the Crash, Finding New York
When the Wall Street Crash of 1929 devastated the entertainment industry, de Paris disbanded his second group and made the move that would define his career: he headed to New York City. There, he spent years playing and recording with jazz royalty, absorbing every influence and honing his distinctive approach to the trombone.
The New New Orleans Sound
In the late 1940s, Wilbur teamed up with his brother Sidney to launch an ambitious project: a band called New New Orleans Jazz. The ensemble featured legendary figures including Jelly Roll Morton, drummer Zutty Singleton, and clarinetist Omer Simeon. But this wasn’t mere nostalgia—de Paris had a vision of blending traditional New Orleans jazz with the sophisticated swing that had emerged in the intervening decades.
The concept caught fire. Throughout the 1950s, the band became a beloved institution in New York City, recorded extensively, and toured the world, bringing their unique fusion of old and new to audiences everywhere.
A Legacy of Innovation
Wilbur de Paris passed away on January 3, 1973—just eight days before what would have been his 73rd birthday. He left behind a legacy that proved you could honor tradition while pushing it forward, that New Orleans jazz and swing weren’t competing styles but complementary voices in the grand conversation of American music.
From a five-year-old on the TOBA circuit to an internationally recognized bandleader, Wilbur de Paris lived the full arc of jazz’s golden age—and helped shape its sound every step of the way.
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