Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Alphonse Floristan Picou was born on October 19, 1878 in New Orleans, Louisiana into a prosperous middle-class Creole of Color family in downtown NOLA. Taking to music early by 16, he was working as a professional musician on both the guitar and clarinet, concentrating on the latter. To appease his family’s frown on music he trained and worked as a tinsmith, but in demand as a clarinetist, he made most of his living from music.

He played classical music with the Creole section’s Lyre Club Symphony Orchestra and played with various dance bands and brass bands including those of Bouboul Fortunea Augustat, Bouboul Valentin, Oscar DuConge, Manuel Perez, Freddie Keppard, Bunk Johnson, the Excelsior Brass Band, the Olympia Brass Band among others.

Due to his light-skin Picou sometimes worked with white bands as well in his youth. He was one of the early musicians playing in the new style that was developing in the city, not yet known as “jazz”. He sometimes played with Buddy Bolden, perhaps the most important force in the musical change. He was an influence for many of the up and coming younger clarinetists. His subtle variations are usually more melodic embellishments than what would later be called improvisation.

At least once he went north to Chicago, Illinois around 1917 and briefly to New York City in the early 1920s. Not liking life up North, he spent most of his career in his home city, writing tunes for King Oliver that included Alligator Hop and Olympia Rag.

Clarinetist and arranger Alphonse Picou, perhaps best known for originating the clarinet part on the standard High Society, passed away on February 4, 1961 in New Orleans.

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