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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