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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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Peter Charles Strange was born on December 19, 1938 in Plaistow, Newham, London, England. He played violin as a child before switching to trombone as a teenager.
His first major gig was with Eric Silk and his Southern Jazz Band when he was just 18 years old. In 1957, Silk’s clarinetist Teddy Layton split off and formed his own band, and Strange went with him. Called up for National Service in 1958 he became a bandsman in the Lancashire Fusiliers, whilst serving in Cyprus.
Following his discharge from service Peter played with Sonny Morris, Charlie Gall, and Ken Sims, then joined Bruce Turner from 1961 to 1964. After 1964, Turner went into partial retirement for about 10 years, so he played off and on with Freddy Randall, Joe Daniels, and Ron Russell, but not carrying any full-time associations. He returned to play with Turner again permanently in 1974.
In 1978 co-founded the Midnite Follies Orchestra with Alan Elsdon. 1980 saw Strange founding the five-trombone ensemble, Five-A-Slide, which featured Roy Williams and Campbell Burnap. He joined Humphrey Lyttelton’s band in 1983, and remained with the ensemble until he died.
Trombonist, arranger and composer Peter Strange, who played with his own side group, the Great British Jazz Band, died of cancer at the age of 65 on August 14, 2004 in Banstead, Surrey, England.
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EITHER/ORCHESTRA
In the decades since the Either/Orchestra debuted on December 17, 1985 at the Cambridge MA Public Library, the group has made over 1000 performances in 38 of the United States and 12 foreign countries, as well as releasing a dozen albums and being nominated for a Grammy, winning five Boston Music awards and numerous Downbeat Critics Poll placements, among many other honors. From prestigious festivals like Glastonbury Pop and Chicago Jazz to tiny clubs, schools and churches in out of the way places, the group has been “dependably marvelous,” according to the Village Voice.
No obstacles deterred leader Russ Gershon and his intrepid musical explorers from visiting new musical worlds – until the Covid pandemic. The band’s most recent performance was in December of 2019 at Tufts U., with one of their distinguished Ethiopian collaborators, vocalist Teshome Mitiku. But now, they’re coming back!
To celebrate the exact 40th anniversary of their first show, the Either/Orchestra returns to the stage not a mile from where they started. The E/O began playing the Regattabar when the club was band new in the ’90’s. There is no better and more appropriate venue for them to inaugurate their fifth decade.
The E/O will be making selections from their vast catalog of originals and original arrangements of classic and obscure jazz, as well as dipping into their unparalleled repertoire of Ethiopian music in honor of their upcoming release, éthiopiques 32: Nalbandian the Ethiopian.
Their second release on the legendary éthiopiques series features music by Nerses Nalbandian, a teenage refugee of the Armenian genocide who rose to become music director of Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie’s National Theater in Addis Ababa. Nalbandian’s interest in American music helped set the stage for the birth of the modern Ethiopian pop music which has bewitched music aficionados the world over the past couple of decades. His music has seldom been played since the totalitarian revolution which deposed Haile Selassie in 1974, and the E/O was asked by the Nalbandian family and éthiopiques producer Frances Falceto to reconstruct and play it at the National Theater of Ethiopia. The album is a record of that labor of love.
E/O personnel:
Tom Halter | trumpet
Dan Rosenthal | trumpet
Joel Yennior | trombone
Sam Spear | alto sax
Russ Gershon | tenor sax
Charlie Kohlhase | baritone sax
Alexei Tsiganov | piano
Rick McLaughlin | bass
Brooke Sofferman | drums
Vicente Lebron | congas
Cover: Sold Out
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Erkki Vilhelm Aho was born December 10, 1918 in Helsinki, Finland. He led the Rytmi orchestra which was formed in 1938. In the orchestra, Olavi Virta and Raija Valtonen acted as soloists, the pianist was Toivo Kärki and another famous member was Pauli Granfelt.
Aho’s orchestra was one of the top Finnish orchestras. During the Continuation War, his orchestra consisted of 14 men before it was taken over in 1945 by drummer Osmo “Ossi” Aalto. In the spring of 1944, the orchestra recorded American evergreens arranged by Kärjen Syväri.
Trombonist, trumpeter and conductor Erkki Aho died on August 19, 2002.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bill Allred was born in Rock Island, Illinois on November 19, 1936 into a family where his father played the Streckfus Steamboat lines on the Mississippi.
He formed a Dixieland band while still in high school. In 1954 he enlisted in the Navy, playing with Navy bands throughout his tour and was excited to be part of a big band for the first time. Returning home he married, pursued a regular career and continued to gig.
His big break came in 1970 when, out of 2500 auditioning musicians, he was chosen to be part of the Disney World Band on the park’s opening day in 1970. While at Disney he formed a trad band called The Reedy Creek Jazz Band. The band was noticed by Bob Snow, who recruited him to put together a show and band for the Rosie O’Grady’s Goodtime Jazz Emporium, that ran for 25 years.
In 1979, Bill formed the Continental Jazz Band for a Roaring Twenties club in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “Auntie Mame’s” later won the Carbonell Award for Best Cabaret Show in South Florida.
Trombonist and bandleader Bill Allred, who was a vital component of the classic jazz scene in South Florida, died on February 1, 2024 at the age of 87.
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