Original Dixieland Jazz Band Biography
In May 1916 several young white New Orleans musicians were working in Chicago, often appearing in the same bands. After a few changes the musicians settled down as a permanent band, with the personnel consisting of Nick LaRocca (Dominic James LaRocca, 11 April 1889, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, d. 22 February 1961, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; cornet) Eddie Edwards (b. 22 May 1891, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, d. 9 April 1963; trombone), Larry Shields (b. Lawrence Shields, 13 September 1893, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, d. 21 November 1953, Los Angeles, California, USA; clarinet), pianist Henry Ragas (b. 1891, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA d. 18 February 1919, New York City, New York, USA) - his successor at the piano, J. Russell Robinson (b. 8 July 1892, d. 30 September 1963) and Tony Sbarbaro (Spargo) (b. 27 June 1897, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, d. 30 October 1969; drums). Under its somewhat hyperbolic and misleading title, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, aided by widespread publicity, became known as the creators of jazz. Despite this hopelessly inaccurate and unfair description, the ODJB's 1917 recordings of "Livery Stable Blues" and "Dixie Jass Band One-Step" succeeded in bringing the emergent music to the attention of millions. They were also able to make far more prestigious public appearances than would have been possible had they been black. First at Resenweber's restaurant in New York and later at London's Palladium theatre, the ODJB offered audiences a mixture of vaudeville eccentricity and good jazz (rather more of the former than the latter) and helped to boost the music from its limited origins into worldwide popularity.
Synonymous with the Jazz Age, and sometimes having just as little to do with real jazz as does that loose term for a sociological and cultural phenomenon, the ODJB quickly became legendary and thereafter did not need to live up to the usually unfulfilled promise their name evokes. By the mid-20s, with the rise of artists such as Paul Whiteman and the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, the ODJB were quickly deemed passé and broke up in 1925, re-forming in 1936 for a brief and not too successful tour. The founding five had variable success after their ODJB days with Sbarbaro being perhaps the most active. Several ODJB alumni, including Sbarbaro, trombonist Eddie Edwards and pianist Frank Signorelli, recorded a 1943 session with multi-instrumentalist Brad Gowans. In the late 50s trumpeter Don Fowler and clarinettist George Phillips recorded a note-for-note ODJB tribute album for Paramount.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
|
