Joe "King" Oliver, (December 19, 1885 –
April 10, 1938) was a bandleader and jazz cornet player.
Background
Joseph "King" Oliver was born in Abend, Louisiana near Donaldsonville, and moved to New Orleans in
his youth. Oliver played cornet in the New Orleans brass
bands and dance bands and also in the city's red-light district, Storyville. The band
he co-led with trombonist Kid Ory was considered New Orleans' hottest and best in the 1910s.
Oliver achieved great popularity in New Orleans across economic and racial lines, and was in demand for playing jobs from rough
working class black dance halls to white society debutante parties.
According to an interview at the Tulane's Hogan Jazz
Archive with Oliver's widow Stella Oliver, in 1919 a fight broke out at a dance where Oliver was playing, and the police
arrested Oliver and the band along with the fighters. This made Oliver decide to leave the Jim
Crow South.
After travels in California, by 1922 Oliver was the jazz "King" in Chicago (see: Jazz royalty), with King Oliver and his Creole
Jazz Band performing at the Royal Gardens (later renamed the Lincoln Gardens). Virtually all the members of this band had notable
solo careers. Personnel was Oliver on cornet, his protegé Louis Armstrong, second
cornet, Baby Dodds, drums, Johnny Dodds, clarinet, Lil
Hardin (later Armstrong's wife), on piano, Honore
Dutrey on trombone, and Bill
Johnson, bass and banjo. Recordings made by this group
in 1923 demonstrated the serious artistry of the New Orleans style of collective improvisation or Dixieland music to a wider audience.
In the mid and late 1920s Oliver's band transformed into a hybrid of the old New Orleans style jazz band and the nationally
popular larger dance band, and was christened "King Oliver & His Dixie Syncopators". Oliver started to suffer from gum
disease which started to diminish his playing abilities, but remained a popular band leader through the decade.
Unfortunately, Oliver's business acumen was less than his musical ability. A succession of managers stole money from him. He
demanded more money for his band than the Savoy Ballroom was willing to pay, and lost the
gig. In similar fashion, he lost the chance for an engagement at New York City's famous
Cotton Club when he held out for more money; young Duke Ellington took the job and subsequently catapulted to fame.
The Great Depression was harsh to Oliver; he lost his life
savings when a Chicago bank collapsed, as he struggled to keep his band together on a series of hand-to-mouth gigs until the band
broke up and Oliver was stranded in Savannah, Georgia, where he worked as a janitor at
Wimberly's Recreation Hall (526-528 West Broad Street) and died in poverty at a rooming house (508 Montgomery Street).
Oliver's Music
As a player, Oliver was extremely interested in altering his horn's sound. He pioneered in the use of mutes, including the
plumber's plunger, derby hat, and bottles and cups in the bell of his horn. His recording "WaWaWa" with the Dixie Syncopators can
be credited with giving the name wah-wah to such techniques.
Oliver was also noted as a composer, having written many tunes still regularly played, including "Dippermouth Blues", "Sweet
Like This", "Canal Street Blues", and "Doctor Jazz".
Oliver performed mostly on cornet (an instrument almost identical to the trumpet). Oliver credited Buddy Bolden, as an early influence. Oliver, in
turn, was a major influence on many younger musicians in New Orleans and Chicago, including Tommy
Ladnier, Paul Mares, Muggsy Spanier,
Louis Panico, Johnny Wiggs, and most famously
Louis Armstrong.
Armstrong called Oliver "Papa Joe" and referred to Oliver as his idol and inspiration all his life. In Armstrong's
autobiography, "Satchmo - My Life in New Orleans", he writes about Oliver:
It was my ambition to play as he did. I still think that if it had not been for Joe Oliver, Jazz would not be what it is
today. He was a creator in his own right.
Quotation
- Hello, Central, give me Doctor Jazz
- He's got what I need, I say he has
External links
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