Louis Nelson Delisle
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Big Eye Louis Nelson
- Genres: Jazz
Biography
One of the early pioneers of jazz, Big Eye Louis Nelson (no relation to trombonist Louis Nelson, although they sometimes played together) was an early inspiration for Johnny Dodds and Jimmie Noone and was for a period the teacher of Sidney Bechet. Born Louis Nelson DeLisle -- he eventually dropped his last name -- he played accordion, guitar, banjo, violin, and bass early on; he was mostly self-taught on clarinet other than some lessons from Lorenzo Tio, Sr. and Luis Tio in 1904.One of the very first jazz clarinetists (as opposed to ones who merely played preplanned counter-melodies or stuck to reading music), Nelson performed with the who's-who of early jazz, including Buddy Bolden, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, and Oscar Celestin. Nelson spent his early life in New Orleans, leaving for Chicago in 1916 to join Freddie Keppard and the Original Creole Orchestra but returning two years later. He was with many bands including the Imperial Orchestra, the Golden Rule Orchestra, the Imperial Band, the Superior Orchestra, and the Eagle Band. Nelson worked with John Robichaux's Orchestra (1918-1924) and Sidney Desvigne; from 1939-1949 he led his own group at Luthjen's.
Because he did not leave the South, Nelson did not record much. His career reached back to the beginnings of jazz but fortunately he was documented a bit in 1949, just a short time before his death. He is on the erratic 1940 Kid Rena sessions and was captured in 1949: twice in the studios for American Music (once under the leadership of Wooden Joe Nicholas) and on a live date at Luthjen's that year (which was not released until 1992). All of the 1949 sessions (except a few alternate takes) are included on the American Music CD Big Eye Louis Nelson DeLisle. Fortunately he is in pretty good form on these historic performances that are his recorded legacy. ~ Scott Yanow, Rovi
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Louis Nelson Delisle
| Louis Nelson Delisle | |
|---|---|
 Nelson Delisle in 1910 |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Louis Nelson Delisle |
| Also known as | "Big Eye" |
| Born | January 28, 1885 |
| Origin |  New Orleans, Louisiana, USA |
| Died | July 20, 1949 (aged 64) |
| Instruments | Clarinet |
| Years active | 1910s – 1940s |
"Big Eye" Louis Nelson Delisle (28 January 1885 – 20 August 1949) was an early dixieland jazz clarinetist. He also played string bass, banjo, and accordion professionally on occasion.
Nelson Delisle was born and spent most of his life in New Orleans, Louisiana.
He studied clarinet with the elder Lorenzo Tio, and was working professionally in Storyville music venues by the age of 15. He developed an early style of hot playing in the earliest days of jazz, and was an important influence on such later New Orleans jazz clarinetists as Johnny Dodds and Jimmie Noone.
In his early career "Big Eye" often played a C clarinet, as opposed to the more common B♭; the C was also used by other New Orleans clarinetists of the era, such as Alcide Nunez.
In the 1917, he joined the reconstituted Original Creole Orchestra that included Freddie Keppard and Bill Johnson. The band had disbanded in Boston in the spring of that year but was reassembled in New York in the fall of the same year. Big Eye replaced clarinetist George Baquet, who had toured with the group in vaudeville. After a short while, Big Eye was replaced by Jimmie Noone.[1] Nelson was the regular clarinetist with the Jones & Collins Astoria Hot Eight but did not play on their 1929 recording sessions.
He made his only recordings in his later years in the 1940s, by which time he was often in poor health and from contemporary accounts past his playing prime, but still capable of producing some beautiful phrases; the recordings are available on compact disc on American Music Records. Nelson Delisle's playing is more blues influenced and fluid compared to the more stattico and raggy playing of older New Orleans clarinetist Alphonse Picou.
Notes
- ^ Hazeldine, Mike. Original Creole Band. in Kernfeld, Barry. ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd Edition, Vol. 3. London: MacMillan, 2002. p. 200.
External links
- Photograph [1]
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