Papa Jack Laine
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Papa Jack Laine
- Genres: Jazz
Biography
A pioneering bandleader and drummer from New Orleans, Papa Jack Laine's career reached back to the beginnings of jazz. Laine played drums, tuba and alto horn as a child. He formed his first band in 1888 and a few years later founded and led the Reliance Brass Band in New Orleans, a group that lasted for over four decades although Laine himself retired around 1917. Later called "the father of white jazz" because of the many top players who passed through his bands (including George Brunies, Sharkey Bonano and the future members of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band), Laine was not technically a jazz musician himself but he was a masterful talent scout. Unfortunately none of his groups (at one point in time he led five different versions of the Reliance Brass Band) ever recorded although Papa Jack Laine's voice was captured on a Southland lp in 1951, introducing a New Orleans group that for the occasion took the name of "Papa Laine's Children." ~ Scott Yanow, RoviWikipedia on Answers.com:
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Papa Jack Laine
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George Vital "Papa Jack" Laine (September 21, 1873 – June 1, 1966) was a pioneering band leader in New Orleans in the years from the Spanish-American War to World War I.[1]
Laine in 1906
Many of the New Orleans musicians who first spread jazz around the United States in the 1910s and 1920s got their start in the Laine bands. Laine was a drummer, but was more noted for his skills at arranging and booking bands. Laine's musicians included individuals from most of New Orleans' many ethnic groups—African American, English, French, German, Italian, Jewish, Latin American, Scottish etc. Laine started leading bands before the Jim Crow codes went into effect in New Orleans.[citation needed]
Even after segregation laws started demanding "whites" and "colored" be kept separate, Laine continued to hire light- and medium light-skinned African-American musicians, claiming that they were "Cuban" or "Mexican" if any segregationist tried to start trouble. Hence some musicians who played with black bands like those of Buddy Bolden and Joe "King" Oliver also played with Laine. Thus there was a wide cross-fertilization of musical ideas in the Laine organization.[citation needed]
Laine retired from the music booking business by 1920, but he was interviewed a number of times, providing first hand accounts of the early days of the development of New Orleans jazz. He had hired well over 100 musicians to play in his bands, including the following:
- Chink Martin Abraham
- Achille Baquet
- Abbie Brunies
- George Brunies
- Merrit Brunies
- Richie Brunies
- Emile Christian
- Frank Christian
- Johnny Dedroit
- Eddie Edwards
- Marcus Kahn
- Nick LaRocca
- Ray Lopez
- Arnold Loyacano
- Joe Loyacano
- Leonce Mello
- Gussie Mueller
- Alcide Nunez
- Dave Perkins
- Alphonse Picou
- Harry Shannon
- Larry Shields
- Henry Ragas
- Tony Sbarbaro
- Ragbaby Stephens
References
- ^ Yanow, Scott. "Papa Jack Laine: Biography". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/papa-jack-laine-p358702. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
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