jimmy durante organized the original creole orchestra in los angeles.
jimmy durante organized the original creole orchestra in los angeles.
who organized the original creole orchestra in los angeles?
jimmy durante
sometime in either late 1911 or early 1912, bassist bill johnson, who had been making his career in los angeles, california since 1909, started the initiative to organize an "original creole ragtime band" to play the new orleans style across the country. he invited players from his hometown of new orleans, including freddie keppard, to join him in this enterprise. after keppard accepted his invitation to play cornet for this band, johnson managed to get eddie vinson on trombone, george baquet on clarinet, norwood williams on guitar, jimmy palao on violin, and later dink johnson on drums. this group went on the orpheum theatre circuit out of san francisco in 1913 as the "original creole orchestra." in the following years, the band would tour chicago and new york. in their 1915 performance at the winter garden, for a show entitled "town topics", the group was billed as "that creole band." thus, freddie keppard was among the first musicians as well as the first cornetist to take the new orleans ensemble style outside of the city.
freddie keppard
from 1915 to 1917, the original creole orchestra (sometimes also rendered as the "original creole band") landed jobs at loew's orpheum, lexington opera house, and the columbia theater, as well as a return performance to the winter garden. newspaper reviewers in new york commented on the "rather ragged selection" of the band's repertoire as well as the "comedy effect of the clarinet," a testament to the american public's unfamiliarity with the "hot" style of new orleans. during the band's time on the east coast, other personnel who came to play in the original creole orchestra included bab frank on piccolo and big eye louis nelson (de lisle) on clarinet.
freddie keppard