Abbie Brunies

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Albert "Abbie" Brunies (* 19th January 1900 in New Orleans , Louisiana ; † 2. October 1978 in Biloxi , Mississippi ) was an American jazz - trumpet (cornet) and bandleader of the early New Orleans jazz and member of a famous family of jazz musicians.

Life

His brothers Henry (trombonist), Merritt (cornet, trombone) and the trombonist and band leader George Brunies were also jazz musicians. Mother and father were also musical and formed a family band with the children. Like other family members, he was tutored by Papa Jack Laine and soon found work as a musician, following the example of his older brothers Henry and Merritt. Many later well-known jazz musicians of New Orleans Jazz lived in his neighborhood, according to the racial segregation at the time, mostly with a European background. Often they were also pupils of Papa Jack Laine. Around 1920 he received an offer from drummer Mike "Ragbaby" Stevens to come to Chicago (where he played with Tom Brown ), but he turned it down because there was enough work in New Orleans.

Abbie Brunies played in Bucktown, West End and Milneburg, among others. He played with clarinetist Charlie Cordella , drummer Emmett "Buck" Rogers (actually J. Emmett McCloskey), piano player Mickey Marcour and guitarist Emile "Stalebread" Lacoume . His band with Marcour, Lacoume and Rogers was called New Orleans Jazz Babies like a band of his brothers Merritt and Henry, who had since left town and wanted to tie in with the Abbie Brunies. Among other things, they played in the Halfway House , a kind of roadhouse halfway between New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain , which was opened in 1915 by the Rabinsteiner brothers (including Chris Rabinsteiner) and existed until 1930 (today's address 102 City Park Avenue). It was a popular weekend dance hangout. His band, which became known as the Halfway House Orchestra , played there until February 1927. Charlie Cordella, Mickey Marcour, Leon Rappolo , banjo player Bill Eastwood , bassist Joe Loyacano (double bass, tuba, but also alto saxophone) played in the band , Trombone), clarinetist Sidney Arodin and drummer Leo Adde . They recorded on January 11, 1925 for Okeh Records , which made recording tours to New Orleans from 1924, Pussy Cat Rag (a composition by Abbie Brunies, Cordella, Marcour) and Barataria (a composition by Adde, Eastwood). Cordella, Marcour, Rappolo, Loyacano, Eastwood, Brunies and Adde played. On September 25, 1925, they recorded Let Me Call You Sweetheart and Maple Leaf Rag for Columbia Records and on April 13, 1926 ( I'm In Love, It Belongs to You, Since You're Gone, Snookum ). Further recordings for Columbia were made in April and October 1927 and in April 1928.

They also performed in other dance halls, such as the Metairie Inn in Bucktown, but then did not call themselves the Halfway House Orchestra. After the end of the engagements in Half Way they toured Louisiana in 1928 and had an engagement in the hip club in the winter of 1928/29 (they described themselves as the coolest (best-ventilated) club in New Orleans and were New Silver Slipper during Prohibition Speakeasy ) on Bourbon Street. Irving Fazola and Sidney Arodin also played there at times . On December 17, 1928, the band recorded there for Columbia Just Pretending and If I Didn't Have You . Abbie Brunies played in the Silver Slipper for several years. To his band members. With the beginning of the Great Depression in 1930 he had to reduce his orchestra and from the late 1930s he worked as a shipyard worker in New Orleans.

In 1945 he moved to Biloxi, where his brother Merritt lived. He had a small restaurant where he cooked himself and was known for his hamburgers. He played there with his brothers in the Dixieland Revival and recorded in 1957 for Southland Records (founded by jazz promoter Joe Mares, a brother of Paul Mares ) with the Brunies Brothers Dixieland Jazz Band , where he also sang with Merritt. Clarinetist was Jules Gallé (* 1903), who played in the classic New Orleans style and at the time was a colleague of Merritt Brunies in the Biloxi police.

He is buried with other members of the Brunies family in the traditional Lafayette No. 1 cemetery in New Orleans.

There is also a drummer in the Brunies family, "Little Abbie" Brunies (1914–1955), also called Little Albert Brunies. He was a cousin of the brothers.

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ For the Brunies family, see George Brunies
  2. ↑ Instead, Paul Mares followed the memories of the Brunies family to Chicago, who a little later founded the New Orleans Rhythm Kings in Chicago with George Brunies and Leon Roppolo . Ate van Delden Albert Brunies and the Halfway House Orchestra , see web links.
  3. ↑ A photo of the band was in Ramsey, Smith Jazzmen , 1939
  4. ^ Kernfeld, New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 1988, article Brunies
personal data
SURNAME Brunies, Abbie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brunies, Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz cornetist and band leader
DATE OF BIRTH January 19, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH New Orleans , Louisiana
DATE OF DEATH 2nd October 1978
Place of death Biloxi , Mississippi