Armand J. Piron

Armand John Piron (* 16th August 1888 in New Orleans ; † 17th February 1943 ,) was an American jazz - violinist and band leader of the New Orleans Jazz .

Life

Armand Piron came from a Creole family and had been unable to walk since childhood. From 1904 he played the violin full-time, had his own band as early as 1908, performed with Clarence Williams (as a singer and pianist) in Vaudeville and from 1913 led the Olympia Orchestra , which he took over from Freddie Keppard and which also included Bunk Johnson , Louis Nelson Delisle , Joe Oliver and Clarence Williams played. With Williams he founded a music publisher in 1915, where he also published his biggest hit I wish that I could shimmy like my sister Kate in the same year (for which, however, Louis Armstrong made copyright claims). Some early jazz standards such as Royal Garden Blues were also first published there. After a short time in 1916 with Papa Celestin 's Tuxedo Orchestra and in 1917 with WC Handy , he founded his own Piron's New Orleans Orchestra in 1918 , which soon became the best-paid black band in New Orleans, with regular appearances in the amusement park at the Spanish Fort and in exclusive New Orleans Country Club on Lake Pontchartrain . In 1923 he went with his band to New York , where he was permanently engaged in the Roseland Ballroom , played in the Cotton Club and made recordings (including with the blues singer Esther Bigeou ). The following year, his band members (including Lorenzo Tio , Steve Lewis , Peter Bocage ), who did not like the climate and food , voted to return to New Orleans, where Piron performed again at the Country Club , in Tranchina's Restaurant and on the paddle steamers Capital and President was in business well into the 1930s. In 1935 he and his band switched to the swing style that was popular at the time .

Web links

• Piron with Redhotjazz and Piron's New Orleans Orchestra