Buddy Petit

Buddie Petit , even Buddy Petit, (* around 1895 in White Castle , Louisiana ; † 4. July 1931 in New Orleans ) was a leading American jazz - cornet of early New Orleans jazz .

Petit was born Joseph Crawford in a small town 100 miles west of New Orleans . His father died early and his mother moved with him to New Orleans around 1900, where she married the trombonist Joseph Petit . Buddie Petit also took this name and changed his first name. Soon after, he began to learn the trumpet, based on the style of Bunk Johnson . Soon he was considered one of the best cornet players in town. He took over from Freddie Keppard's place in the "Eagle Band" (in which Buddy Bolden played before Keppard ) when he left New Orleans to play with bassist Bill Johnson's original Creole Orchestra .

In 1917 Jelly Roll Morton invited him to Los Angeles , but the temperaments of the two did not match - the Creole Morton from the "metropolis" New Orleans made fun of the "peasant tramp" Petit and wanted him to appear in the band prescribe what led to a heated argument. He then refused to tour outside of the Gulf region. In 1918 he was invited bassist Bill Johnson, in his original Creole Orchestra in Chicago to play (from the later King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band was); he preferred to stay in New Orleans and King Oliver got the job for it.

Petit then led his own bands for parades, dance events, etc. a. In his time he was very well known in New Orleans and was often booked, which he took advantage of and accepted up to five engagements per evening, but then sent replacement bands to four of them. He usually played the second cornet in his bands, only playing solos on the way back during funeral procession. In the 1920s he also worked in bands on paddle steamers. Always very fun-loving (and drinking a lot of alcohol) Petit died on a picnic on Independence Day at the age of 34 of too much food and drink. One of his pallbearers was Louis Armstrong , who had some of his first engagements in the Petit marching bands.

There are no recordings of him (a request from Okeh in 1925 failed due to his high fee demands), but Louis Armstrong's recording "Cornet Shop Suey" (with his Hot Five 1926) is said to have come closest to his game.

literature

• Carlo Bohländer , Karl Heinz Holler, Christian Pfarr: Reclam's Jazz Guide . 3rd, revised and expanded edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-15-010355-X .

Web links

• Redhotjazz to Buddie Petit
• Buddie Petit at Allmusic (English)

Remarks

1. ↑ Different dates of birth are given, e.g. B. also May 25, 1897 here: Allaboutjazz zu Petit ( Memento of the original from September 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in Carlo Bohländer Reclam's Jazzführer 1989 it says around 1887 or 1897. John Chilton Who´s who in jazz , MacMillan 1985, states around 1897.