Freddie Keppard

Freddie Keppard , sometimes also written Freddy Keppard, (born February 27, 1889 or 1890 in New Orleans , † July 15, 1933 in Chicago ) was an American cornetist in early jazz.

Life

Keppard played the mandolin, violin and accordion before switching to the cornet. He played in New Orleans in the Olympia Orchestra (from 1906) and then as one of the successors of Buddy Bolden in Frankie Dusen 's Eagle Band . After Boldens retired with his admission to a mental hospital in 1907 he was considered the leading cornet player in town ( King Keppard ).

Between 1913 and 1914 he played with Martin Gabriel in The National Orchestra Ensemble.

In late 1912 he went to Los Angeles with Bill Johnson's band , and King Oliver took his throne in New Orleans. With Johnson and her Original Creole Orchestra , they toured vaudeville shows across the country from 1914 to 1918 . The audience in the north of the USA was given an impression of the jazz played in New Orleans for the first time - but not yet called that at the time. In 1915 they received an offer to record Victor's recordings in New York , but Keppard turned them down on the grounds that he would consume the offered 25 dollars in gin every day (another reason was the suspicion that the record company was fooled or that their numbers would be stolen by other musicians). The possibility of hearing him on some of the earliest jazz recordings ever was gone forever.

From 1917 he moved to Chicago , where he played with the bands of Jimmie Noone , Johnny Dodds , Lawrence Duhé , Erskine Tate , Doc Cook , Don Pasquall , Charles Elgar and Lil Hardin Armstrong . All known recordings come from Chicago (1924–1927), particularly with Freddie Keppard Jazz Cardinals ( Stock Yard Strut 1926, a variant of Tiger Rag ) and the Doc Cooke's Dreamland Orchestra . According to some musicians who still knew both of them, his style was most similar to that of the legendary Buddy Bolden, of whom no recordings have been made. Keppard died forgotten by suicide in Chicago, fell ill with tuberculosis from 1928 , which made his work impossible, and had been addicted to alcoholism for years.

literature

• Lawrence Gushee Pioneers of Jazz - The Story of the Creole Band , Oxford University Press 2005

Discography

• With Erskine Tate 's Vendome Orchestra, Chicago June 23, 1923 (Okeh): Cutie Blues, Chinaman Blues
• with Cook 's Dreamland Orchestra, Richmond (Indiana), January 21, 1924 (Gennett): Scissor Grinder Joe, Lonely Little Wallflower, So this is Venice, Moanful Man, The Memphis Maybe Man, The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else ,
• with Cookie ´s Ginger Snaps, Chicago, June 22, 1926 (Okeh): Messin Around, High Fever, Here Comes the Hot Tamale Man, Love Found for Me,
• with Cook and his Dreamland Orchestra, Chicago, July 10, 1926 (Columbia): Here Comes the Hot Tamale Man, Brown Sugar, High Fever, Spanish Mama (with Jimmie Noone, among others )
• Freddie Keppard´s Jazz Cardinals, Chicago, September 1926: Stock Yards Slut, Messin Around, Salty Dog (with Eddie Vincent (trombone), Johnny Dodds (clarinet), Arthur Campbell (piano), Jasper Taylor ( woodblocks ), Papa Charlie Jackson (Singing))
• with Jasper Taylor and his State Street Boys, Chicago January 1927 (with Eddie Ellis (trombone), Johnny Dodds (clarinet), Tiny Parham (piano), Jasper Taylor): Stomp Time Blues, It Must Be the Blues
• accompanied by Frankie Halfpint Jaxon (vocals), Chicago, October 28, 1927 (vocalion): Hit Ta Ditty Low Down, Down at Jasper's Bar-be-que, How Can I Get It?

Web links

• Biography at Redhotjazz

Remarks

1. ↑ So Ramsey, Lewis Jazzmen 1939, which are probably based on statements of the bassist Bill Johnson. The clarinetist George Baquet , on the other hand, stated in Down Beat 1941 that problems with recording the double bass would have been decisive. Keppard was not ready for unpaid test recordings.
2. ↑ and the fame of having made the first recordings went to the white original Dixieland Jass Band