George Baquet

George Francis Baquet , also George F. Bacquet (* 1883 in New Orleans ; † 14. January 1949 in Philadelphia ) was an American jazz - clarinetist of the early New Orleans jazz .

Life

Baquet came from a musical Creole family and learned the clarinet from his father Theogene Baquet (1858-1920), a clarinetist, as did his brothers Achille and Harold ("Hal"), who fell victim to a knife attack. Baquet played in his father's " Excelsior Brass Band " and from 1897 began playing professionally in the Lyre Club Symphony Orchestra. In 1901/2 he played in Manuel Perez's " Onward Brass Band " and in his "Imperial Orchestra". From 1902 to 1904 he went on tour with the "Nashville Student Minstrels " and the "Georgia Minstrels". From 1904 he was back in New Orleans, where he played with Buddy Bolden and then with John Robichaux and Freddie Keppard . From 1906 to 1908 he was in the "Superior Band" and then until 1914 in the Olympia and Magnolia Band. He went to Los Angeles until 1916 with Keppard's (or Bill Johnson's ) "Original Creole Orchestra" . With Keppard and the bassist Bill Johnson, with whom Keppard took turns on the line, they almost made the first jazz recordings with Victor (possibly late 1915 in New York). According to Baquet, however, they refrained from doing so because they feared their fee would be cheated. He then played in Coney Island in New York and in 1923 in Philadelphia with Sam Gordon's "Lafayette Players". He later led his own groups in Philadelphia (where he settled) the popular "New Orleans Nighthawks", from which the "George Bakey's Swingsters" emerged in the 1930s.

Baquet recorded with Bessie Smith in the 1920s, Jelly Roll Morton ’s Red Hot Peppers in 1929 , and Sidney Bechet in the 1940s , whose teacher he was in New Orleans in 1903. Baquet became known for his high society solo, which is also attributed to Alphonse Picou .

With Lorenzo Tio and Big Eye Louis Nelson, Bacquet is at the origin of the development of the clarinet in early jazz. Jelly Roll Morton called him in his autobiographical book Mr. Jelly Roll the "first jazz clarinetist", whereby he emphasized the word jazz in the typeface. According to Gunther Schuller , however, Bacquet's few recordings are disappointing, where his playing sounds "completely stiff and howling in Ted Lewis fashion".

His brother Achille (1885–1956) was also a jazz clarinetist. He was one of the New Orleans musicians who brought early jazz to Harlem , where he a. a. played with Jimmy Durante .

literature

Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .
Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon . Reinbek, Rowohlt, 1988.

Web links

Chadbourne on Baquet in the All Music Guide
Photo ( Memento from June 24, 2007 in the web archive archive.today )

Individual evidence

↑ Down Beat December 1941, quoted in John Chilton "Sidney Bechet - the wizzard of Jazz". The record company Victor had doubts whether the Bill Johnson double bass could be heard with the recording methods of the time and wanted unpaid test recordings, which annoyed Keppard. That is why the banjo or tuba was used in early jazz orchestras in the early 1920s. In Ramsey, Smith's “Jazzmen” from 1939, the reason why these recordings failed was previously cited as Keppard's fear that others might steal their ideas.
↑ Bechet notes in his autobiography that Baquet was a good musician at the time, but “it wasn't really jazz. . . he stuck real close to the line in a way. He played things more classic-like, straight out how it was written "
↑ quoted from Schuller Early Jazz , p. 142. Morton's autobiography was edited by Lomax.
↑ Schuller "Early Jazz", Oxford University Press, p. 183, referring to the Bessie Smith recordings
↑ Ted Lewis (1892-1971), actually Friedman, clarinetist and entertainer, who recorded in 1917 with Earl Fuller's Jass Band, a copy of the ODJB . His technique was very modest, but improved over time. An advertisement in the Victor record catalog read: "The sounds that sound like the howling of a dying dog are from Ted Lewis clarinet". As a band leader, however, he was well known and also knew his limits - he brought musicians like Benny Goodman on the clarinet.

personal data
SURNAME	Baquet, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Baquet, George F .; Bacquet, George F.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American jazz clarinetist of early New Orleans jazz
DATE OF BIRTH	1883
PLACE OF BIRTH	New Orleans , USA
DATE OF DEATH	January 14, 1949
Place of death	Philadelphia , USA

[1] Down Beat December 1941, quoted in John Chilton "Sidney Bechet - the wizzard of Jazz". The record company Victor had doubts whether the Bill Johnson double bass could be heard with the recording methods of the time and wanted unpaid test recordings, which annoyed Keppard. That is why the banjo or tuba was used in early jazz orchestras in the early 1920s. In Ramsey, Smith's “Jazzmen” from 1939, the reason why these recordings failed was previously cited as Keppard's fear that others might steal their ideas.

[2] Bechet notes in his autobiography that Baquet was a good musician at the time, but “it wasn't really jazz. . . he stuck real close to the line in a way. He played things more classic-like, straight out how it was written "

[3] quoted from Schuller Early Jazz , p. 142. Morton's autobiography was edited by Lomax.

[4] Schuller "Early Jazz", Oxford University Press, p. 183, referring to the Bessie Smith recordings

[5] Ted Lewis (1892-1971), actually Friedman, clarinetist and entertainer, who recorded in 1917 with Earl Fuller's Jass Band, a copy of the ODJB . His technique was very modest, but improved over time. An advertisement in the Victor record catalog read: "The sounds that sound like the howling of a dying dog are from Ted Lewis clarinet". As a band leader, however, he was well known and also knew his limits - he brought musicians like Benny Goodman on the clarinet.