Jazz Royalty and the Cornet Crown A King Oliver Story
Mar 08, 2024
Harriet
Embark on a melodious journey through the echoes of jazz history with me, Harriet West-Moore, as we celebrate the life of one of its most distinguished architects: King Oliver. Let the intricate story of Joseph Nathan Oliver enchant you, from his initial foray with the trombone to the mastery of the cornet, where he pioneered a sound that still resonates in the soul of jazz aficionados. As whispers of the Creole Jazz Band's legacy fill the air, discover the gems of their craft, like the timeless "Dipper Mouth Blues," and feel the momentous impact of Oliver's mentorship to a young Louis Armstrong—a decision that forever altered the jazz landscape.
Raise your glass to the symphony of the past and the promise of future harmonies on Moore Wine and Music. In heartfelt gratitude, we extend our appreciation to you, our dear listeners, with a glimpse into the next episode where we'll shine the spotlight on the inimitable Waller. So, let's toast to an evening enriched by the tales of jazz legends and the anticipation of melodies yet to be explored. Let the rhythm of the greats guide your night, and join me in a celebration of jazz, life, and the pure joy of discovery.
Embark on a melodious journey through the echoes of jazz history with me, Harriet West-Moore, as we celebrate the life of one of its most distinguished architects: King Oliver. Let the intricate story of Joseph Nathan Oliver enchant you, from his initial foray with the trombone to the mastery of the cornet, where he pioneered a sound that still resonates in the soul of jazz aficionados. As whispers of the Creole Jazz Band's legacy fill the air, discover the gems of their craft, like the timeless "Dipper Mouth Blues," and feel the momentous impact of Oliver's mentorship to a young Louis Armstrong—a decision that forever altered the jazz landscape.
Raise your glass to the symphony of the past and the promise of future harmonies on Moore Wine and Music. In heartfelt gratitude, we extend our appreciation to you, our dear listeners, with a glimpse into the next episode where we'll shine the spotlight on the inimitable Waller. So, let's toast to an evening enriched by the tales of jazz legends and the anticipation of melodies yet to be explored. Let the rhythm of the greats guide your night, and join me in a celebration of jazz, life, and the pure joy of discovery.
Good evening, good evening. Good evening. This is Harriet Westmore with the More Wine and Music podcast, a podcast where I discuss early genre of music over a glass of wine. I want to welcome everybody tonight. I apologize. Usually I do the live of the More Wine and Music podcast on Fridays, but I wasn't prepared, so I wanted to make sure I was fully prepared with the content that I'm going to bring tonight. So I wanted to make sure I just have an extra day for me to finish up what I wanted to talk about tonight. If you haven't already, please hit that subscribe button, hit the like, and please share the content with others so we can get more audience, those who are interested in learning about the early genres of American music. Just share it with somebody who would be interested. And also, if you would like, you can send a donation or help keep the podcast going with more genre, more material, by signing up with Buy Me a Coffee dot com backslash More Wine and Music and you can give whatever you feel that you would like to give and with that I will give you a personal shout out on the show as my token of appreciation for you to help support me in the podcast. All right.
Speaker 1:
So tonight I want to talk about we're continuing on with Season 2 of the jazz genre. So tonight I'm going to be talking about an early jazz pioneer which is King Oliver. King Oliver, he was a band leader. He was one of the early pioneers of band leader of jazz genres, so I wanted to talk about him. He was a mentor actually to the great Satchmo Louis Armstrong, so he made a great influence in the jazz community.
Speaker 1:
So born Joseph Nathan Oliver, december 19th of 1881 or 1885, whichever, depending on what source you read. Of course they always get the dates of these artists not accurate. He was born in Louisiana and I couldn't find any information about his parents or his early childhood. But the only thing that I found that he was at an early age he started playing. His first instrument was the trombone and he was actually studied music. So it wasn't something that he just picked up by ear, he actually had studied music and that was his first instrument was the trombone. By the time he turned 15, became a teenager, he wanted to switch instruments, of playing the trombone to the cornet. So he began to play the cornet at the age of 15 and also that's when he decided to start touring with other bands in Louisiana, in the South area, and by the time he, while performing with these bands, he was able to hone in his craft of using the mute when he played the horn, and with using the mute he was able to create sounds that was, you know, later became his trademark. I want to welcome my old friend and co-worker, cathy. How are you? I'm glad to join them With. Like I said, while you know, using the mute on his horn, playing, you know, created all these unusual sounds, and so the crowd just went wild on that. By 1917, king Oliver rose popularity and he was actually billed as a headliner to buy a band leader called Kid Ory, and it was at this time that he was dubbed King. So now, from here on out, joseph Oliver is now King Oliver.
Speaker 1:
In 1918, king Oliver decided to leave the South, leave his home in Louisiana and move up to Chicago, where he, you know, felt that he can get more music and more notoriety. As most Southern artists music artists do, they usually leave the South and move up North, and it's usually either Chicago or New York, and King Oliver was no exception. He left Louisiana and went to Chicago, and he was billed with the other band member called another player called Bill Johnson's band and he played at the Dreamland Ballroom in Chicago. He left Chicago briefly and went to California. He didn't stay there in California long. I guess he couldn't find you know the type of notoriety that he was searching for. So he returned back to Chicago and he at that point that's when he became a band leader himself. Instead of being a part of a band, he was good enough to where he wanted to start his own band and be a band leader and he started his own band group, which is called the Creole Jazz Band, and it was there that he played at the Lincoln Gardens in Chicago, as popular as the Creole Jazz Band was. No-transcript. King Oliver Wired a message back to his home in Louisiana to ask his young protege, the great Louis Armstrong, to come up to Chicago and join him and be a part of the band. And that's where Louis Armstrong he did. He left. I guess Louis Armstrong was is from Louisiana Also, or at least around the area. So he left the South and came up there to Chicago and be to be a part of King Oliver's band. With him, alongside Louis Armstrong was Clarinetist Johnny Dalt, trombone is on-road Dutry Pianist Lil Harden and Drummer baby dots.
Speaker 1:
This lineup was considered, actually was one of the considered the dream team. I mean this, this Band was, you know, they were just Honed in. They honed in on their craft. They were one of the hottest bands out hi, mom, they were one of the highest bands out there and and and they were very, very good and they were always, you know, having gigs in the Chicago area, the. They recorded several songs, although a lot of the songs Are, you know, have it didn't survive at this point, but the ones that they did. It was a few Few recordings of this band and it says that I mean the recordings. When you listen to it it doesn't do the band justice because they were just so outstanding in their performance, especially a particular song called Dipper mouth blues, which was clean Oliver's solo and we played the, the Cornet. I mean he was so good that that on that piece in that particular song. So and this was, you know, later on described by Louie Armstrong about that particular song that you know that was one of the best Solo as a Cornet that he ever heard or anybody ever heard, because a lot of people after that try to emulate the sound that King Oliver had performed.
Speaker 1:
The band, unfortunately, was only together for only four years. So they they in, like they started. They formed this group in 1920 and by 1924, for some reason I don't know, couldn't find out the reason why they decided to break up, but they did. And After they broke up, louie Armstrong went ahead and you know that and stop him, obviously because we all know who he is now. But he decided to move on and went to New York and so you know that's. You know, louis Armstrong just continued on to flourish in his career and he went to New York and In 1927 King Oliver decided to Take his chance and go to New York as well. He was given the Position to play at the Savoy ballroom. It was said that he was originally offered to play at the Cotton Club as a Performer or band leader and he turned that position down for whatever reason, and that kind of, that kind of came back to haunt him. So, even though he didn't take that position, it was later offered, it, accepted by Duke Ellington.
Speaker 1:
On top of that, the fact that being in New York as they and anybody know, new York is a harp is a tough place, you know, to thrive, you know, and King Oliver, he started to realize that his music was becoming to be outdated. This was like in the late 20s, into the 30s, so his style of music wasn't as popular as it was in his heyday. So he started, to his performance, to start to get less and less. He was being called less to perform because, again, like I said, music changes, different styles of music. It changes all the time, so you pretty much have to keep up with the time in playing certain styles and certain ways, although it was good at the time when you started playing it. But as years move on, you've got new songs, new artists coming in and they might be a little better than what you were. And so King Oliver fell into that category, to where he just wasn't progressing enough.
Speaker 1:
So, and on top of that, this is where he developed Pioria, which is a gum disease, and it was said, because he ate, which is, I thought, was kind of weird. I never heard of it, was he ate? He used to love and eat sugar sandwiches. I don't know what that consists of. I don't know if it was two pieces of bread with sugar in the middle, and whatever it was, he you know that was his downfall of his gum disease because he ate so much of that and so as a result of that, after a while it became really painful for him to to play because of his gums being, you know, deteriorating and hurting because of this disease. So by 1935, he eventually had to stop playing out together. It was just too much for him. So, but I mean, even though he stopped playing, he still was a conductor so he still would lead in in in the bands that they were. You know, people would ask him to become a band leader and conduct some of the bands and he still could do that and a lot of the solo performances that were once his solo performances, he had to a younger, you know, player in the band in the ensemble had to take over it and do his what was once his part. So you know, that was kind of pretty much the beginning of the end of him.
Speaker 1:
After a while he stayed in New York for a little bit, but with him debilitating with his mouth and not able to perform, he became disillusioned and sick, as frustrated. So he decided to leave New York and move back down south and he went to Savannah. He decided to instead of going back to his home in Louisiana. He decided to settle in Savannah, georgia, and you know this is the sad part, as a lot of these artists were at the time of their end of their career. I mean, he was so, you know, it was almost like he was destitute. He had to sell his horn and some of his fine suits that he used to wear when he was performing. You know, up in the up north, in Chicago and in New York, he had to sell that to survive and to, you know, make ends meet. And on top of that humiliation, he had opened up a, in maintaining a small fruit stand, and he worked as a pool hall janitor. So I mean, it is, you know, as much of a great pioneer as he was, I mean, and to be relegated to this, it, it, it. I can't imagine the humiliation he felt. You know, being at one time, you know, loved and admired and, and you know, showed his talent, and now, you know, to lose all of that and have to do, you know, a menial job is something that's totally not even what he was, you know, born to do as to be a janitor and, you know, open up some little cyro fruit stand.
Speaker 1:
On April 10, 1938, joseph King Oliver died of a heart attack. That's what you know. The official result was of his demise but although later on, in an interview, his protege and long term, you know friend, louis Armstrong, believed that he more likely died of a broken heart, which, you know, I kind of believe, that's you know, he was just so disillusioned and devastated. You know, instead of you know he probably did buy it was more of a broken heart instead of a heart attack. So, and that's the story of Joseph King Oliver.
Speaker 1:
Again, like I said, I tried to find a little more information about I don't know if he was married or not, and say I don't know anything about his family, I don't know if he was the only child to have more siblings, or you know anything of his parents. It didn't say so, unfortunately. You know, this is what kind of a short biography. But again, he made a. He made a way in in far as far as, as an early jazz artist, he was the innovator on on on his plane and, like I said, his way of mute, using the mute when he played his horn, I mean, was something to really hear and up until that point nobody ever did that. Now, afterwards, you know you've got Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis. They kind of emulate it what King Oliver had created. He made his mark as the early pioneer of the jazz genre. So that's it.
Speaker 1:
I appreciate the audience. Again, if you wish to donate to help keep the program going and donate whatever, to go to buy me a coffee dot com and backslash more wine music, and you know it would be appreciated because it will help keep the program going and help me deliver better content. You know I enjoy bringing new because I'm a history buff anyway. So I enjoy bringing content to the audience of people that's not as well known as the you know and who is much as talented as anybody else, and you know who I feel that should be, you know, recognized. So again, go to BuyMeacoffeecom and backslash define.
Speaker 1:
My actual account is more wine and music If you like to donate a little bit of money and I will certainly give you a shout out on the shows. So that's it. I appreciate you listening. Next week I'm going to talk about this person is actually, you know pretty much people know that's Waller. I know people have heard that name, so I'm going to. I wanted to talk about him, so I'll be talking about him episode five of next week at the More Wine and Music podcast. I appreciate you guys listening and stay tuned. Stay safe and be blessed. Have a good night, bye.