King Oliver

Joseph Oliver was born in Aben, Louisiana, near Donaldsonville in Ascension Parish, and moved to New Orleans in his youth. Oliver played cornet in the New Orleans brass bands and dance bands and also in the city's red-light district, Storyville. The band he co-led with trombonist Kid Ory was considered New Orleans' hottest and best in the 1910s. Oliver achieved great popularity in New Orleans across economic and racial lines, and was in demand for playing jobs from rough working class black dance halls to white society debutante parties.

According to an interview at the Tulane's Hogan Jazz Archive with Oliver's widow Stella Oliver, in 1919 a fight broke out at a dance where Oliver was playing, and the police arrested Oliver and the band along with the fighters. This made Oliver decide to leave the Jim Crow South.

By 1922, after travels in California, Oliver was the jazz king in Chicago, with King Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band performing at the Royal Gardens (later renamed the Lincoln Gardens). Virtually all the members of this band went on to notable solo careers. Personnel were Oliver on cornet, his protegé Louis Armstrong, second cornet, Baby Dodds, drums, Johnny Dodds, clarinet, Lil Hardin (later Armstrong's wife), on piano, Honore Dutrey on trombone, and Bill Johnson, bass and banjo. Recordings made by this group in 1923 demonstrated the serious artistry of the New Orleans style of collective improvisation or Dixieland music to a wider audience.

In the mid and late 1920s Oliver's band transformed into a hybrid of the old New Orleans style jazz band and the nationally popular larger dance band, and in 1926 was christened "King Oliver and His Dixie Syncopators".[2] Although he suffered from gum disease which started to diminish his playing abilities, Oliver remained a popular band leader through the decade.

Unfortunately, Oliver's business acumen was less than his musical ability. A succession of managers stole money from him. He demanded more money for his band than the Savoy Ballroom was willing to pay, and lost the gig. In similar fashion, he lost the chance for an engagement at New York City's famous Cotton Club when he held out for more money; young Duke Ellington took the job and subsequently catapulted to fame.[3]


[edit] Death
The Great Depression was harsh to Oliver. He lost his life savings when a Chicago bank collapsed, as he struggled to keep his band together on a series of hand-to-mouth gigs until the band broke up and Oliver was stranded in Savannah, Georgia, where he worked as a janitor at Wimberly's Recreation Hall (526-528 West Broad Street). Joseph "King" Oliver, the man many[who?] credit as one of the most influencial pioneer icons, died in poverty at a rooming house (508 Montgomery Street), on April 8, 1938. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, NY. Lovingly remembered as "Papa Joe" by protoge Louis Armstrong, who later reaped the musical Jazz notoriety that eluded the great Oliver, in life. Oliver mentored Armstrong who gave a young Louis his first cornet in New Orleans and later called him to Chicago to record and play with his band. King Oliver is buried among other Jazz giants, such as Coleman Hawkins, Lionel Hampton, W.C. Handy, Milt Jackson, Max Roach, and Miles Davis, among others who owe a great debt to "Papa Joe".


[edit] Work and influence
As a player, Oliver took great interest in altering his horn's sound. He pioneered in the use of mutes, including the plumber's plunger, derby hat, and bottles and cup in the bell of his horn. His recording "WaWaWa" with the Dixie Syncopators can be credited with giving the name wah-wah to such techniques.

Oliver was also noted as a composer, having written many tunes still regularly played, including "Dippermouth Blues", "Sweet Like This", "Canal Street Blues", and "Doctor Jazz". Two of Armstrong's most famous recordings, "West End Blues" and "Weather Bird", were Oliver compositions.

Oliver performed mostly on cornet. Oliver credited Buddy Bolden, as an early influence. Oliver, in turn, was a major influence on many younger musicians in New Orleans and Chicago, including Tommy Ladnier, Paul Mares, Muggsy Spanier, Louis Panico, Johnny Wiggs, and most famously Louis Armstrong.

Armstrong called Oliver "Papa Joe" and referred to Oliver as his idol and inspiration all his life. In Armstrong's autobiography, "Satchmo - My Life in New Orleans", he writes about Oliver:

It was my ambition to play as he did. I still think that if it had not been for Joe Oliver, Jazz would not be what it is today. He was a creator in his own right.


[edit] Honors