A LIFE IN JAZZ DANNY BARKER. Edited by Alyn Shipton MACMILLAN PRESS LONDON

Transcription

1 A LIFE IN JAZZ by DANNY BARKER Edited by Alyn Shipton M MACMILLAN PRESS LONDON

2 Danny Barker 1986 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1986 First published in paperback 1987 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world Typeset by Rowland Phototypesetting Ltd Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk in 11/13 Caledonia British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Barker, Danny A life in jazz. 1. Barker, Danny 2. Jazz musicians-united States-Biography I. Title II. Shipton, Alyn '092'4 ML419.BI/ ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI /

3 Contents Preface Editor's note and acknowledgments ix 1. The French Quarter and my grandparents 1 2. My mother and stepfather 6 3. Animule Hall Barbarin house, and my first funeral Isidore Barbarin Barbarin boys and Walter Blue's death The Boozan Kings My graduation as a professional Jazz funerals and brass bands Feudin' and a-fussin' The pine-scented sovereign state of Mississippi Dixies All them women belong to me Dan and Lu' s marriage Jelly Roll Morton in New York Louis Armstrong and trumpet rivalry New York clubs and the Harlem Renaissance Around the New York scene The record business Cab Calloway's band travels Bebop and how I left Calloway's band California, New Orleans and the Capitol sides New York dixieland revival Return to New Orleans and the Jazz Museum 193 Chronological discography 200 Index 215 vii

4 Preface Around the year 1942, while playing with Cab Calloway's Orchestra, I was constantly on the road touring the States. As a member of the band I sat by silently so many times listening to discussions about jazz music: who started by playing with whom; who did this; who did that. Constant visitors came round asking questions of the musicians, getting some honest answers and some lies, but there was much discussion of the origins of jazz. There was much ridicule of Mr Jelly Roll, who was having a lip riot with W. C. Handy. Many band members showed sympathy for Mr Handy, mainly because he had control ofhis music through a publishing company; he was highly respected and successful, and a seemingly nice, sweet, personable old man. But Jelly insisted that he knew where Mr Handy procured many of his great blues songs; Jelly called names of the original composers. To the musicians in New York City Jelly was a liar, a braggart, jealous and envious. About that time Esquire magazine came on the scene with special issues of jazz comment-awards, stories, classifications: gold awards and silver awards, honorable mentions. Esquire gave jazz a big bright national exposure. Jazz lovers became familiar with the many jazz artists whom they heard on records but rarely saw in person. There was a new importance given to all jazz areas-the evaluation of styles, much history, and biographies of all the honored musicians. I read these Esquire issues, and one thing that annoyed me very much was that not one musician respected as an authority in his profession (and whose comments would have been accepted by other musicians) was on one of the judges' panels. The judges were a conglomeration of assorted leeches and self-appointed critics. I had, through the years, seen most of these characters come around bands I had played with. They would sit and stand around annoying musicians during their short intermission asking endless questions, cleverly setting up arguments and debates, while absorbing opinions. Then they would go and write articles the way they decided a musician should be remembered and read about in books and magazines.

5 vi / A LIFE IN JAZZ In my travels, when I felt the enquirer was sincere about a jazz subject I was thoroughly informed of, I would tell them the facts the way I experienced them. The Esquire magazines caused many book publishers to start getting interested in jazz stories and autobiographies. Many books came on the scene together with many falsehoods, lies and cooked-up stories. I read much of this crap and then I was told that I should write some truth, and explanations of many jazz subjects that were not clearly explained. So first I started taking pictures of musicians, and also collecting old rare photos, records, music, and interviews of many old musicians still living, and in a little time I was packing bags, cartons, suitcases with old jazz memorabilia. And then along came the noted jazz writers begging to see the gathered material, and then asking to please let them use a part of this and a part of that. And so in most cases I obliged. Then came many contacts with book publishing editors, many of the big ones on Fifth and Park avenues in New York City. And every time the rejections for some puzzling reason: "It needs editing." But when the stories appeared in books not one word was changed. This presenting to publishers and rejections went on for years. That all started up North, so I came home to the South where I had not the least idea that the material would get some action-and, finally, it happens.

6 Editor's note and acknowledgments In January 1984 Trevor Richards, an English drummer who now lives in New Orleans, came to London to discuss the autobiography of Danny Barker. I had known about Danny's writing for some years, as the book he was working on is mentioned in Hear Me Talkin' to Ya, and was listed some years ago as a work in progress in the Mississippi Rag. I discovered that although he had continued with the book, working and re-working some sections of it, it had been submitted to publishers without success. Parts of the work appeared in various magazines but, it seemed, no-one was prepared to publish the book as a whole. I arranged to meet Danny in March 1984 at the end of a working visit to the USA, and was amazed by the amount of writing and memorabilia that Danny had amassed. We set to cataloguing and ordering the boxes and files of papers, and out of them more than enough for two books emerged. This, Danny's autobiography, is the first of them. Soon we will start work on Buddy Bolden and the Last Days ofstoryville, which is based on interviews and correspondence with jazzmen of the generation before Danny's. During four visits ton ew Orleans I worked with Danny on the text of this autobiography. A few small sections were filled out by taped interviews, the transcripts of which were then edited with Danny's usual keen attention to the details ofhis style; but by far the largest part of the book is a text that has evolved over forty years. I am particularly grateful to Nat Hentoff, Martin Williams and Donald Phelps for allowing us to re-use material that has previously appeared in the jazz Review, jazz Panorama and For Now. I must also thank Trevor Richards for his help, encouragement and hospitality, and Caroline Richmond for producing the final typescript. For help on the discography thanks are due to Barry Kemfeld of State College, Pennsylvania, the editor of The New Grove Dictionary of jazz, and I must acknowledge the standard discographical reference works by Brian Rust, Jorgen G. Jepsen, and Walter Bruyninckx. Richard B.

7 viii / A LIFE IN JAZZ Allen, Curator of Oral History at the William Ransom Hogan Archive of Jazz at Tulane, was also helpful in suggesting areas where interview might supplement the narrative. Above all my thanks to Danny and Blue Lu Barker, for putting up with my visits and questions and the heaps of paper all over their house. Blue Lu in particular needs to be singled out for her kindness and hospitality, especially as she has not recently enjoyed the best of health. Chawton Hampshire England November 1985