Aunt Hagar's Blues - King Oliver and His Dixie Syncopators (1928)

Описание: Today's song is one of two from the September 10, 1928 session held at Brunswick studios for King Oliver and His Dixie Syncopators. The song is called "Aunt Hagar's Blues" and was originally penned by W. C. Handy back in 1920. This performance was arranged by Benny Waters and is brought to you by King Oliver and Ed Anderson (cornet), J. C. Higginbotham (trombone), Omer Simeon (clarinet, alto sax), Barney Bigard (clarinet, tenor sax), Luis Russell (piano), Will Johnson (banjo), Bass Moore (brass bass), and Paul Barbarin (drums).

Joseph Nathan "King" Oliver was born December 19, 1881 in Aben, Louisiana. He and his family moved to New Orleans during his childhood which is where he began to study the trombone and then the cornet. Beginning in 1908, he played cornet in miscellaneous New Orleans brass bands at clubs and even the red-light district at a club called Storyville. He was in demand by all races and creeds and became one of the hottest acts in New Orleans with a band he co-led with trombonist Kid Ory.

He and his wife moved to Chicago in 1918, finding employment at the Dreamland and starting his own band there in January 1920. He had to adjust his music style a bit, departing from the slower melodies of New Orleans to the hot jazz sound Chicagoans liked to hear. He toured the west coast in the summer of 1921 and returned to Chicago in 1922, playing at the Lincoln Gardens as "King Oliver and His Creole Jazz Band" which subsequently started recording in 1923 for Gennett, OKeh, Paramount and Columbia. Among the talented group was his second cornet, Louis Armstrong as well as Armstrong's later wife Lil Hardin on piano. Oliver had met Armstrong in New Orleans and gave his previous band to him to lead, but would eventually ask Louis to join him in Chicago. Armstrong truly idolized Oliver, calling him Papa Joe and later crediting Oliver for getting him into and keeping him in the music business. Oliver so impressed even fellow musicians, they would come see his performances in hopes to learn new techniques. Even white musicians would wait at the door of the black-only Lincoln Gardens just to hear the show. This band would break up in 1924.

Oliver wasn't done though. He formed an even bigger nine piece band that you're listening to now, and calling it "King Oliver and His Dixie Syncopators". The Dixie Syncopators started recording for Brunswick and Vocalion in 1926. Oliver moved his band to New York in 1927, but would disband it in late 1928 to pursue freelance work. Sadly he would soon come to suffer from gum disease and periodontitis which made playing the trumpet difficult for him. For a while, he would employ others to play the solos, but he was forced to quit playing music by 1937.

Oliver took great interest in making his trumpet sound different using various techniques. He pioneered the use of mutes, using everything from plunger heads to derby hats to cups and bowls. His recording "Wa Wa Wa" gave the name to the sound of a muted trumpet making a "Wa Wa" sound. Oliver's proteges Louis Panico who would later go on to play with Isham Jones' Orchestra highlighted various mute techniques learned from his time with Oliver.

Sadly the business side of music would be Oliver's downfall, having a succession of managers who stole money from him, and to recoup some of it, lost his job when asking for a raise from the Savoy Ballroom. He would then lose out on an engagement at the Cotton Club where he was holding out for more money, but a young Duke Ellington took the job and rose to fame. Then 1929 brought the great depression where his bank in Chicago would collapse and take his money with it. As mentioned, his pyorrhea would take his ability to play music altogether. He would die penniless in Savannah, Georgia of hardened arteries, too poor to afford treatment in 1938.