Chuck Fishman Photography
Milton Batiste at Preservation Hall. Willie Humphrey (center b. 1900) at Preservation Hall.  Narvin Kimball on banjo (b.1909). Manuel Crusto, clarinet. Paul Barnes (clarinet b. 1902), Alonzo Stewart (drums w/megaphone), Kid Thomas (trumpet b. 1896). "Of course I ain't the best, and I ain't gonna call myself the second best, but I was trying to do the best I can." Louis Keppard  b.1888 "Y'see like the Omaha, Tuxedo (brass bands)..  them people pass you playing a funeral march, theyll knock you out, it was so beautiful.  That clarinet actually be cryin'.  And them baritones and the mellophones and them french horns, all that harmony would be hittin' together.  And boy you'd feel a chill runnin' thru you. -"Eddie Marrero  Bass  b. 1902 "Of course like I say you never now how you're gonna turn out.  I might get stronger maybe as I get older, but as I stand today I don't care to play."
August Lanoix  Bass  b. 1902
"For a long time in the district, each corner had 4 bands.  They didn't have enough musicians.  They cut the bands out in 1916, but they never cut 'dem sportin' ladies, they still in the French Quarter now.   Never cut  'dem out!" 
Albert Francis  - Drums   b. 1894
"I played every club in New Orleans, you couldn't name one that I didn't play in! Red light district, what you didn't see there is what you didn't want to see!  I played a job practically all day long, didn't even see the people! They was in the back cuttin' up!  I could hear them.Oh yeah we had fun though, say what you want but we had fun, with all that foolishness."-Hippolyte Charles  Trumpet  b. 1891
With his wife in St. Martinville, Louisiana. "The people make you feel good sometimes, they enjoy what you doin' so much, and they appreciate it, it make you feel good, man you feel like stickin' out your chest!!" " You might see me playin' somewhere yet, I might not die so soon.  If I don't die I'm a sure be able.., I'm a try to play another tune before I die." -Peter Lacaze  Trumpet  b. 1893 (blind in 1 eye with a "leaky valve pressin  on the brain.") Percy Humphrey's trumpet and socks. (b. 1905) "Sweet Emma" Barrett (piano  b. 1890's), Chester Zardis (bass b.1900). Willie Humphrey (clarinet b. 1900) with Preservation Hall audience. Street parade in the French Quarter.  Wendell Brunious (trumpet, left). Olympia Brass Band street parade uptown.  Allan Jaffe (center) on tuba. Olympia Brass Band at a shipyard. Olympia street parade. French Quarter Louis Cottrell Jr. (clarinet b.1911) with band in Jackson Square.  Freddie Kohlman (drums), Placide Adams (bass). Josiah "Cie" Frazier (drums b.1904) "Kid Thomas" Valentine band at Preservation Hall. Emanuel Sayles (banjo b. 1905) Danny Barker at the Famous Door. "Make your gig where you can, where the money's at.   Whether it's playing with 2 clowns.  The hell with what the people say.  Its all bullshit anyway."
Danny Barker  - Banjo, Guitar  b. 1909 (advice to a young New Orleans trumpet player) Alvin Alcorn (trumpet b. 1912) at Commanders Palace jazz brunch. Mathew "Fats" Houston parade Grand Marshal. "We'd make 'em jump. them fellows used to say, You've seen Keppard?  Keppard can make you happy and Keppard can make you cry.  And a fellow say 'How can he make me cry?'  He can make you happy when he started playing on that guitar,  and when he played a funeral he started makin' that (moaning "Just a Closer Walk With Thee").-Louis Keppard  Tuba, Guitar, Alto Horn,   b. 1888 George "Kid Sheik" Cola (trumpet b.1908), Raymond Burke (clarinet b.1904) at Preservation Hall.  Placide Adams (bass) during a break at a gig. "They had the Quadrilles (balls) at 12 o'clock at night.  All the womens on one side in the hall, and the mens on the other side and then we used to play waltzes.  But they don't play hardly no waltzes no more now."
-Louis Keppard  Tuba, Guitar, Alto Horn,   b. 1888
l-r: Homer Eugene (trombone), Kid Sheik Cola (trumpet), Preston Jackson (trombone) hanging out before a set. Bourbon Street, young musicians getting started. Milne Home for Boys band.  In the early 20th Century it was originally the Colored Waifs Home for Boys and it was there that Louis Armstrong learned to play music. Young musicians in the French Market area. Paul "Polo" Barnes (clarinet), "Kid Thomas" Valentine (trumpet). l - r: Paul Barnes, Kid Thomas, Emanuel Paul (sax b.1904), Emanuel Sayles during a break at Preservation Hall. Kid Thomas signing records for European jazz enthusiasts. l - r: Peter Lacaze, August Lanoix, Louis Keppard and Eddie Marrero talking old times.  They hadn't seen each other in decades and most thought the others had died. Preservation Hall. Kid Thomas picking up his trumpet at the end of the night at Preservation Hall. Grand Marshal Mathew "Fats" Houston leaving an indoor gig at which he could only be seated.
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