Original Creole Band [Original Creole Orchestra, Original Creole Jass Band]
- Mike Hazeldine
Extract
[Original Creole Orchestra, Original Creole Jass Band]
Early jazz band. It grew from a five-piece group formed by Bill Johnson to tour the Southwest around 1908. Johnson, principally a double bass player, was performing on mandolin at the time; the other members of the group were the cornetist Ernest Coycault, the trombonist H. Pattio or Albert Paddio, the guitarist Charles Washington, and the double bass player Alphonse Ferzand. When the tour was over the musicians settled in Los Angeles. The name Original Creole Band may have been employed from around 1912 and was certainly in use from the time, in 1913, when the pianist and drummer Dink Johnson, the guitarist Norwood Williams (c1880–1943), and the violinist Jimmy Palao (c1885–c1925), all of whom had been working in New Orleans, joined the ensemble. When in 1914 the band was invited to tour, Johnson sent to New Orleans for the cornetist Freddie Keppard, the clarinetist George Baquet, and the trombonist Eddie Vincent (Venson; ...
