Posts by grouchygreg

Joseph ‘King’ Oliver was born on May 11, 1885 in Aben, Louisiana. He was one of the first, and greatest practitioners of American Jazz.

Oliver professionally started music at the age of fifteen and the young cornetist improvised new style in brass band in with Trombonist Kid Ory in the 1910’s.

Oliver’s new style influenced the public and he achieved great reputation in New Orleans, where he personally taught a young musician named Louis Armstrong.

As King Oliver and his band marched through the tough, turn-of-the-century section of Storyville in New Orleans, he attracted the customers, who followed behind him as he led them to straight into his night club.

“The king of all the musicians was Joe Oliver, the best trumpeter who ever played in New Orleans…No one in Jazz has created as much music as he has, Almost everything important in music today came from him,” Louis Armstrong wrote in his 1954 memoir, “Satchmo.”

Famed Soul-Jazz guitarist Cornell Dupree passed away in Fort Worth, Texas on May 8th. He was 69 years old, and had been suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Mr. Dupree was a legendary studio guitarist who had worked alongside many of the great producers and recording artists in the blues and R&B industry for nearly 50 years.

Beyond touring with Aretha Franklin from 1967-1976 and playing sessions with renowned R&B producer Jerry Wexler, Cornell Dupree also played in the studio a purported 2500 times, and backed such household names as James Brown, King Curtis, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, and B.B. King.