Joe “King” Oliver: 1885 – 1938

Cornetist and bandleader, Joe Oliver, represents an historical link to the origins of New Orleans jazz at the turn of the twentieth century. Along with Jelly Roll Morton and Sidney Bechet, he helped propel New Orleans jazz to mass appeal across America and beyond. The “master of the muted cornet” broke ground by pushing for new sounds using an assortment of gizmos and an obsession with the tone of the instrument. Oliver was equally celebrated for being the mentor of Louis Armstrong in the early stages of his monumental career.

Born May 11,1885, Oliver grew up surrounded by the sounds of marching and brass bands. By his mid-teens he was apprenticing with a variety of brass bands and spent the next decade honing his style at cabarets, parades, aristocratic dances, and midnight rambles for black and creole communities. Around 1914 he joined Edward Ory’s Brownskin Babies and together they helped advance jazz vocabulary using mutes and vocal effects. Ory was also responsible for giving Oliver his nickname of nobility, “King Oliver.”

During this period New Orleans musicians were flocking to Chicago and by 1919 Oliver had done the same, bringing with him the New Orleans ethic that the group as a whole was fundamental. Individual talents were not encouraged to solo. Instead, musicians embarked on collective improvisation. Each instrument had its place, playing specific registers and melodies, interwoven into a rich quilt of textures. Before long Oliver had formed King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band – the definitive New Orleans ensemble.

This new ensemble went on to make the first New Orleans jazz recordings. Equally important was Oliver’s request for a young Louis Armstrong to join the band as a second cornetist. Together they experimented with the syncopations of ragtime blues and floored listeners with their double cornet leads playing in seamless unison. As Armstrong himself said, “I was so wrapped up in him and lived his music that I could take second to his lead in a split second.” King Oliver became an exemplary bandleader, steadily piloting the unique interweaving of instruments without clutter. He and Armstrong forged a steady, driving sound tagged “Hot Jazz”, complimented by duet breaks. Recordings like “Chattanooga Blues”, “Sobbin Blues”, “Ain’t Gonna Tell Nobody”, and Dippermouth” all showcased the band’s rhythmic vitality and intuitive syncopation.

Yet it seemed that other forces were conspiring to prevent Oliver from reaching the big time. In a classic slice of “what could have been”, Oliver was offered the gig as house band for New York’s Cotton Club in 1927. Oliver turned down the offer feeling it paid too little and history dealt Duke Ellington the crucial card instead. There was also gum disease which prevented him from playing for long durations and eventually from playing at all by the mid-1930s.

By 1924 the Creole Jazz Band fell apart and New Orleans collective style of playing was passé. Big band jazz was thriving and the scene was shifting to New York. Oliver created a new 10-piece called the Dixie Syncopators with an emphasis on capturing the big band sound. Arrangements were tighter and less spontaneous and with the advent of electronic recording Oliver’s horn never sounded clearer. However, the deterioration of his gums propelled Oliver’s fortunes into a downward cycle. He spent the last years of his life working menial jobs in Savannah, Georgia.

As a trailblazer for New Orleans jazz King Oliver helped lay the ground work for succeeding jazz forms. He was the first horn player to link the older studied methods with the new spontaneous style and he established a model for jazz bands in terms of rhythmic and solo structures. His throaty voice-like sound and innovative muting spawned a progressive bent in jazz that has never abated. By Tim Kirker

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