Vintage Vinyl LP Record Percy Humphrey Featuring Sweet Emma Living New Orleans Jazz 1974 SIGNED by Humphrey & Seven Band Member 57558

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Vintage Vinyl LP Record Percy Humphrey Featuring Sweet Emma Living New Orleans Jazz 1974 SIGNED by Humphrey & Six Band Member. This is an exceptionally rare piece of Jazz History that will probably never be seen again. Original cover is near mint and includes the inner paper sleeve. Original cover is near mint as well and contains the signatures of Percy and Seven of his band members! Signed by Percy Humphrey, Narvin Kimball, James "Sing" Miller, Sweet Emma Barlow, Frank Demond, Albert Burbank and James Prevost. One of the signatures notes the date of January 22, 1975.

Percy Humphrey
From Wikipedia

Percy Gaston Humphrey (January 13, 1905 – July 22, 1995) was a jazz trumpet player and bandleader in New Orleans, Louisiana.

In addition to his own jazz band, Percy Humphrey and His Crescent City Joymakers, for more than thirty years he was leader of the Eureka Brass Band. He also played in the band of the pianist Sweet Emma Barrett. From its opening in the early 1960s, until shortly before his death Humphrey played regularly at Preservation Hall, traveling internationally for performances with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and his own bands.

Percy Humphrey was the son of clarinetist Willie Eli Humphrey, as well as being the younger brother of clarinetist Willie Humphrey and trombonist Earl Humphrey. His grandfather was the renowned "Professor" Jim Humphrey, who took the train from New Orleans to sugar cane plantations during the 1890s, in order to teach the basics of music to the children of plantation workers. Many of those he taught would play the jazz that was born in New Orleans near the turn of the twentieth century—including these members of the two following generations of his own family.

The Eureka Brass Band had been founded in 1920, by trumpeter Willie Wilson, and its early members included clarinetists Willie Parker, John Casimir, and George Lewis. In the 1930s Wilson became ill, during which time trumpeter Alcide Landry had nominal control over the band, but after 1937, Wilson's illness forced him to leave completely. At that time, trombonist Joseph "Red" Clark briefly became the leader, followed by Dominique "T-Boy" Remy, who led it from 1937 through 1946. Finally, Humphrey took over the band and led the group for the remainder of its existence.

The members of the band varied at any given time, usually having nine to eleven members. The typical instrumentation was three trumpets, two trombones, two reeds, tuba, snare drum, and bass drum. Reed instruments are many, including the saxophones that often are found among jazz bands, but the clarinet is characteristically the signature reed instrument of New Orleans jazz.

They recorded prolifically. Phonograph records and albums were cut for Pax, Alamac, Folkways, Jazzology, and Sounds of New Orleans. A 1951 album, New Orleans Parade, features Humphrey, trombonists Charles "Sunny" Henry and Albert Warner, and saxophonist Emanuel Paul. Their 1962 sessions, Jazz at Preservation Hall, Volume 1: the Eureka Brass Band of New Orleans, issued on Atlantic Records, features Humphrey and his brother, clarinetist Willie Humphrey, trumpeters Kid Sheik Cola and Pete Bocage, trombonists Albert Warner and Oscar "Chicken" Henry, Emanuel Paul on tenor saxophone, Wilbert "Bird" Tillman on sousaphone, snare drummer Josiah "Cie" Frazier, and bass drummer Robert "Son Fewclothes" Lewis.

After 1975, the Eureka Brass Band disbanded, but Humphrey revived the name occasionally for festival performances and other appearances. He continued to lead his own band and played with others at Preservation Hall until his death in New Orleans in 1995. His last gig was at the annual New Orleans jazz festival in April, three months before his death at the age of ninety.

Narvin Kimball
From Wikipedia

Narvin Kimball (2 March 1909 - March 17, 2006) was a jazz musician who played banjo and string bass and was also known for his fine singing voice.

The left-handed virtuoso banjo player was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of well regarded string bass player Henry Kimball. He was playing music professionally by the mid-1920s with such groups as the bands of Fate Marable and Papa Celestin. He married a fellow member of Celestin's Tuxedo Jazz Band, pianist Jeanette Kimball (née Salvant).

In the 1930s during the Great Depression Kimball switched to string bass to play in swing bands such as Sidney Desvigne's, but music did not provide enough money; he got a day job as a mailman. He continued playing music in the evening, leading his band called "Narvin Kimball's Gentlemen of Jazz".

After World War II he formed a singing group called "The Four Tones" with Fred Minor, Alvin Alcorn, and Louis Barbarin that enjoyed some local success.

Around 1960 with the revival of interest in traditional jazz, Kimeball was able to return to playing the banjo professionally again. He played regularly at such French Quarter venues as Preservation Hall and Dixieland Hall, at the latter often leading a band under his own name. However he kept his day job as a postman until his retirement in 1973; until then he only took brief tours outside the city while on vacation from his postal job. After this date, he toured the United States and Europe extensively with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. His singing "Georgia on My Mind" was a reliable show stopper. He was the oldest member of the band at his retirement in 1999 at age 90.

When Hurricane Katrina was threatening New Orleans, in 2005, Preservation Hall leader Ben Jaffe made a point to make sure Kimball and his wife were evacuated to Baton Rouge. He died in exile with relatives in South Carolina.

Albert Burbank
From Wikipedia

Albert Burbank (March 25, 1902 – August 15, 1976) was an American dixieland clarinet player.

Born in New Orleans, Burbank was taught clarinet by Lorenzo Tio, one of that city's most famous clarinet players. He stayed in the New Orleans area throughout the 1920s, playing wherever his services were needed. During the thirties, he worked with Kid Milton's band but was drafted into the US Navy during World War II. Upon demobilization, he worked internationally with the bands of Paul Barbarin and Kid Ory, later returning to New Orleans where he played with several of the well-known jazz and brass bands in the city. He was regularly seen at Preservation Hall and toured Australia with a band made up of Preservation Hall musicians. In 1975, he suffered a stroke but continued playing until his death on 15 August 1976. Recordings of broadcast performances he made with Kid Ory's band at San Francisco's Hangover Club have been issued on the Danish Storyville label, and some with trombonist Bill Matthews appear on Southland.[1] Burbank also recorded with Wooden Joe Nicholas (American Music AMCD-5), Herb Morand (AMCD-9 and 106), Kid Clayton (AMCD-62), Paul Barbarin (AMCD-106), Percy Humphrey (GHB Records BCD-85), and Jimmy Archey (BCD-310).

Sweet Emma Barrett
From Wikipedia

"Sweet Emma" Barrett (March 25, 1897, New Orleans, Louisiana – January 28, 1983) was an American self-taught jazz pianist and singer who worked with the Original Tuxedo Orchestra between 1923 and 1936,[1] first under Papa Celestin, then William Ridgely. Also active with Armand Piron, John Robichaux, and Sidney Desvigne, Sweet Emma Barrett was at her most powerful in the early 1960s and became an iconic figure with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

James Prevost
James "Sing" Miller
From Wikipedia (Also Preservation Hall Jazz Band)

1970s – Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Duke Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band

Sweet Emma Barrett’s health began to decline in the 1970s, which forced her to step away from the touring circuit. Her leadership position was replaced by brothers, Percy Humphrey (trumpet) and Willie Humphrey (clarinet). The new Preservation Hall Jazz Band lineup included the Humphrey Brothers, Frank Demond (trombone), James Prevost (bass), James "Sing" Miller (piano), Cie Frazier (drums), Jim Robinson (trombone), Narvin Kimball (banjo), and Allan Jaffe (tuba).

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, many of the touring members of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band were recruited by Harold ‘Duke’ Dejan to join Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band. This New Orleans based brass band became not only a staple at Preservation Hall, but also influenced the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and future Preservation Hall musicians.

Dejan’s regular sidemen included the Andy Anderson (trumpet), Milton Batiste (trumpet), and Kid Sheik Cola (trumpet), Paul Crawford (trombone) and Gerald Joseph (trombone), Emanuel Paul (tenor saxophone), Andrew Jefferson (snare), and bass drummers John Smith, Henry “Booker T” Glass, and Glass’s son Nowell “Papa” Glass. Cag Cagnolatti, Kid Thomas Valentine, Louis Nelson, Louis Cottrell, Jr., Cié Frazier, Emanuel Sayles, and Allan Jaffe on performing Tuba were among those who played with the group. Olympia Among the band’s later recordings is the album Here Come da Great Olympia Band (Kernfeld, Schafer).

During the Olympia years, a young Harry Connick Jr. sat in with Sweet Emma and the members of the Olympia Brass Band at Preservation Hall.

In 1977, Preservation Hall’s Allan Jaffe teamed up with Arthur Hall and his Afro-American Dance Ensemble to release Fat Tuesday and All That Jazz! A Mardi Gras Dance Musical. The world premiere of the dance musical was presented on February 19, 1977, and was followed by a tour throughout the United States.

Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band was featured in Fat Tuesday and All That Jazz, in addition to the Arthur Hall Afro-American Dance Ensemble of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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