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Pioneers of Jazz: The Story of the Creole Band
Thanks to the pioneering tours of the Creole Band, jazz began to be heard nationwide on the vaudeville stages of America from 1914 to 1918. This seven-piece band toured the country, exporting for the first time the authentic jazz strains that had developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The band's vaudeville routines were deeply rooted in the minstrel shows and plantation cliches of American show business in the late 19th century, but its instrumental music was central to its performance and distinctive and entrancing to audiences and reviewers.
Pioneers of Jazz reveals at long last the link between New Orleans music and the jazz phenomenon that swept America in the 1920s. While they were the first important band from New Orleans to attain national exposure, The Creole Band has not heretofore been recognized for its unique importance. But in his monumental, careful research, jazz scholar Lawrence Gushee firmly establishes the group's central role in jazz history.
Gushee traces the troupe's activities and quotes the reaction of critics and audiences to their first encounters with this new musical phenomenon. While audiences often expected (and got) a kind of minstrel show, the group transcended expectations, taking pride in their music and facing down the theatrical establishment with courage. Although they played the West Coast and Canada, most of their touring centered in the heartland. Most towns of any size in Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana heard them, often repeatedly, and virtually all of their appearances were received with wild enthusiasm. After four years of nearly incessant traveling, members of the band founded or joined groups in Chicago's South Side cabaret scene, igniting the craze for hot New Orleans music for which the Windy City was renowned in the early 1920s. The best-known musicians in the group--cornetist Freddie Keppard, clarinetist Jimmy Noone and string bassist Bill Johnson--would play a significant role in jazz, becoming
famous for recordings in the 1920s. Gushee effectively brings to life each member of the band and discusses their individual contributions, while analyzing the music with precision, skillful and exacting documentation. Including many never before published photos and interviews, the book also provides an invaluable and colorful look at show business, especially vaudeville, in the 1910s.
While some of the first jazz historians were aware of the band's importance, attempts to locate and interview surviving members (three died before 1935) were sporadic and did little or nothing to correct the mostly erroneous accounts of the band's career. The jazz world has long known about Gushee's original work on this previously neglected subject, and the book represents an important event in jazz scholarship. Pioneers of Jazz brilliantly places this group's unique importance into a broad cultural and historical context, and provides the crucial link between jazz's origins in New Orleans and the beginning of its dissemination across the country.
Pioneers of Jazz reveals at long last the link between New Orleans music and the jazz phenomenon that swept America in the 1920s. While they were the first important band from New Orleans to attain national exposure, The Creole Band has not heretofore been recognized for its unique importance. But in his monumental, careful research, jazz scholar Lawrence Gushee firmly establishes the group's central role in jazz history.
Gushee traces the troupe's activities and quotes the reaction of critics and audiences to their first encounters with this new musical phenomenon. While audiences often expected (and got) a kind of minstrel show, the group transcended expectations, taking pride in their music and facing down the theatrical establishment with courage. Although they played the West Coast and Canada, most of their touring centered in the heartland. Most towns of any size in Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana heard them, often repeatedly, and virtually all of their appearances were received with wild enthusiasm. After four years of nearly incessant traveling, members of the band founded or joined groups in Chicago's South Side cabaret scene, igniting the craze for hot New Orleans music for which the Windy City was renowned in the early 1920s. The best-known musicians in the group--cornetist Freddie Keppard, clarinetist Jimmy Noone and string bassist Bill Johnson--would play a significant role in jazz, becoming
famous for recordings in the 1920s. Gushee effectively brings to life each member of the band and discusses their individual contributions, while analyzing the music with precision, skillful and exacting documentation. Including many never before published photos and interviews, the book also provides an invaluable and colorful look at show business, especially vaudeville, in the 1910s.
While some of the first jazz historians were aware of the band's importance, attempts to locate and interview surviving members (three died before 1935) were sporadic and did little or nothing to correct the mostly erroneous accounts of the band's career. The jazz world has long known about Gushee's original work on this previously neglected subject, and the book represents an important event in jazz scholarship. Pioneers of Jazz brilliantly places this group's unique importance into a broad cultural and historical context, and provides the crucial link between jazz's origins in New Orleans and the beginning of its dissemination across the country.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 15, 2020
Lawrence Gushee’s “Pioneers of Jazz” is a narrative on the vaudeville career of the first jazz band to spread their music outside New Orleans. The book also examines the dawn of jazz as a national music, and deals with its beginnings in New Orleans.
Gushee presents a thoroughly researched study, which definitely introduces clarity into its subject – the The Original Creole Orchestra, one of the first New Orleans bands to bring its music to the whole country. The author argues that before the rise of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, the “Creole Band” was the pioneer in improvising jazz. There is a lot of interesting information about Freddie Keppard, the trumpeter and most renowned member. Unfortunately, due to addiction problems, his playing suffered just at the time when he began recording.
“Pioneers of Jazz” is impressively well annotated and footnoted, but resembles rather a string of neatly arranged facts than a wholesome narrative. Through a large segment of the work the band is on the road, playing vaudeville, and Gushee’s highly meticulous account of the musicians’ routes was quite boring sometimes. I expected to read more about the music they made and the process of creating it, but, as I learned, the band had never recorded as a unit.
Lawrence Gushee’s book is, indeed, an academical study of its subject, so lively, compelling style is not expected (and will not be found) in “Pioneers of Jazz”. However, his study is very detailed and informative; for someone who is interested in American music of the 20th century, Gushee’s work will be useful.
Gushee presents a thoroughly researched study, which definitely introduces clarity into its subject – the The Original Creole Orchestra, one of the first New Orleans bands to bring its music to the whole country. The author argues that before the rise of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, the “Creole Band” was the pioneer in improvising jazz. There is a lot of interesting information about Freddie Keppard, the trumpeter and most renowned member. Unfortunately, due to addiction problems, his playing suffered just at the time when he began recording.
“Pioneers of Jazz” is impressively well annotated and footnoted, but resembles rather a string of neatly arranged facts than a wholesome narrative. Through a large segment of the work the band is on the road, playing vaudeville, and Gushee’s highly meticulous account of the musicians’ routes was quite boring sometimes. I expected to read more about the music they made and the process of creating it, but, as I learned, the band had never recorded as a unit.
Lawrence Gushee’s book is, indeed, an academical study of its subject, so lively, compelling style is not expected (and will not be found) in “Pioneers of Jazz”. However, his study is very detailed and informative; for someone who is interested in American music of the 20th century, Gushee’s work will be useful.
March 25, 2024
This is not a book for everybody.
I knew the late Larry Gushee, and from conversations I had with him, I strongly suspect that he had been working on this book for at least 50 years. I believe that this was his only book.
I greatly admired Professor Gushee's abilities, and he published rarely, probably because he had such high standards of academic excellence. The research on this book is mind-boggling, to put it politely.
Over the course of a relatively short number of pages, he establishes a cogent and almost irrefutable argument that the "Creole Band," was the first band to start to sound less like ragtime orchestras, and more like improvising jazz bands, some years before the Original Dixieland Jazz Band made its first recordings.
Professor Gushee was uniquely qualified to be able to write this, as his academic specialty was not jazz, but in fact, early religious plainchant (early Christian church music dating from the 9th to the 13th centuries) for which there are relatively few clues on how it should be performed, at least in its early development. This is a book about early jazz which was never recorded, and thus, can never be heard.
Sadly, the cornet player, Freddie Keppard, recorded later in his life, but due to addictions issues, his playing was suffering by the time of his only recordings.
I don't believe that this is merely a series of neatly categorized facts. Indeed, there are times in which Professor Gushee's great wit and sense of humour shines through, making it delightful reading. But potential readers should know in advance, that this is an academic book, and, as such, is NOT prone to romantic notions, unsubstantiated claims, inconsistencies, and the myriad other problems that one encounters in the vast majority of other (badly-written and poorly researched) books on jazz.
For Professor Gushee, substantiated facts were paramount. For without facts, where would we be?
I recommend this book completely, but the potential reader needs to keep these things in mind.
I knew the late Larry Gushee, and from conversations I had with him, I strongly suspect that he had been working on this book for at least 50 years. I believe that this was his only book.
I greatly admired Professor Gushee's abilities, and he published rarely, probably because he had such high standards of academic excellence. The research on this book is mind-boggling, to put it politely.
Over the course of a relatively short number of pages, he establishes a cogent and almost irrefutable argument that the "Creole Band," was the first band to start to sound less like ragtime orchestras, and more like improvising jazz bands, some years before the Original Dixieland Jazz Band made its first recordings.
Professor Gushee was uniquely qualified to be able to write this, as his academic specialty was not jazz, but in fact, early religious plainchant (early Christian church music dating from the 9th to the 13th centuries) for which there are relatively few clues on how it should be performed, at least in its early development. This is a book about early jazz which was never recorded, and thus, can never be heard.
Sadly, the cornet player, Freddie Keppard, recorded later in his life, but due to addictions issues, his playing was suffering by the time of his only recordings.
I don't believe that this is merely a series of neatly categorized facts. Indeed, there are times in which Professor Gushee's great wit and sense of humour shines through, making it delightful reading. But potential readers should know in advance, that this is an academic book, and, as such, is NOT prone to romantic notions, unsubstantiated claims, inconsistencies, and the myriad other problems that one encounters in the vast majority of other (badly-written and poorly researched) books on jazz.
For Professor Gushee, substantiated facts were paramount. For without facts, where would we be?
I recommend this book completely, but the potential reader needs to keep these things in mind.
January 20, 2017
This book is not great. It's obsessed with its central argument, to the point that it ignores having a compelling narrative. Really all it is, is a list of dates and newspaper clippings.
Having said all that, it was great as a reference work on a topic I wanted to know more about. I now know more than I need to, which is exactly where I wanted to be.
Having said all that, it was great as a reference work on a topic I wanted to know more about. I now know more than I need to, which is exactly where I wanted to be.
June 1, 2016
For some time I have been fascinated by the thought of what music must have sounded like in the period when Ragtime was becoming Jazz, an era when Jazz was not yet recorded. This book is about The Original Creole Orchestra, one of the first New Orleans bands to travel the country on the vaudeville circuit, bring the sound of New Orleans music to the entire country. Trumpeter Freddie Keppard, a contemporary of King Oliver, was its best known member.
This book is incredibly well researched and very heavily footnoted and annotated. It is also the single most boring book on the subject I have ever read. Rather than write about the music they made [admittedly difficult as they never recorded as a unit], the vast bulk of the book concerns itself with itineraries while playing vaudeville, accounting in great detail about every half-week they were on the road, and speculating with the enthusiasm of conspiracy theorists as to what might have happened in every half-week for which there is no record.
I cant believe that I finished the book, but I kept hoping the next chapter would provide some of the musical information I was hoping for.
I would have done better to skip right to the appendices, where Jelly Roll Morton's recollections of the band and their music are related.
This book is incredibly well researched and very heavily footnoted and annotated. It is also the single most boring book on the subject I have ever read. Rather than write about the music they made [admittedly difficult as they never recorded as a unit], the vast bulk of the book concerns itself with itineraries while playing vaudeville, accounting in great detail about every half-week they were on the road, and speculating with the enthusiasm of conspiracy theorists as to what might have happened in every half-week for which there is no record.
I cant believe that I finished the book, but I kept hoping the next chapter would provide some of the musical information I was hoping for.
I would have done better to skip right to the appendices, where Jelly Roll Morton's recollections of the band and their music are related.
July 17, 2013
If you want to understand about American music in the 20th century then you should plow through this book. The Creole Jazz Band was already favored by the moldy fig jazz aficionados for Freddie Keppard, the brilliant under recorded cornetist that was the star of the band. What Gushee has done is pull together a remarkable history of the group and re-introduces the world to the amazing Bill Johnson. He does this through a variety of sources and methods and turns that research into a readable interesting story about how America heard New Orleans jazz in the period prior to the recordings of the Dixieland Jazz Band. Maybe there are too many little details here and there and this is not Eric Larsen weaving a novel out a historical cloth, but the fact that Gushee can tell us so much about this previously unknown story is worth his occasional short comings as a story teller.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews