King Oliver (1885–1938)

Born:

11th May 1885 in Aben, Louisiana, USA.

King Oliver’s grave in New York

Died:

10th April 1938 in Savannah, Georgia, USA.

Buried:

Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York, New York, USA.

Some great pieces.

• Canal Street Blues.
• Dippermouth Blues.
• Chimes Blues.
• Mabel’s Dream. (See below for a video.)
• Sweet Like This.
• West End Blues.
• Weather Bird.
• Sobbin’ Blues. (See below for a video.)

Some great collections:

• King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band: The Complete Set (1923–1924).
• King Oliver—Vocalion & Brunswick Recordings, Vol. 1: “Sugar Foot Stomp” (1926–1927).
• King Oliver—Vocalion & Brunswick Recordings, Vol. 2: “Farewell Blues” (1927–1931).
• King Oliver and His Orchestra (1929–1930).
• Plus many more!

Some interesting facts:

• He was one of the first great jazz artists!
• He played the cornet (a small trumpet) and led bands.
• He developed the idea of using mutes in jazz playing (mutes are things that go over the end of brass instruments to give them a different sound—see below for a picture).
• He grew up in New Orleans and played his first jazz there.
• He moved to Chicago later on and became very popular there.
• He wrote many of the pieces he played.
• Louis Armstrong was a great fan of King Oliver’s. As a young man he wanted to play in King Oliver’s band. He got the chance in the 1920s–playing second trumpet to King Oliver! Louis Armstrong didn’t mind this and learnt a lot about playing jazz in this band. He always called King Oliver, ‘Papa Joe’.
• King Oliver also made a couple of recordings with Jelly Roll Morton.
• His real first name was Joe, or Joseph.
• He often tried to charge a lot of money for his playing. In one instance when he charged too much, the job went to Duke Ellington instead—and this is where Duke Ellington became famous!
• He lost all his money in the 1930s (lots of people lost money then—this time was known as the ‘Great Depression’).
• After this he became very sad and his band eventually broke up.
• In the end he worked as a cleaner and died completely poor :-(.
• Sometime after King Oliver died, Louis Armstrong wrote this about him: “It was my ambition to play as he did. I still think that if it had not been for Joe Oliver, Jazz would not be what it is today. He was a creator in his own right.”