Alphonse Picou playing High Society (1958)

Alphonse Picou (born New Orleans, October 19, 1878 and died New Orleans, February 4, 1961) formed his own Independence Band in 1897 and played with Oscar Duconge in 1899, the Excelsior Band (1900) and Freddie Keppard's Olympia Band. Then he had short periods with other bands such as Bunk Johnson's, Wooden Joe Nicholas' and Emanuel Perez's. He was semi-retired in the 30's, but due to the New Orleans revival he started to play again making records with Kid Rena (1940) and Papa Celestin (1947).

Picou is best known for originating the clarinet part on the standard "High Society". Although it is believed that George Baquet was the first clarinet player who played the difficult solo part of "High society", it is without doubt Picou who made it popular. He has been mistakenly credited as the writer of this tune, but in fact it was a 1901 marching band composition by Porter Steele. Picou made his own arrangement, making it gently swing and paraphrasing the Piccolo part to create his famous clarinet solo, which became a standard part that every New Orleans clarinetist should be able to duplicate.

Now you can watch him playing "High Society" with the Paul Barbarin band. Although the uploader states it was recorded in New Orleans, I think it could be from an Art Ford's Jazz Party on December 25, 1958, with the following line-up, according to Bruyninckx and Lord discographies: Punch Miller, Percy Humphrey (tp) Jim Robinson (tb) Alphonse Picou (cl) Armand Hug (p) George Guesnon (bj) Alcide Pavageau (b) Paul Barbarin (d).

Old jazz magazines - record ads [1]

Old magazines are always an invaluable source for any kind of jazz research. Club listings, reviews, interviews, articles, ads, listings of new releases... You can obtain that precious piece of information you've been looking for years in any of those worn pages.

But they can also be highly regarded treasures by themselves, kind of a mysterious jewel you can enjoy in your nightly jazz temple at home...

I have always been fascinated by those old black and white records ads, with their somehow naive hyperboles ("get the sensational new Henry Red Allen record on RCA Victor", "the best in hot jazz", "the real New Orleans Music"...). Here's a good sample, extracted from several issues of the H.R.S. Society Rag (1938-1941).

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Las revistas antiguas de jazz son siempre una valiosa fuente de información en cualquier investigación jazzística. Listados de clubs y conciertos, reseñas, entrevistas, artículos de fondo, anuncios, listados de nuevas ediciones... Puede que tengas suerte y encuentres esa preciada información que llevas años buscando ahí mismo, en cualquiera de esas arrugadas páginas.

Pero esas revistas también pueden constituir un valioso tesoro en sí mismas, una especie de misteriosa joya que disfrutas en tu templo nocturno de jazz en casa...

Siempre me han encantado esos viejos anuncios que acompañaban las ediciones de discos de jazz, con sus ingenuas hipérboles ("compre el sensacional nuevo disco de Henry Red Allen en RCA Victor", "lo mejor en el hot jazz", "la auténtica música de Nueva Orleans"). Esta una selección de esos anuncios, que fueron publicados en la revista H.R.S. Society Rag entre 1938 y 1941.