George Girard (October 7, 1930 – January 18, 1957) was a

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

trumpeter The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard B ...

. He was known for his great technical ability, playing in a style that combined traditional New Orleans

Dixieland Dixieland jazz, also referred to as traditional jazz, hot jazz, or simply Dixieland, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band ( ...

jazz with the

big-band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

-style trumpet, and a member of the Basin Street Six. Girard was born in

Jefferson Parish, Louisiana Jefferson Parish (french: Paroisse de Jefferson; es, Parroquia de Jefferson) is a parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 440,781. Its parish seat is Gretna, its largest community is Metairie, and its ...

. In highschool he studied music under

Johnny Wiggs Johnny Wiggs (born John Wigginton Hyman, July 25, 1899 - October 10, 1977) was a jazz musician and band leader. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, Wiggs started his music career on the violin. He soon adopted the cornet and moved ...

and became a professional musician immediately after graduating in 1946. He played and toured with the bands of

Johnny Archer Johnny Archer (born November 12, 1968 in Waycross, Georgia) is an American professional pool player. He is nicknamed "the Scorpion" (his zodiac sign is Scorpio, and one of his sponsors is Scorpion Cues). On June 8, 2009, Johnny Archer was nomin ...

and Phil Zito before cofounding the band The Basin Street Six, made up mostly of friends he had grown up with, including clarinetist

Pete Fountain Pierre Dewey LaFontaine Jr. (July 3, 1930 – August 6, 2016), known professionally as Pete Fountain, was an American jazz clarinetist. Early life and education LaFontaine was born to Pierre, Sr. and Madeline, in a small Creole cottage-style fr ...

. The band got a regular gig at L'Enfant's Restaurant in New Orleans, as well as regular

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

broadcasts over WWL. The band started receiving favorable national attention, but Girard was dissatisfied with it and broke up the band in 1954 to found his own band, George Girard & the New Orleans Five which included trombonist

Bob Havens Robert Havens (born May 3, 1930) is an American big band and jazz musician who appeared on ''The Lawrence Welk Show'' from 1960 to 1982. His instrument is the trombone. Early life Born to a musical family in Quincy, Illinois, he began studying ...

, drummer Paul Edwards, and bassist Bob Coquille. Girard landed a residency at the Famous Door in the

French Quarter The French Quarter, also known as the , is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans (french: La Nouvelle-Orléans) was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old Squ ...

, recorded for several labels, and got a weekly broadcast on CBS's affiliated local radio station WWL. The broadcasts, from O'Dwyer's on Jefferson Highway, were recorded and made available through the AFRTS. Girard had ambitions to make a national name for himself (and according to many fellow musicians the musical ability to do so), but became ill and had to give up playing in 1956. Girard died from

colon cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel mo ...

islandnet.com - ''Dixielandjazz - Early Pete Fountain, George Girard, Plus Bobcats Marches''
/ref> in New Orleans on January 18, 1957.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Girard, George Dixieland trumpeters American jazz trumpeters American male trumpeters Jazz musicians from New Orleans 1930 births 1957 deaths Deaths from colorectal cancer 20th-century American musicians 20th-century trumpeters 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians