Leon Joseph Roppolo (March 16, 1902 – October 5, 1943)
[ was an American early ]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 m ...
clarinetist
This article lists notable musicians who have played the clarinet.
Classical clarinetists
* Laver Bariu
* Ernest Ačkun
* Luís Afonso
* Cristiano Alves
* Michel Arrignon
* Dimitri Ashkenazy
* Kinan Azmeh
* Alexander Bader
* Carl Baerma ...
, best known for his playing with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings
The New Orleans Rhythm Kings (NORK) were one of the most influential jazz bands of the early to mid-1920s. The band included New Orleans and Chicago musicians who helped shape Chicago jazz and influenced many younger jazz musicians.
History
The ...
. He also played saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...
and guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
.
Life and career
Leon Roppolo (nickname
A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...
d "Rap" and sometimes misspelled as "Rappolo") was born in Lutcher, Louisiana
Lutcher is a town in St. James Parish, Louisiana, United States, on the east bank of the Mississippi River. It is part of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area . The population was 3,559 at the 2010 U.S. census, and 3,127 at the 2020 population esti ...
, United States, up-river from New Orleans. His family, of Sicilian origin, moved to the Uptown neighborhood of about 1912. His first instrument was the violin
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
. He was a fan of the marching bands he heard in the streets of New Orleans, and wanted to play clarinet. An older relative with the same name played that instrument in Papa Jack Laine
George Vital "Papa Jack" Laine (September 21, 1873 – June 1, 1966) was an American musician and a pioneering band leader in New Orleans in the years from the Spanish–American War to World War I. He was often credited for training many musici ...
's Reliance Brass Band.
Roppolo soon excelled at the clarinet, and played youthful jobs with his friends Paul Mares
Paul Mares (June 15, 1900 – August 18, 1949), was an American early dixieland jazz cornet and trumpet player, and leader of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings.
Mares established himself as a respected bandleader over a group of wild and strong ...
and George Brunies
George Clarence Brunies (February 6, 1902 – November 19, 1974), Georg Brunis, was an American jazz trombonist, who was part of the dixieland revival. He was known as "The King of the Tailgate Trombone".Stetler, Susan L. (editor) (1987), "Br ...
for parades, parties, and at Milneburg on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain ( ) is an estuary located in southeastern Louisiana in the United States. It covers an area of with an average depth of . Some shipping channels are kept deeper through dredging. It is roughly oval in shape, about from wes ...
. At the age of 15 he decided to leave home to travel with the band of Bee Palmer
Beatrice C. "Bee" Palmer (11 September 1894 – 22 December 1967) was an American singer and dancer born in Chicago, Illinois.
Palmer first attracted significant attention as one of the first exponents of the "shimmy" dance in the late 1910s. ...
, which soon became the nucleus for the New Orleans Rhythm Kings
The New Orleans Rhythm Kings (NORK) were one of the most influential jazz bands of the early to mid-1920s. The band included New Orleans and Chicago musicians who helped shape Chicago jazz and influenced many younger jazz musicians.
History
The ...
.
The Rhythm Kings became (along with King Oliver
Joseph Nathan "King" Oliver (December 19, 1881 – April 8/10, 1938) was an American jazz cornet player and bandleader. He was particularly recognized for his playing style and his pioneering use of mutes in jazz. Also a notable composer, he wr ...
's band) one of the best regarded hot jazz bands in Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...
, in the early 1920s. Roppolo's style influenced many younger Chicago musicians, most notably Benny Goodman. Some critics have called Roppolo's work on the Rhythm Kings Gennett Records the first recorded jazz solos.
After the breakup of the Rhythm Kings in Chicago, Roppolo and Paul Mares headed east to try their luck on the New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
jazz scene. Contemporary musicians recalled Roppolo making some recordings with Original Memphis Five and California Ramblers musicians in New York in 1924. These sides were presumably unissued, or if issued unidentified.[
Roppolo and Mares then returned home to New Orleans where they briefly reformed the Rhythm Kings and made some more recordings.] After this Roppolo worked with other New Orleans bands such as the Halfway House Orchestra, with which he recorded on saxophone.
Roppolo exhibited ever more eccentric behavior and violent temper. This was finally too much for his family to take, and Leon was committed to the state mental hospital in 1925. Some writers have speculated that he was suffering from tertiary syphilis.
In his later life, Roppolo, looking old and feeble far beyond his age, would come home for periods when a relative or friend could look after him, and he would sit in with local bands on saxophone or clarinet.
Death
Leon Roppolo died in New Orleans at the age of 41, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, within sight of the old Halfway House building where he played for years.
Compositions
Leon Roppolo's compositions include the jazz standards "Farewell Blues "Farewell Blues" is a 1922 jazz standard written by Paul Mares, Leon Roppolo and Elmer Schoebel.
Background
The song was recorded on August 29, 1922, in Richmond, Indiana and released as Gennett 4966A, Matrix #11179, as by the Friars Society O ...
" and "Milenberg Joys", "Gold Leaf Strut" or "Golden Leaf Strut", " Tin Roof Blues" (1923), and " Make Love to Me", which was a pop song using Leon Roppolo's music (from "Tin Roof Blues"), recorded by Jo Stafford
Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917July 16, 2008) was an American traditional pop music singer, whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Admired for the purity of her voice, she originally underwent classi ...
in 1954, and by Anne Murray
Morna Anne Murray (born June 20, 1945) is a retired Canadian singer. Her albums, consisting primarily of pop, country, and adult contemporary music, have sold over 55 million copies worldwide during her over 40-year career.
Murray was the fir ...
and B. B. King.
Personal life
Roppolo married Mabel Alice Branchard on 17 May 1920 in New Orleans. They had one child, Epifanio Leon Roppolo.
References
External links
*
Leon Roppolo and the New Orleans Rhythm Kings (1922-25)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roppolo, Leon
1902 births
1943 deaths
Dixieland clarinetists
Jazz musicians from New Orleans
American jazz clarinetists
Gennett Records artists
People from Lutcher, Louisiana
American people of Italian descent
American jazz musicians
20th-century American musicians
New Orleans Rhythm Kings members