The Olympia Brass Band is an American
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 ...
brass band from
.
The first "Olympia Brass Band" was active from the late 19th century to around World War I. The most famous member was
Freddie Keppard
Freddie Keppard (sometimes rendered as Freddy Keppard; February 27, 1890 – July 15, 1933) was an American jazz cornetist who once held the title of "King" in the New Orleans jazz scene. This title was previously held by Buddy Bolden and suc ...
.
In 1958, saxophonist
Harold Dejan,
leader of the 2nd unit of the
Eureka Brass Band, split off to form the current Olympia, reviving the historic name.
The band had a notable part in the 1973
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
movie ''
Live and Let Die'' in which they play a band leading a
funeral march and one of Bond's associates is assassinated during the march. Trumpeter
Alvin Alcorn
Alvin Elmore Alcorn (September 7, 1912 – July 10, 2003) was an American jazz trumpeter.
Career
Alcorn learned music theory from his brother. In the early 1930s, he was a member of the Sunny South Syncopators led by Armand J. Piron. He worked ...
plays the knife-wielding "baby-faced killer".
In addition to playing for parades and parties, the band had a weekly gig at
Preservation Hall
Preservation Hall is a jazz venue in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. The building is associated with a house band, a record label, and a non-profit foundation.
History of the jazz hall
In the 1950s, art dealer Larry Borenstein ...
on Sunday nights for many years. The band also toured Europe on numerous occasions and also toured Africa for the U. S. State Department. The band did a
BBC radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...
broadcast for
Queen Elizabeth's 25th wedding anniversary in 1972 while they were in London, and also played for
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
on his visit to New Orleans.
The Olympia Brass Band was a training ground for a whole new generation of jazz musicians including clarinetist Joseph Torregano, saxophonist Byron "Flea" Bernard, drummers Tanio Hingle and Kerry Hunter, and trumpeters Kenneth Terry and "Kid" Mervin Campbell.
Notable members of the band over the years were: Harold "Duke" Dejan, leader and alto saxophone; Emanuel "Pappy" Paul & Ernest Watson tenor saxophone; clarinetists Willie Humphrey, Joseph Torregano and David Grillier; trumpeters Milton Batiste (assistant leader), Edmond Foucher, George "Kid Sheik" Colar, Reginald Koeller, Kenneth Terry, and Mervin Campbell; trombonists Paul Crawford, Frank Naundorf,
Wendell Eugene, Eddie King, Gerald Joseph, and Lester Caliste; sousaphonists
Allan Jaffe
Allan Phillip Jaffe (April 24, 1935, Pottsville, Pennsylvania - March 9, 1987, New Orleans) was an American jazz tubist and the entrepreneur who, along with his wife Sandra, developed Preservation Hall into a New Orleans jazz tradition.
Jaffe' ...
, William "Coby" Brown,
Anthony Lacen aka "Tuba Fats," Edgar Smith, and Jeffrey Hills; snare drummers Andrew Jefferson, Leroy "Boogie" Breaux, Kerry "Fatman" Hunter; bass drummers Henry "Booker T." Glass, Nowell "Papa" Glass, and Cayetano "Tanio" Hingle. Grand marshals for the band were Matthew "Fats" Houston (1911–81), Anderson Minor, Anderson Stewart, and Richard "King" Matthews, whose death in 2010 is considered to have ended the band's history.
''New Orleans Magazine'',"Dirges for the Olympia"
/ref>
Although the band left numerous recordings, none is more prevalent than their recording of "The Westlawn Funeral Dirge" which featured Emanuel Paul on the tenor saxophone.
The Olympia Brass Band is profiled in the book, ''The Great Olympia Band'' by the late English writer Mick Burns, and ''Keeping the Beat on the Street: The New Orleans Brass Band Renaissance'' also by Mick Burns.
Discography
*''New Orleans Street Parade'' (1968)
*Dejan's Olympia Brass Band of New Orleans, VPS-4, 1974, Preservation Hall, Publishers.
References
{{Authority control
American jazz ensembles from New Orleans
Brass bands from New Orleans