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Joe OliverAmerican jazz cornetist and conductor.
Date of Birth: 11.05.1885
Country:  USA |
Content:
- Biography of Joe Oliver
- Formation of the Creole Jazz Band
- Recording Career and Success
- Later Career and Legacy
Biography of Joe Oliver
Joe Oliver was an American jazz cornetist and conductor. He began his musical education as a trombonist and played in various brass and dance orchestras from around 1907. He also participated in small African American groups in bars and cabarets in New Orleans.
Formation of the Creole Jazz Band
In 1918, Oliver moved to Chicago, where he formed his first orchestra two years later. This group, known as "King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band," started performing at the Lincoln Gardens. It was during this time that a then-unknown twenty-two-year-old Louis Armstrong joined the band as the second cornetist.
Recording Career and Success
From April 1923, Oliver and his orchestra began recording. In 1925, the Creole Jazz Band, with some changes to its lineup, achieved success in Chicago. However, after their contract ended in 1927, the band disbanded. Oliver spent the next three years in New York, where the orchestra performed its final concert.
Later Career and Legacy
From 1930 to 1936, Oliver toured extensively throughout the United States with various small orchestras. However, after 1931, he stopped recording. In his later years, Oliver retreated from music and spent his time in Savannah.
Oliver played in a melodic style predominantly in square rhythm, in contrast to the rhythmic freedom of a young Armstrong and his followers. His playing incorporated various effects borrowed from blues vocals, often utilizing different mutes to alter the timbre of his instrument.
Oliver almost exclusively performed with his own ensemble and effectively fulfilled the responsibilities of a leader. The success of the Creole Jazz Band can be attributed in large part to Oliver's strict discipline and high expectations for his musicians.
Out of all the cornetists of the early New Orleans period, only Oliver made recordings, and the revival of this style that occurred shortly after his death is largely thanks to him.
