Tony Sbarbaro

Antonio Sparbaro, better known as Tony Sbarbaro or Tony Spargo (June 27, 1897 – October 30, 1969) was an American jazz drummer associated with New Orleans jazz. He was the drummer of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band for over 50 years.

Background

Sbarbaro was born in New Orleans to an immigrant Sicilian family. Early in his career he played with the Frayle Brothers Band (possibly as early as 1911) and the Reliance Band of Papa Jack Laine. He did side work with Merritt Brunies and Carl Randall. He joined the Original Dixieland Jazz Band for their initial recordings in 1917; he became its leader in the 1940s and remained a member of the ensemble until its dissolution in the 1960s. Indeed, he was the only founding member still in the group at that time. Sbarbaro also composed for the group, writing the tune "Mourning Blues" among others. He remained a fixture of Dixieland jazz performance for most of his life, playing later in life in New Orleans with Miff Mole, Big Chief Moore, Pee Wee Erwin, and Eddie Condon. He played at the New York World's Fair in 1941 and with Connee Boswell in the 1950s. He quit music in the 1960s due to the popularity of rock & roll, and died in 1969.

Larry Shields

Lawrence James "Larry" Shields (September 13, 1893 - November 21, 1953) was an early American dixieland jazz clarinetist. He was a member of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, the first jazz band to record commercially.

Background

Shields was born into an Irish-American family in Uptown New Orleans, on the same block where jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden lived. Shields' family were musical; his brothers Harry, Pat (guitar), and Eddie (piano) all played music professionally.

Shields started playing clarinet when he was 14 and played with Papa Jack Laine's bands. He was one of the early New Orleans musicians to go to Chicago, first heading north in the summer of 1915 to join Bert Kelly's band, then with Tom Brown's band, before joining the Original Dixieland Jass Band (ODJB) in November 1916. The following year that band made the first jazz phonograph records, propelling Shield's playing to national prominence. Around this time, he also played occasionally with King Watzke's band.

After leaving the ODJB in 1921, he played with various bands in New York City (including briefly with Paul Whiteman) before moving to Los Angeles, California where he remained throughout the 1920s, leading his own band and appearing briefly in some Hollywood films.

Original Dixieland Jass Band

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The Original Dixieland Jass Band (ODJB) were a New Orleans, Dixieland jazz band that made the first jazz recordings in early 1917. Their "Livery Stable Blues" became the first jazz single ever issued. The group made the first recordings, and claimed authorship, of many jazz standards, the most famous being "Tiger Rag". In late 1917 the spelling of the band's name was changed to Original Dixieland Jazz Band.

The band consisted of five musicians who previously had played in the Papa Jack Laine bands, a diverse and racially integrated group of musicians who played for parades, dances, and advertising in New Orleans.

ODJB billed itself as the Creators of Jazz; it was the first band to record jazz commercially and to have hit recordings in the new genre. Band leader and trumpeter Nick LaRocca argued that ODJB deserved recognition as the first band to record jazz commercially and the first band to establish jazz as a musical idiom or genre.

Dixieland Jazz

Dixieland Jazz was a Canadian music television series which aired on CBC Television in 1954.

Premise

The series host was Trump Davidson, a cornet player. He also hosted a radio music series on CBC's Trans-Canada Network.

Scheduling

This half-hour series was broadcast at various days and times from 21 April 1954 to 6 September 1954.

References

External links

Tiger Rag

"Tiger Rag" is a jazz standard, originally recorded and copyrighted by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in 1917. It is one of the most recorded jazz compositions of all time. In 2003, the 1918 ODJB recording of "Tiger Rag" was placed on the U.S. Library of Congress National Recording Registry.

Origins

The tune was first recorded on 17 August 1917 by the Original Dixieland Jass Band for Aeolian-Vocalion Records (the band did not use the Jazz spelling until later in 1917) and released as B1206, "Tiger Rag One-Step Written and Played by Original Dixieland Jass Band", backed with "Ostrich Walk". The Aeolian Vocalion sides did not sell well, as they were recorded in a vertical format becoming obsolete at the time which could not be played successfully on most contemporary phonographs.

Their second recording of the tune on 25 March 1918 for Victor Records, 18472-B, backed with "Skeleton Jangle" as the A side, on the other hand, was a smash national hit and established the tune as a jazz standard. The song was copyrighted, published, and credited to bandmembers Nick LaRocca, Eddie Edwards, Henry Ragas, Tony Sbarbaro, and Larry Shields in 1917. Harry DaCosta later wrote lyrics to the instrumental when it became a million-seller and a No. 1 national hit for The Mills Brothers in 1931.