George Girard was a New Orleans jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

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

Dixieland

Dixieland music, sometimes referred to as Hot jazz, Early Jazz or New Orleans jazz, is a style of jazz music which developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s.Well-known jazz standard songs from the...

 jazz with the big-band-style trumpet, and a member of the Basin Street Six

Basin Street Six

The Basin Street Six was a Dixieland sextet founded in 1950 in New Orleans that had some famous members, including George Girard, Roy Zimmerman, Pete Fountain , Joe Rotis and Charlie Duke among others.They recorded for various record companies, including Mercury Records and 504 Records...

.

Girard was born in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana

Jefferson Parish, Louisiana

Jefferson Parish is a parish in Louisiana, United States that includes most of the suburbs of New Orleans. The seat of parish government is Gretna....

. In highschool he studied music under Johnny Wiggs

Johnny Wiggs

Johnny Wiggs was a jazz musician and band leader.Born John Wigginton Hyman on in New Orleans, Louisiana, he started his music career on the violin. He soon adopted the cornet and moved to New York for some time before returning to New Orleans...

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

Johnny Archer

Johnny Archer is an American professional pool player. He is nicknamed "the Scorpion" ....

 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

Pete Fountain

Pete Fountain , is an American clarinetist based in New Orleans. He has played jazz, Dixieland and Creole music.-Early life and education:...

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

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 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. Girard landed a residency at the Famous Door in the French Quarter

French Quarter

The French Quarter, also known as Vieux Carré, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. When New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city was originally centered on the French Quarter, or the Vieux Carré as it was known then...

, recorded for several labels, and got a weekly broadcast on CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

. 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 in New Orleans on January 18, 1957.