Percy Gaston Humphrey was a 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...

 trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

 player and bandleader

Bandleader

A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....

 in New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...

.

In addition to his own jazz band, Percy Humphrey and His Crescent City Joymakers, for more than thirty years he was leader of the Eureka Brass Band

Eureka Brass Band

The Eureka Brass Band was a brass band from New Orleans, active from 1920 to 1975.The group was founded by trumpeter Willie Wilson, and its early members included clarinetists Willie Parker, John Casimir, and George Lewis...

. He also played in the band of the pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

 Sweet Emma Barrett. From its opening in the early 1960s, until shortly before his death Humphrey played regularly at Preservation Hall

Preservation Hall

Preservation Hall is a noted jazz performance hall located at 726 St. Peter Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. It hosts nightly concerts featuring a rotating roster of bands. The bands of Preservation Hall typically perform jazz in the New Orleans style.Despite the fame of the...

, traveling internationally for performances with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Preservation Hall Jazz Band is the name for numerous groups of Dixieland Jazz and traditional jazz bands at Preservation Hall in New Orleans, Louisiana, and on tours as organized by the Preservation Hall...

 and his own bands.

Percy Humphrey was the son of clarinet

Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

ist Willie Eli Humphrey, as well as being the younger brother of clarinetist Willie Humphrey

Willie Humphrey

Willie James Humphrey was a New Orleans jazz clarinetist. Willie Humphrey was born in a musical family, the son of prominent local clarinetist and music teacher Willie Eli Humphrey; his brothers Earl Humphrey and Percy Humphrey also became well known professional musicians.After establishing...

 and trombonist

Trombone

The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...

 Earl Humphrey

Earl Humphrey

Earl Humphrey was an American jazz trombonist. He was the brother of noted New Orleans jazz players Willie Humphrey and Percy Humphrey....

. His grandfather was the renowned "Professor" Jim Humphrey, who took the train from New Orleans to sugar cane plantations during the 1890s, in order to teach the basics of music to the children of plantation workers. Many of those he taught would play the jazz that was born in New Orleans near the turn of the twentieth century—including these members of the two following generations of his own family.

The Eureka Brass Band had been founded in 1920, by trumpeter Willie Wilson, and its early members included clarinetists Willie Parker

Willie Parker

"Fast" Willie Everette Parker Jr. is an American football running back for the Virginia Destroyers of the United Football League. He was signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers as an undrafted free agent in 2004. He played college football at North Carolina...

, John Casimir

John Casimir (clarinetist)

John Casimir was a New Orleans jazz clarinetist and bandleader, best remembered as the leader of The Young Tuxedo Brass Band for some 20 years up to his death....

, and George Lewis

George Lewis (clarinetist)

George Lewis was an American jazz clarinetist who achieved his greatest fame and influence in the later decades of his life.-Ancestry:...

. In the 1930s Wilson became ill, during which time trumpeter Alcide Landry had nominal control over the band, but after 1937, Wilson's illness forced him to leave completely. At that time, trombonist Joseph "Red" Clark briefly became the leader, followed by Dominique "T-Boy" Remy, who led it from 1937 through 1946. Finally, Humphrey took over the band and led the group for the remainder of its existence.

The members of the band varied at any given time, usually having nine to eleven members. The typical instrumentation was three trumpets, two trombones, two reeds

Woodwind instrument

A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air against a sharp edge or through a reed, causing the air within its resonator to vibrate...

, tuba, snare drum

Snare drum

The snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom...

, and bass drum

Bass drum

Bass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...

. Reed instruments are many, including the saxophone

Saxophone

The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

s that often are found among jazz bands, but the clarinet

Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

 is characteristically the signature reed instrument of New Orleans jazz.

They recorded prolifically. Phonograph

Phonograph

The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...

 records and albums were cut for Pax

Pax

Pax may refer to:* Pax , the Roman goddess of peace- Organizations :* PAX Association in Poland* Pax Forlag, a Norwegian publishing house* PAX Network, a U.S. television network now known as ION Television...

, Alamac, Folkways

Folkways Records

Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...

, Jazzology, and Sounds of New Orleans. A 1951 album, New Orleans Parade, features Humphrey, trombonists Charles "Sunny" Henry and Albert Warner

Albert Warner

Aaron "Albert" Warner was a Polish-born American film executive who was one of the founders of Warner Bros. Studios. He established the production studio with his brothers Harry, Sam, and Jack Warner...

, and saxophonist Emanuel Paul

Emanuel Paul

Emanuel Paul was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Paul was one of the very first tenor saxophonists to hold regular work in New Orleans jazz, where his instrument often substituted for the baritone horn in a brass band...

. Their 1962 sessions, Jazz at Preservation Hall, Volume 1: the Eureka Brass Band of New Orleans, issued on Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

, features Humphrey and his brother, clarinetist Willie Humphrey, trumpeters Kid Sheik Cola and Pete Bocage, trombonists Albert Warner and Oscar "Chicken" Henry, Emanuel Paul on tenor saxophone

Tenor saxophone

The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...

, Wilbert "Bird" Tillman on sousaphone

Sousaphone

The sousaphone is a type of tuba that is widely employed in marching bands. Designed so that it fits around the body of the musician and is supported by the left shoulder, the sousaphone may be readily played while being carried...

, snare drummer

Drummer

A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...

 Josiah "Cie" Frazier, and bass drummer Robert "Son Fewclothes" Lewis.

After 1975, the Eureka Brass Band disbanded, but Humphrey revived the name occasionally for festival performances and other appearances. He continued to lead his own band and played with others at Preservation Hall until his death in New Orleans in 1995. His last gig was at the annual New Orleans jazz festival in April, three months before his death at the age of ninety.

External links

• Obituary in The Independent
  The Independent
  The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...