Editing New Orleans Rhythm Kings (section)

==History==

The New Orleans Rhythm Kings in its earliest stages was the creation of the drummer Mike "Ragbaby" Stevens, solely in that he sent the first [[telegram]] to [[Albert Brunies]] about going to [[Chicago]] to form a band and find better gigs than [[New Orleans]] had to offer. Albert "Abbie" Brunies and his younger brother, the trombonist [[George Brunies]], were initially hesitant but suggested the idea to a friend, the trumpet player [[Paul Mares]], who immediately took the opportunity.

"So I says Paul, I says, Abbie don't want to go to Chicago and I'm kind of leery, I'm afraid", George recalled. "Paul says, 'man, give me that wire. I'll go.' So Paul went up [to Chicago] and introduced himself to Ragbaby Stevens and Ragbaby liked him… and Paul got the railroad fare from his father and sent me $60".<ref name="LostChords">Sudhalter, Richard M. (1999). ''Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contribution to Jazz, 1915–1945''. New York: Oxford University Press.</ref>

George Brunies packed his trombone and set off to join Mares in Chicago, playing gigs and going to after-hours clubs with Mares. At one such club the pair met some of their future bandmates, the drummer Frank Snyder, the pianist [[Elmer Schoebel]], and the saxophonist Jack Pettis.

The name "New Orleans Rhythm Kings" did not initially refer to this group but rather was the name of a group under the direction of [[Bee Palmer]], a [[vaudeville]] performer. Palmer's group did not last, but within several months of the breakup of the band, a member of the group, the clarinetist [[Leon Roppolo]], was playing on riverboats in Chicago with Elmer Schoebel, Jack Pettis, Frank Snyder, George Brunies, the banjoist Louis Black and (possibly) Paul Mares.<ref name="LostChords"/> 
	
Mares, ready to move on from riverboat life, found the group an engagement at the [[Friar's Inn]], a club owned by Mike Fritzel. The bassist Arnold Loyocano joined forces with the growing band, and thus began the group's engagement at the Friar's Inn, which lasted 17 months beginning in 1921.<ref name="NewGrove">Kernfeld, Barry Dean; Sadie, Stanley (1988). "New Orleans Rhythm Kings." ''The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz''. London: Macmillan.</ref> During this time the group performed as the Friar's Society Orchestra.

While at the Friar's Inn, the group attracted the interest not only of fans but of other musicians. The cornetist [[Bix Beiderbecke]], who had been sent to school in Chicago by his parents in the hopes of removing him from jazz influences, regularly attended their shows and was often allowed to perform with the band.<ref name="burns">Ward, Geoffrey C.; Burns, Ken (2005). ''Jazz: A History of America's Music''. Alfred A. Knopf. {{ISBN|0-679-76539-5}}.</ref>

The group recorded a series of records for [[Gennett Records]] in 1922 and 1923.<ref name="redhot">{{cite web |title=New Orleans Rhythm Kings a.k.a. Friar's Society Orchestra |url=https://syncopatedtimes.com/new-orleans-rhythm-kings-a-k-a-friars-society-orchestra/ |accessdate=20 May 2020 |website=Red Hot Jazz Archive|date=20 May 2020 }}</ref> On July 17 and 18 1923, they were joined by the pianist and composer [[Jelly Roll Morton]]. These sessions with Morton have sometimes been incorrectly called the first mixed-[[Race (classification of human beings)|race]] recording session; while they are noteworthy, early examples, there were earlier instances such as the 1919 [[Gennett Records|Gennett]] and [[Okeh Records|Okeh]] recording of Creole clarinetists [[Achille Baquet|Achille Bauquet]] in [[Jimmy Durante]]'s New Orleans Jazz Band.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sutton |first=Allan |title=Race Records and the American Recording Industry, 1919-1945: An Illustrated History |publisher=Mainspring Press |year=2016 |isbn=9780997333305 |location=Denver, CO |publication-date=2016 |pages=110}}</ref>

After their engagement at the Friar's Inn ended, the New Orleans Rhythm Kings were largely scattered and disorganized. They re-formed periodically to make recordings, with significant member turnover (Roppolo and Mares were more or less the leaders and constants of the group), but the group never played all together again. They went their separate ways: Paul Mares continued to play music, releasing a record in 1935 and ran the P&M New Orleans Barbeque with his wife in the late 1930s.<ref name="LostChords"/> Leon Roppolo was (and always had been) mentally unstable and spent the last years of his life in and out of institutions until his early death in 1943, though he managed to keep playing music as best he could.<ref name="LostChords"/> Most of the other members of the NORK also kept successful musical careers after the group dissolved.