Editing Gussie Mueller

{{Short description|Musical artist (1890-1965)}}
{{Infobox musical artist <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Musicians -->
| name                = Gussie Mueller
| image               = GussieMueller.jpg
| caption             = Gussie Mueller, c. 1922
| image_size          = 
| background          = non_vocal_instrumentalist
| birth_name          = Gustave Mueller
| alias               = "Gus"<br>or<br>"Gussie"
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1890|04|17}}
| birth_place         = [[New Orleans, Louisiana]], U.S. 
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1965|12|16|1890|04|17}}
| death_place         = [[Hollywood, California]], U.S
| origin              = [[New Orleans, Louisiana]], U.S. 
| instrument          = [[Clarinet]]
| genre               = [[Dixieland]]
| years_active        = c. 1910-c.1940}}

'''Gustave''' "'''Gussie'''" '''Mueller''' (April 17, 1890 &ndash; December 16, 1965) was an early jazz [[clarinet]]ist.

The [[New Orleans, Louisiana]]-born Mueller was a top clarinetist with [[Papa Jack Laine]]'s bands in New Orleans before going to [[Chicago]], Illinois with [[Tom Brown (trombonist)|Tom Brown's]] band in early 1915. After serving in the Army in [[World War I]] he moved to [[California]] and joined the early [[Paul Whiteman]] Orchestra, with which he moved to [[New York City]]. He helped give the Whiteman band a touch of the [[Dixieland]] jazz style. One of the Whiteman Orchestra's early hit records, as well as one of the unfortunately few recordings where Mueller can be heard prominently, is [[Wang Wang Blues]] which Mueller dominates in a style similar to [[Larry Shields]]. Mueller also shares composer credit on "Wang Wang".

According to Whiteman, Mueller was reluctant to learning how to read music, for fear that it would impair his abilities as a "hot player". He left the Whiteman band in November 1920, saying "I jes' can't play that 'pretty music' that you all play. And you fellers can't never play [[blues]] worth a damn".<ref>Whiteman, Paul and Mary McBride. ''Jazz.'' New York, J. H. Sears & Company, 1926, p. 241.</ref>  Mueller returned to California to join his old friend Ray Lopez in the [[Abe Lyman]] Orchestra.<ref>Charters, Samuel. ''A Trumpet Around the Corner''. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2008, p. 125.</ref>   Mueller stayed in the [[Los Angeles]] area and remained active as a musician well in to the 1940s, mainly performing with "[[Hillbilly]]" bands.<ref>Chilton, John. ''Who's Who in Jazz.'' Philadelphia, PA, Chilton, 1972.</ref> He rejoins Whiteman in Capitol Record's Hollywood studios in 1945, for a recreation of the famous Wang-Wang Blues.<ref>Rayno, Don. ''Paul Whiteman: Pioneer in American Music'' Lanham, MA: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2013, Vol 2, p. 256.</ref> On the record Mueller replicates in detail his phrases from the 1920 recording.

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* {{cite book |title=Jazz |first=Paul |last=Whiteman |publisher=J. H. Sears |year=1926}}
* {{cite journal |title=Gussie Mueller Dies in California |journal=The Second Line |volume=17 |issue=1 |date=January 1966 |publisher=New Orleans Jazz Club}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mueller, Gussie}}
[[Category:Dixieland clarinetists]]
[[Category:Jazz musicians from New Orleans]]
[[Category:American jazz clarinetists]]
[[Category:20th-century American musicians]]
[[Category:1890 births]]
[[Category:1965 deaths]]
{{US-clarinetist-stub}}
{{US-jazz-musician-stub}}