Editing King Oliver

{{Short description|American jazz cornet player and bandleader (1881–1938)}}
{{distinguish|Oliver King (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name             = Joe "King" Oliver
| background       = non_vocal_instrumentalist
| image            = King Oliver (1915 portrait).jpg
| alt              = 
| caption          = Oliver, {{circa}}{{nbsp}}1915.
| native_name      = 
| native_name_lang = 
| birth_name       = Joseph Nathan Oliver
| alias            = King Oliver
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1881|12|19}}{{rp|1}}
| birth_place      = [[Aben, Louisiana]], U.S.
| origin           = 
| death_date       = {{circa}} {{death date and age|1938|4|10|1881|12|19}}
| death_place      = [[Savannah, Georgia]], U.S.
| genre            = {{hlist|[[Jazz]]|[[Dixieland]]}}
| occupation       = [[Bandleader]]
| instrument       = [[Cornet]]
| years_active     = 1907−1937
| label            = 
| associated_acts  = {{hlist|[[Louis Armstrong]]|[[Johnny Dodds]]|[[Lawrence Duhé]]}}
}}

'''Joseph Nathan''' "'''King'''" '''Oliver''' (December 19, 1881<ref>Some other sources cite 1884 or 1885.</ref> – {{circa}} April 10, 1938{{rp|21}}) was an American [[jazz]] [[cornet]] player and bandleader. He was particularly recognized for his playing style and his pioneering use of [[Mute (music)|mute]]s in jazz. Also a notable composer, he wrote many tunes still played today, including "[[Dippermouth Blues]]", "Sweet Like This", "Canal Street Blues", and "[[Doctor Jazz]]". He was the mentor and teacher of [[Louis Armstrong]]. His influence was such that Armstrong claimed, "if it had not been for Joe Oliver, jazz would not be what it is today."<ref name="Satchmo">{{cite book |title=Satchmo: My Life In New Orleans |first=Louis |last=Armstrong |author-link=Louis Armstrong |year=2012 |publisher=Ulan Press |asin=B00AIGW6AS}}</ref>[[File:Joe "King" Oliver's Draft Card, signed 09-12-1918 in Chicago.jpg|thumb|Joe "King" Oliver's Draft Card, signed September 12, 1918, in [[Chicago]]]]

==Biography==
===Life===
Joseph Nathan Oliver was born in [[Aben, Louisiana]], near [[Donaldsonville, Louisiana|Donaldsonville]] in [[Ascension Parish, Louisiana|Ascension Parish]], to 
Nathan Oliver and Virginia "Jinnie" Jones. He claimed 1881 as his year of birth in his draft registration in September 1918 (two months before the end of World War I) but that year is open to debate, with some census records and other sources suggesting 1884 or 1885 as his true year of birth.<ref>[http://www.doctorjazz.co.uk/draftcards2.html Profile (search by surname alphabetically)], doctorjazz.co.uk. Accessed November 10, 2022.</ref>

He moved to [[New Orleans]] in his youth. He first studied the trombone, then changed to cornet. From 1908 to 1917, he played cornet in New Orleans [[brass band]]s and dance bands and in the city's red-light district, which came to be known as [[Storyville, New Orleans|Storyville]]. A band he co-led with trombonist [[Kid Ory]] was considered one of the best and hottest in New Orleans in the late 1910s.<ref name="nyt obit">{{cite news |title=Kid Ory, 86, Dead; Jazz Trombonist |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/24/archives/kid-ory-86-dead-jazz-trombonist-exponent-of-dixieland-slide-wrote.html |access-date=February 1, 2019 |agency=New York Times |date=January 24, 1973}}</ref> He was popular in New Orleans across economic and racial lines and was in demand for music jobs of all kinds.

According to an [[oral history]] interview at [[Tulane University]]'s [[Hogan Jazz Archive]] with Oliver's widow, Stella, a fight broke out at a dance where Oliver was playing, and the police arrested him, his band, and the fighters.

He was living in [[Chicago]] with his wife, Estelle "Stella" Dominick, whom he had married in New Orleans in September 1911. He continued to work at the Dreamland, forming a band there in January 1920, which included Johnny Dodds, Honoré Dutrey, and Lil Hardin, the nucleus of his famous Creole Jazz Band. After Storyville closed, he moved to Chicago in 1918 with his wife and step-daughter, Ruby Tuesday Oliver (born 1905).<ref name="Larkin"/>

Noticeably different in his approach were faster tempos, unlike the slow drags in the African-American dance halls of New Orleans.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brothers|first=Thomas|title=Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|year=2014|isbn=978-0-393-06582-4|location=New York, NY|page=31}}</ref> In Chicago, he found work with colleagues from New Orleans, such as clarinetist [[Lawrence Duhé]], bassist [[William Manuel Johnson|Bill Johnson]], trombonist [[Roy Palmer (musician)|Roy Palmer]], and drummer [[Paul Barbarin]].<ref>{{cite book |title=American Musicians II: Seventy-one Portraits in Jazz |first=Whitney |last=Balliett |author-link=Whitney Balliett |year=1996 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0195095388 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/americanmusician00ball_0 }}</ref>  He became leader of Duhé's band, playing at a number of Chicago clubs. In the summer of 1921, he took a group to the West Coast, playing engagements in San Francisco and Oakland, California.<ref name="Larkin"/> On the west coast, Oliver and his band engaged with the vaudeville tradition, performing in plantation outfits.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brothers|title=Louis Armstrong|publisher=|year=2014|isbn=|location=|pages=30}}</ref>

Oliver and his band returned to Chicago in 1922, where they started playing in the [[Lincoln Gardens]] as King Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band. In addition to Oliver on cornet, the personnel included his protégé [[Louis Armstrong]] on second cornet, [[Baby Dodds]] on drums, [[Johnny Dodds]] on clarinet, [[Lil Hardin Armstrong|Lil Hardin]] (later Armstrong's wife) on piano, [[Honoré Dutrey]] on trombone, and [[William Manuel Johnson|Bill Johnson]] on double bass.<ref name="Larkin"/> Recordings made by this group in 1923 for [[Gennett Records|Gennett]], [[Okeh Records|Okeh]], [[Paramount Records|Paramount]], and [[Columbia Records|Columbia]] demonstrated the New Orleans style of collective improvisation, also known as [[Dixieland]], and brought it to a larger audience. Because they were recording acousticly into a horn that was directly connected to the needle making the record master, Armstrong notably had to stand in the corner of the room, away from the horn, because his powerful playing bounced the needle off the master.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brothers|title=Louis Armstrong|publisher=|year=2014|isbn=|location=|pages=62}}</ref> In addition, white musicians would visit Lincoln Gardens in order to learn from Oliver and his band. Because Lincoln Gardens was in Chicago's black neighborhood and only admitted blacks, the white players listened outside near the front door.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brothers|title=Louis Armstrong|publisher=|year=2014|isbn=|location=|pages=33}}</ref> A prospective tour in the midwestern states ultimately broke up the band in 1924.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brothers|title=Louis Armstrong|publisher=|year=2014|isbn=|location=|pages=116}}</ref>

In the mid-1920s Oliver enlarged his band to nine musicians, performing under the name King Oliver and his Dixie Syncopators, and began using more written arrangements with jazz solos. This band led by Oliver at the Plantation Café was in direct competition with Louis Armstrong's Sunset Stompers, who performed at the [[Sunset Cafe|Sunset Café]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brothers|title=Louis Armstrong|publisher=|year=2014|isbn=|location=|pages=256}}</ref> In 1927 the band went to New York, but he disbanded it to do freelance jobs. In the later 1920s, he struggled with playing trumpet due to his gum disease, so he employed others to handle the solos, including his nephew Dave Nelson, Louis Metcalf, and [[Red Allen]]. He reunited the band in 1928, recording for [[Victor Talking Machine Company]] one year later. He continued with modest success until a downturn in the economy made it more difficult to find bookings. His [[periodontal disease|periodontitis]] made playing the trumpet progressively difficult.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brothers|title=Louis Armstrong|publisher=|year=2014|isbn=|location=|pages=89}}</ref> He quit playing music in 1937.<ref name="Larkin">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]|first=Colin |last=Larkin|editor-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|publisher=[[Virgin Books]]|date=1997|edition=Concise|isbn=1-85227-745-9|page=919}}</ref>

===Work and influence===
{{listen |filename=Dippermouth Blues - KING OLIVER'S JAZZ BAND.flac|title=Dippermouth Blues |description=1923 recording by King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band featuring [[Louis Armstrong]] }}

As a player, Oliver took great interest in altering his horn's sound. He pioneered the use of mutes, including the rubber plumber's plunger, derby hat, bottles and cups. His favorite mute was a small metal mute made by the [[C.G. Conn]] Instrument Company, with which he played his famous solo on his composition the "Dippermouth Blues" (an early nickname for fellow cornetist Louis Armstrong). His recording "Wa Wa Wa" with the Dixie Syncopators can be credited with giving the name [[wah-wah (music)|wah-wah]] to such techniques. This "freak" style of trumpet playing was also featured in his composition, "Eccentric."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brothers|title=Louis Armstrong|publisher=|year=2014|isbn=|location=|page=83}}</ref> One of his protégés, Louis Panico (cornetist with the [[Isham Jones]] Orchestra), authored a book entitled ''The Novelty Cornetist'', which is illustrated with photos showing some of the mute techniques he learned from Oliver.<ref> https://qpress.ca/product/the-novelty-cornettist-louis-panico/ accessed 20/4/2024</ref>

Oliver was also a talented composer, and wrote many tunes that are still regularly played, including "Dippermouth Blues," "Sweet Like This," "Canal Street Blues," and "Doctor Jazz." "Dippermouth Blues," for example, was adapted by Don Redman for Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra under the new name of "Sugar Foot Stomp".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brothers|first=Thomas|title=Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism|publisher= W.W. Norton & Company |year=2014|isbn=978-0-393-06582-4|location=New York City|page=149}}</ref>{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}

Oliver performed mostly on cornet, but like many cornetists he switched to trumpet in the late 1920s. He credited jazz pioneer [[Buddy Bolden]] as an early influence, and in turn was a major influence on numerous younger cornet/trumpet players in New Orleans and Chicago, including [[Tommy Ladnier]], [[Paul Mares]], [[Muggsy Spanier]], [[Johnny Wiggs]], [[Frank Guarente]] and, the most famous of all, Armstrong. 

As mentor to Armstrong in New Orleans, Oliver taught young Louis and gave him his job in Kid Ory's band when he went to Chicago. A few years later Oliver summoned him to Chicago to play with his band. Louis remembered Oliver as "Papa Joe" and considered him his idol and inspiration. In his autobiography, ''Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans'', Armstrong wrote:  "It was my ambition to play as he did. I still think that if it had not been for Joe Oliver, Jazz would not be what it is today. He was a creator in his own right."<ref name="Satchmo" />

==Hardships in later years, decline and death==
Oliver's business acumen could not equal his musical skill. A succession of managers stole money from him, and he tried to negotiate more money for his band than the [[Savoy Ballroom]] was willing to pay – losing the job. He lost the chance of an important engagement at New York City's famous [[Cotton Club]] when he held out for more money; young [[Duke Ellington]] took the job and subsequently catapulted to fame.<ref>{{cite book |title=The World of Jazz Trumpet: A Comprehensive History and Practical Philosophy |first=Scotty |last=Barnhart |author-link=Scotty Barnhart |page=21 |year=2005 |publisher=[[Hal Leonard Corporation]] |isbn=978-0634095276}}</ref>

The [[Great Depression]] brought hardship to Oliver. He lost his life savings to a collapsed bank in Chicago, and he struggled to keep his band together through a series of hand-to-mouth gigs until the group broke up.

Oliver also had health problems, such as [[periodontal disease|pyorrhea]], a gum disease that was partly caused by his love of sugar sandwiches and it made it very difficult for him to play<ref>{{cite web|first=Scott |last=Yanow|author-link=Scott Yanow |url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/king-oliver-mn0000094639/biography |title=King Oliver &#124; Biography |website=[[AllMusic]] |date=1938-04-08 |access-date=2015-06-13}}</ref> and he soon began delegating solos to younger players, but by 1935, he could no longer play the trumpet at all.<ref name="blackpast1938">{{cite web|url=http://www.blackpast.org/aah/oliver-joseph-king-1885-1938 |title=Oliver, Joseph "King" (1885-1938) &#124; The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed |publisher=Blackpast.org |date=1922-06-17 |access-date=2015-06-13}}</ref> Oliver was stranded in [[Savannah, Georgia]], where he pawned his trumpet and finest suits and briefly ran a fruit stall, then he worked as a janitor at Wimberly's Recreation Hall (526–528 West Broad Street).<ref name="blackpast1938"/>

Oliver died in poverty "of [[arteriosclerosis]], too broke to afford treatment"<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.jazz.com/encyclopedia/2008/7/17/oliver-joe-king |title=Joe 'King' Oliver |first=Peter |last=Gerler |publisher=jazz.com |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians |access-date=22 April 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018043447/http://www.jazz.com/encyclopedia/2008/7/17/oliver-joe-king |archive-date=18 October 2012 }}</ref> in a Savannah rooming house around April 1938.<ref>There is disagreement on the date of Oliver's death. His grave marker says '''April 8''' and this date appears in [[John Chilton]]'s ''Who's Who in Jazz'', as well as in his [http://www.allmusic.com/artist/king-oliver-p7257 biography at AllMusic]. However, in [http://www.doctorjazz.co.uk/portnewor.html#koliver his biography] at ''Portraits from Jelly Roll's New Orleans'', by Peter Hanley, the author quotes an '''April 10''' date from Oliver's Chatham County, Georgia, death certificate No.&nbsp;8483.</ref> His sister spent her rent money to have his body brought to New York, where he was buried at [[Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)|Woodlawn Cemetery]] in [[The Bronx]].  Armstrong and other loyal musician friends were in attendance.<ref>Williams, MT. ''King Oliver (Kings of Jazz)''. Barnes; Perpetua (1961), p. 31. ASIN: B0007ECVCE.</ref>

==Honors and awards==
Oliver was inducted as a charter member of the [[Gennett Records]] Walk of Fame in [[Richmond, Indiana]] in 2007.

==Selected compilation discography==
* ''Papa Joe: King Oliver and His Dixie Syncopators 1926–1928'' ([[Decca Records|Decca]], 1969)
* ''Louis Armstrong and King Oliver'' ([[Milestone Records|Milestone]], 1974)
* ''The New York Sessions'' ([[Bluebird Records|Bluebird]], 1989)
* ''Sugar Foot Stomp The Original Decca Recordings'' ([[GRP Records|GRP]], 1992)
* ''Dippermouth Blues'' ([[ASV Records|ASV Living Era]], 1996)
* ''Great Original Performances 1923–1930'' (Louisiana Red Hot, 1998)
* ''Sugar Foot Stomp Vocalion & Brunswick Recordings Vol. 1'' ([[Frog Records|Frog]], 2000)
* ''The Best of King Oliver'' (Blues Forever, 2001)
* ''The Complete Set: King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band'' (Retrieval, 2004)
* ''The Complete 1923 Jazz Band Recordings'' (Off the Record, 2006)
* ''King Joe Oliver'' by Walter C. Allen and Brian A. L. Rust, Jazz Monographs No. 1, February 1956, published by Walter C. Allen Beleville, N.J. (This is the second printing; Jazz Monographs No. 1. October 1955 was the first printing of this biography and discography.)

==See also==
{{Portal|Music}}
*"[[Snag it]]" – song by King Oliver.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
*{{Discogs artist |King Oliver}}
*[https://syncopatedtimes.com/king-olivers-dixie-syncopators/ King Oliver's Dixie Syncopators, Red Hot Jazz Archive], syncopatedtimes.com
*[https://syncopatedtimes.com/king-olivers-creole-jazz-band/ King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band @ Red Hot Jazz Archive]
*[https://syncopatedtimes.com/joe-king-oliver-1885-1938/ Joe "King" Oliver (1885-1938)], syncopatedtimes.com
*[http://www.doctorjazz.co.uk/draftcards2.html#musdcjno King Oliver's WWI Draft Registration Card and Essay], doctorjazz.co.uk
*[https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/779/joseph-oliver Joseph Oliver], findagrave.com
* [https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/104809 King Oliver recordings] at the [[Discography of American Historical Recordings]]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oliver, King}}
[[Category:African-American jazz musicians]]
[[Category:African-American songwriters]]
[[Category:American jazz bandleaders]]
[[Category:American jazz cornetists]]
[[Category:American jazz songwriters]]
[[Category:American male songwriters]]
[[Category:American big band bandleaders]]
[[Category:Dixieland jazz musicians]]
[[Category:1881 births]]
[[Category:1938 deaths]]
[[Category:Jazz musicians from New Orleans]]
[[Category:Jazz musicians from Chicago]]
[[Category:People from Ascension Parish, Louisiana]]
[[Category:Paramount Records artists]]
[[Category:Gennett Records artists]]
[[Category:Okeh Records artists]]
[[Category:Vocalion Records artists]]
[[Category:Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)]]
[[Category:Deaths from arteriosclerosis]]
[[Category:Songwriters from Louisiana]]
[[Category:Songwriters from Illinois]]
[[Category:20th-century American male musicians]]
[[Category:American male jazz musicians]]
[[Category:Onward Brass Band members]]
[[Category:Olympia Orchestra members]]
[[Category:The Eagle Band members]]
[[Category:Janitors]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American musicians]]
[[Category:20th-century American songwriters]]
[[Category:DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame members]]