Editing Papa Jack Laine

{{short description|American musician and pioneering band leader (1873-1966)}}
{{More citations needed|date=April 2018}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name              = Papa Jack Laine
| image             = JackLaine06.jpg
| caption           = Laine in 1906
| image_size        = 
| background        = non_vocal_instrumentalist
| birth_name        = George Vitelle Laine
| alias             = Jack Laine, Papa Jack, Papa Laine
| birth_date        = {{birth date|mf=yes|1873|9|21}}
| birth_place       = [[New Orleans, Louisiana]], U.S.
| death_date        = {{death date and age|mf=yes|1966|6|1|1873|9|21}}
| death_place       = [[Metairie, Louisiana]], U.S.
| origin            = [[New Orleans, Louisiana]], U.S.
| instrument        = [[drums]]
| genre             = [[Marching band]]<br />[[Traditional jazz]]<br />[[Jazz]]<br />[[Blues]]<br />[[Rag-time]]
}}

'''George Vitelle''' "'''Papa Jack'''" '''Laine''' (September 21, 1873 – June 1, 1966)<ref name="abb">{{cite book|last1=Lee|first1=William F.|title=American Big Bands|date=2005|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=9780634080548|page=[https://archive.org/details/americanbigbands00leew/page/13 13]|url=https://archive.org/details/americanbigbands00leew|url-access=registration|quote=Big Bands.|accessdate=10 April 2018|language=en}}</ref> was an American musician and a pioneering band leader in [[New Orleans]] in the years from the [[Spanish–American War]] to [[World War I]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Papa Jack Laine: Biography |first=Scott|last=Yanow|publisher=Allmusic|url={{Allmusic|class=artist|id=papa-jack-laine-p358702|pure_url=yes}}|accessdate=April 17, 2011}}</ref> He was often credited for training many musicians who would later become successful in [[jazz music]].

Laine's Reliance Brass Band was the first to fuse European, African, and Latin music. The earliest jazz musicians can be traced back to playing in the Reliance Brass Band or being influenced by those who had.<ref>[http://www.neworleansonline.com/neworleans/music/musichistory/jazzbirthplace.html "Birthplace of Jazz", New Orleans Music History Online], neworleansonline.com; accessed October 8, 2014.</ref>

Many of the New Orleans musicians who first spread jazz around the [[United States]] in the 1910s and 1920s got their start in Laine's marching band, including the members of the [[Original Dixieland Jass Band]].<ref>{{cite web |title="Papa" Jack Laine (1873-1966)|url=https://syncopatedtimes.com/papa-jack-laine-1873-1966/ |website=Red Hot Jazz Archive |date=20 May 2020 |accessdate=20 May 2020 }}</ref>

== Career ==
Laine was a [[drummer]], but he was more noted for his skills at arranging and booking bands. Laine's musicians included individuals from most of New Orleans' many ethnic groups: African American, English, French, German, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Latin American, Scottish, etc. He started leading bands in 1885 before the [[Jim Crow law]]s went into effect in New Orleans.<ref name="NPS">[http://www.nps.gov/jazz/historyculture/papa_jack.htm "Papa Jack" George Vetiala Laine, National Park Service],</ref>

Due to the diverse background of many of his band's members, a broad range of ideas developed and fused, leading to the early beginnings of jazz music.<ref name="NPS" />

Even after [[segregation laws]] started demanding "whites" and "colored" be kept separate, Laine continued to hire light- and medium light-skinned [[African-American]] musicians, claiming that they were "Cuban" or "Mexican" if any segregationist tried to start trouble. Therefore, his band attracted a large and diverse group of people such as Mexican clarinetist [[Lorenzo Tio|Lorenzo Tio, Sr.]], a pioneer of the jazz solo. Laine believed music brought people together.<ref name="NPS" />

Laine retired from the music booking business by 1920, but he was interviewed a number of times, providing first-hand accounts of the early days of the development of [[Dixieland|New Orleans jazz]].

On January 1, 1951, Laine was made an Honorary Life Member and given the title of "Father of White Jazz" by the New Orleans Jazz Club.

== List of musicians hired by Laine to play in his bands  ==
{{commons category|Papa Jack Laine}}
Laine hired well over 100 musicians to play in his bands, including the following:

{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
* [[Chink Martin Abraham]]
* [[Achille Baquet]]
* [[Abbie Brunies]]
* [[George Brunies]]
* [[Merritt Brunies]]
* [[Emile Christian]]
* [[Frank Christian (trumpeter)|Frank Christian]]
* [[Eddie Edwards (musician)|Eddie Edwards]]
* [[Nick LaRocca]]
* [[Gussie Mueller]]
* [[Alcide Nunez]]
* [[Alphonse Picou]]
* [[Larry Shields]]
* [[Henry Ragas]]
* [[Tony Sbarbaro]]
* Ragbaby Stephens}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Laine, Papajack}}
[[Category:American jazz bandleaders]]
[[Category:American jazz drummers]]
[[Category:1873 births]]
[[Category:1966 deaths]]
[[Category:Jazz musicians from New Orleans]]
[[Category:American people of French descent]]
[[Category:American people of Italian descent]]
[[Category:20th-century American drummers]]
[[Category:American male drummers]]
[[Category:20th-century American male musicians]]
[[Category:American male jazz musicians]]
[[Category:Drummers from New Orleans]]