Saturday 27 May 2023

Albert Nicholas born 27 May 1900

Albert Nicholas (May 27, 1900 – September 3, 1973) was an American jazz clarinetist and saxophonist. 

A superb clarinetist with an attractive mellow tone, Albert Nicholas had a long and diverse career but his playing was always consistently rewarding. He studied with Lorenzo Tio, Jr. in his hometown of New Orleans, and late in the 1910’s he played with cornet legends Buddy Petit, King Oliver, and Manuel Perez while in his teens. It was in his late teens that he learned to play alto sax and led his own band at Tom Anderson’s Annex in 1922. After three years in the Merchant Marines, he joined King Oliver in Chicago for much of 1925-1927, recording with Oliver's Dixie Syncopators. 

He spent a year in the Far East and Egypt, arriving in New York in 1928 to join Luis Russell for five years. Nicholas, who had recorded in several settings in the 1920s, sounded perfectly at home with Russell, taking his solos alongside Red Allen, J.C. Higginbottham, and Charlie Holmes. He also played with Chick Webb and would later re-join Russell when the pianist had the backup orchestra for Louis Armstrong a few years later. Nicholas also worked with Jelly Roll Morton in 1939 (he had recorded with Morton previously in 1929). 

Things slowed down for a time in the early '40s, He played in a series of bands until 1941 when he took a job as a guard on the New York Subway, but the New Orleans revival got him working again in the mid-'40s with Art Hodes, Bunk Johnson, and Kid Ory. Nicholas recorded and performed widely during the New Orleans revival of the 1940s and 50s, including documenting a number of Creole songs (such as Salée Dame and Mo Pas Lemmé Ça) for the Circle label in 1947. 


                             

By 1948, the clarinetist was playing regularly with Ralph Sutton's trio at Jimmy Ryan's. In 1953, Nicholas followed Sidney Bechet's example and moved to France where he happily remained until his move to Switzerland in 1970. Aside from two brief visits to the United states in 1959 and 1960, he spent the rest of his career in Europe, playing concerts and touring twice a year with the Dutch Swing College Band. 

Nicholas must be considered one of the outstanding clarinetists in the New Orleans tradition, and the recordings from the last two decades of his life show a sensitivity to the changes that had taken place in jazz. His style was influenced by the blues and he frequently made use of the rich, lower register of his instrument and, in the higher register, dirty “whiskey-toned” inflections. 

Nicholas died on 3 September 1973 in a hospital at Basel, Switzerland, after failing to recover from a recent operation. He was 73. 

(Edited from AllMusic, Music Rising at Tulane, New Grove Dictionary Of Jazz & Wikipedia)

 

3 comments:

boppinbob said...

For”Albert Nicholas – New Orleans Clarinet (2006 ASV Living Era)” go here:

https://www.imagenetz.de/b5m9w


1 Richard Jones And His Three Jazz Wizards– New Orleans Shags 3:16
2 Richard Jones And His Three Jazz Wizards– Spanish Shawl 3:22
3 King Oliver & His Dixie Syncopators– Sugar Foot Stomp 2:52
4 Luis Russell And His Orchestra– Saratoga Shout 3:27
5 Jelly Roll Morton & His Red Hot Peppers– Strokin' Away 2:54
6 Jelly Roll Morton & His Red Hot Peppers– Blue Blood Blues 3:02
7 Freddie Jenkins & His Harlem Seven– Nothin' But Rhythm 2:52
8 Bernard Addison & His Rhythm– Toledo Shuffle 2:43
9 The Little Ramblers– Tap-Room Special (Panama) 2:33
10 Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra– I've Got A Heart Full Of Rhythm 3:02
11 Jelly Roll Morton & His New Orleans Jazzmen– Ballin' The Jack 2:11
12 Baby Dodds & His Jazz Four– Careless Love 2:27
13 Baby Dodds & His Trio– Buddy Bolden's Blues 3:11
14 Baby Dodds & His Trio– Albert's Blues 3:13
15 The Bechet-Nicholas Blue Five– Blame It On The Blues (Quincy Street Stomp) 2:54
16 The Bechet-Nicholas Blue Five– Old Stack O' Lee Blues 4:12
17 The Bechet-Nicholas Blue Five– Weary Way Blues 3:09
18 Nick & His Creole Serenaders– Mo Pas Lemmé Ça 2:45
19 Nick & His Creole Serenaders– Bechet's Creole Blues 3:09
20 Nick & His Creole Serenaders– Les Oignons (The Onions) 3:04
21 Rex Stewart & His Dixielander– Basin Street Blues 5:36
22 Albert Nicholas With Adrian Bentzon & His Jazzband– Rose Room 2:33
23 Albert Nicholas & The Dutch Swing College Band– Black And Blue 4:02
24 Albert Nicholas & The Dutch Swing College Band– I Found A New Baby 2:59

There aren't too many Albert Nicholas collections on the market, and most of those are sets from his 20-year expatriate stay in Europe at the end of his career, so it's not too hard to make New Orleans Clarinet the first choice as an introduction to this smooth, elegant, and versatile horn man. Covering nearly 30 years of recordings from 1925 to 1954, this fine compilation features Nicholas' work with some of the giants of jazz. Possibly because he never really embraced bop and stuck close to his traditional jazz and Dixieland roots through the years, Nicholas is somewhat of a forgotten man these days, but a listen to this solid set may well change all that. (AllMusic review)

This playlist has been reconstructed using mp3’s from various digital download albums.

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For”Albert Nicholas - As It Is When It Was (2020 Nagel Heyer Records)” go here:

https://www.imagenetz.de/a6cqE

1. I'm Coming Virginia
2. Song of the Wanderer
3. Tin Roof Blues
4. Anah's Blues
5. Lulu's Back in Town
6. Basin Street Blues
7. Etta
8. Room Rent Blues
9. Royal Garden Blues
10. Lover Come Back to Me
11. Careless Love
12. Ostrich Walk
13. Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me
14. Winin' Boy Blues
15. Digga Digga Do
16. Ain't Misbehavin'
17. Rose Room II
18. I'm Coming Virginia II
19. Dippermouth Blues
20. Rose Room III
21. The Dancing Girls Come Out
22. Winin' Boy Blues II

Please Note - I’ve removed three tracks from this digital album as they are already on the CD above.

brian said...

repost of the first---

boppinbob said...

Hello Brian, Here's the new link for New Orleans Clarinet ....

https://www.imagenetz.de/jYtfd