Wilbur De Paris born 11 January 1900

Wilbur de Paris (January 11, 1900 – January 3, 1973) was a trombone player and band leader known for mixing Dixieland jazz with swing. 

Wilbur de Paris was born January 11, 1900, in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where his father, Sidney G. Paris, who came from West Virginia and who was a musician, a circus barker, a ventriloquist, a minstrel, etc., had met and married his mother, Fannie Hyatt. By the autumn of 1906, when he was five, de Paris had started playing alto saxophone, and a year later was working for his father in one of his plantation shows. 

These shows were small travelling theatrical-musical groups of singers, dancers, actors, comedians, and musicians who mainly worked for Theatre Owners and Bookers Association in the South. They performed in small tents and theatres with a mixture of drama, musical and comedy sketches, magic, etc., which would later be incorporated into vaudeville. After high school, de Paris worked for his father for a time, then worked for more travelling shows in the east, then started playing in Philadelphia in the early 1920s. 

De Paris heard jazz first at age 16, as a member of a summer show that played at the Lyric Theatre. He also met Louis Armstrong in 1922 whilst playing the C melody saxophone at Tom Anderson's Cafe, and with Armand J. Piron. His first band was Wilbur de Paris and his Cotton Pickers. During this time he permanently switched from saxophone to trombone. He worked with the Original Blue Rhythm Band, made his recording debut in 1928 with Leroy Smith and in 1929 was on a session apiece with Clarence Williams and Edith Wilson. 

After the Wall Street Crash in 1929 he disbanded his second group and went to New York where he performed and/or recorded with the violinist LeRoy Smith (1928), Jelly Roll Morton, (1930) Dave Nelson (1931) Noble Sissle (with whom he toured Europe 1931), and Edgar Hayes. After touring Europe with Teddy Hill’s Orchestra (1936-7) and recording with the Mills Blue Rhythm Band (1937) he played again with Armstrong (1937-40), led his own group from 1943, recording with his brother Sidney as the De Paris Brothers for Commodore Records, producing four songs. Wilbur then worked with Duke Ellington (1945-7). 

                                   

After Wilbur De Paris left Ellington, he and brother Sidney finally started to play together on a regular basis. At first they were co-leaders of a combo but, since Wilbur had devised the main concept and was the harder worker, he was soon considered its leader while Sidney was featured as the star soloist. It took a little time for their group to solidify and get regular work so there were a few departures. Wilbur performed often with Bechet during 1949-50 while Sidney led another Blue Note record date in 1951 and recorded with Bechet that year (without Wilbur). Wilbur also played with Ella Fitzgerald and Roy Eldridge’s big band. 

l-r: Sidney Bechet, Mezz Mezzrow,
Jack Butler, Wilber De Paris

But after they became the house band at Jimmy Ryan’s in 1951, a gig that lasted for 11 years, what became known as Wilbur De Paris’ New New Orleans Jazz Band was a reality. It’s members included and the famed ex-Jelly Roll Morton clarinetist Omer Simeon. Other band members included drummers Zutty Singleton & Freddie Moore. The banjo chair was filled first by Eddie Gibbs and later by Lee Blair also of Morton fame. Don Kirkpatrick was the band's most consistent piano player. 

Wilbur and the band at Jimmy Ryans 1958

The group had a varied repertory that included traditional jazz standards, light classics, hymns, folksongs, spirituals, blues and marches. Its style evoked Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers and at the same time had some of the rhythmic and harmonic characteristics of swing. Throughout the 1950s, the group recorded consistently exciting sets for Atlantic (all of which are unfortunately long out of print). 

Along with the DeParis-DeParis-Simeon frontline, the group also included pianist Sonny White, banjoist Lee Blair, Hayes Alvis, Benny Moten, Wendell Marshall or Leonard Gaskin on bass, Wilbert Kirk on drums, and, starting in 1955, trumpeter Doc Cheatham. Sponsored by the U.S. State Department, de Paris toured Africa in 1957 as part of the President's International Program for Cultural Relations. Wilbur De Paris continued leading bands up until his death on 3 January 1973, in the Beekman Downtown Hospital, New York. He was survived by two sons and two daughters. 

(Edited from New Grove Dictionary Of Jazz, Syncopated Times & Wikipedia)