Dippermouth Blues
Joe King Oliver
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Browse piano sheets by Joe King Oliver on Zen Virtual Piano. King Oliver began on the trombone before switching to cornet, which he played from 1908 to 1917 in New Orleans brass bands, in dance bands and in Storyville, the red-light district. He stayed on at the Dreamland, where in January 1920 he formed a band with Johnny Dodds, Honoré Dutrey and Lil Hardin, the nucleus of his famous Creole Jazz Band. A switch from trombone to cornet and a decade in New Orleans bands lay behind the band that later carried his name. Oliver was keenly interested in changing his horn's sound and pioneered mutes, among them the rubber plumber's plunger, the derby hat, bottles and cups. In New Orleans Oliver mentored Armstrong, teaching the young Louis and handing him his job in Kid Ory's band when he left for Chicago; a few years later he summoned Louis to Chicago to play in his band. A cornetist who experimented with mutes may have done more to shape a sound than any one recording can show, and the same inventiveness seems to run through how he taught. Dippermouth Blues is most often credited to Oliver, though some have argued that Armstrong was in fact the composer. One of the most frequently imitated solos of his generation was Oliver's plunger-mute solo on first cornet, which he pre-composed; he played the same solo on the second recording, made two weeks later for Okeh. A solo that he composed in advance and played the same way on a second recording suggests that its imitators were copying something fixed. Oliver's business sense could not equal his musical skill: a succession of managers stole money from him, and he lost his life savings to a collapsed bank in Chicago. He struggled to keep his band together through hand-to-mouth gigs until the group broke up, and he ended up stranded in Savannah, Georgia, where he pawned his trumpet and finest suits. Armstrong claimed that if it had not been for Joe Oliver, jazz would not be what it is today, and in 2007 Oliver was inducted as a charter member of the Gennett Records Walk of Fame in Richmond, Indiana. A later life of money troubles beside praise from his own pupil leaves the story with a gap between how he was valued and how he was paid.
Browse piano sheets by Joe King Oliver on Zen Virtual Piano.
King Oliver began on the trombone before switching to cornet, which he played from 1908 to 1917 in New Orleans brass bands, in dance bands and in Storyville, the red-light district. He stayed on at the Dreamland, where in January 1920 he formed a band with Johnny Dodds, Honoré Dutrey and Lil Hardin, the nucleus of his famous Creole Jazz Band. A switch from trombone to cornet and a decade in New Orleans bands lay behind the band that later carried his name.
Oliver was keenly interested in changing his horn's sound and pioneered mutes, among them the rubber plumber's plunger, the derby hat, bottles and cups. In New Orleans Oliver mentored Armstrong, teaching the young Louis and handing him his job in Kid Ory's band when he left for Chicago; a few years later he summoned Louis to Chicago to play in his band. A cornetist who experimented with mutes may have done more to shape a sound than any one recording can show, and the same inventiveness seems to run through how he taught.
Dippermouth Blues is most often credited to Oliver, though some have argued that Armstrong was in fact the composer. One of the most frequently imitated solos of his generation was Oliver's plunger-mute solo on first cornet, which he pre-composed; he played the same solo on the second recording, made two weeks later for Okeh. A solo that he composed in advance and played the same way on a second recording suggests that its imitators were copying something fixed.
Oliver's business sense could not equal his musical skill: a succession of managers stole money from him, and he lost his life savings to a collapsed bank in Chicago. He struggled to keep his band together through hand-to-mouth gigs until the group broke up, and he ended up stranded in Savannah, Georgia, where he pawned his trumpet and finest suits. Armstrong claimed that if it had not been for Joe Oliver, jazz would not be what it is today, and in 2007 Oliver was inducted as a charter member of the Gennett Records Walk of Fame in Richmond, Indiana. A later life of money troubles beside praise from his own pupil leaves the story with a gap between how he was valued and how he was paid.
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Joe King Oliver
Common questions
Joe "King" Oliver was a cornetist and bandleader who played in New Orleans brass bands from 1908 to 1917 and formed his band at the Dreamland in January 1920.
It is a piece most often credited to Oliver, though some argue Louis Armstrong was the composer; it follows a twelve-bar blues progression.
He pioneered the use of mutes, including the rubber plumber's plunger, the derby hat, bottles and cups.
He was Armstrong's mentor and teacher, gave him his job in Kid Ory's band and later summoned him to Chicago to play in his band.