Freddie Keppard (1889 - 1933)
Freddie "King" Keppard was an important musican who
succended Buddy Bolden as "king" of the cornet
players in New Orleans. He started playing around
1906, leading the Olympia Orchestra and playing in
marching bands, funerals, and Storyville clubs. He also
played with the Eagle Band. In 1912 bass player Bill
Johnson asked him to round up a group of musicians
and come to Los Angeles with the promise of work.
This band became know as the Original Creole
Orchestra and from 1912 to 1918 it toured the country
in vaudeville shows, and giving northern audiences
their first taste of authetic New Orleans Jazz. Like so
many New Orleans musicians, he settled in Chicago in
the early 1920's. He worked with several bands in the
city including, Doc Cook's Dreamland Orchestra,
Erskine Tate, Ollie Powers and with Charles Elgar
Creole Orchestra at the Savoy Ballroom. By the time Jazz became widely recorded
Freddie's better days were behind him, but his wild and ragged style is well
represented by the song Stock Yard Strut that he recorded with his Jazz Cardinals in
1926. Keppard was an alcoholic, and became an unreliable band member. He
continued to work up until 1928, when he came down with tuberculosis. He suffered
with the disease until it took his life in 1933.
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