Nick LaRocca.

Dominic James "Nick" La Rocca (New Orleans, Louisiana April 11, 1889 - New Orleans February 22, 1961) was an early jazz trumpeter and the leader of the Original Dixieland Jass Band. According to La Rocca himself, he was "The Creator of Jazz", "The Christopher Columbus of Music", and "The most lied about person in history since Jesus Christ". Nick LaRocca from 1917 Newspaper photo This image is in the public domain in the United States and possibly other jurisdictions. ... City nickname: The Crescent City, The Big Easy, The City that Care Forgot Location of New Orleans Country   State     Parish United States   Louisiana     Orleans Parish Mayor C. Ray Nagin Area   â€“Land   â€“Water 350. ... April 11 is the 101st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (102nd in leap years). ... 1889 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... New Orleans is the largest city in the state of Louisiana, United States of America. ... February 22 is the 53rd day of every year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1961 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jazz is a musical art form characterized by blue notes, syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms, and improvisation. ... Trumpeter performing with the United States Air Forces in Europe Band The trumpet is the highest brass instrument in register, above the tuba, euphonium, trombone, sousaphone, and french horn. ... Shown are (left to right) Tony Sbarbaro (aka Tony Spargo) on drums; Edwin Daddy Edwards on trombone; D. James Nick LaRocca on cornet; Larry Shields on clarinet, and Henry Ragas on piano. ... Christopher Columbus (conjectural image) For information about the film director, see the article on Chris Columbus. ... This 11th-century portrait is one of many images of Jesus in which a halo with a cross is used. ...

La Rocca was the son of poor Italian-American immigrants. Young Nick was attracted to the music of the brass bands in New Orleans and covertly taught himself to play cornet against the wishes of his father who hoped his son would go into a more prestigious profession. La Rocca at first worked as an electrician, playing music on the side. An Italian American is an American of Italian descent either born in America or someone who has immigrated. ... The cornet is a brass instrument that closely resembles the trumpet. ...

From around 1910 through 1916 he was a regular member of Papa Jack Laine's bands. While not considered as one of the most virtuosic or creative of the Laine players, he was well regarded for playing a solid lead with a strong lip which allowed him to play long parades without let up or to play several gigs in a row on the same day. 1910 in topic: Arts Architecture- Art- Film- Literature- Music- Television Science and technology Aviation- Rail transport- Radio- Science Other topics Australia- Canada- Ireland- South Africa- Sport Births- Deaths Lists of leaders: State leaders - Religious leaders 1910 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1916 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January-February January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. ... George Vital Laine aka Papa Jack (September 21, 1873 - June 1, 1966) was the most busy and perhaps the most important band leader in New Orleans in the years from the Spanish-American War to World War I. Laine in 1906 Many of the New Orleans musicians who first spread...

In 1916 he was chosen as a last-minute replacement for Frank Christian in Johnny Stein's band to play a job up in Chicago, Illinois. This band became the famous Original Dixieland Jass Band, making the first commercially issued jazz recordings in New York City in 1917. These recordings were hits and made the band into celebrities. 1916 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January-February January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. ... Frank Joseph Christian (September 3, 1887 - November 27, 1973) was an early jazz trumpeter. ... Chicago, colloquially known as the Second City and the Windy City, is the third-largest city in population in the United States and the largest inland city in the country. ... Shown are (left to right) Tony Sbarbaro (aka Tony Spargo) on drums; Edwin Daddy Edwards on trombone; D. James Nick LaRocca on cornet; Larry Shields on clarinet, and Henry Ragas on piano. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the United States, and is at the center of international finance, politics, entertainment, and culture. ... 1917 was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ...

Soon other New Orleans musicians began following the O.D.J.B.'s path, arriving in New York to play jazz. La Rocca was uneasy about competition. Frank Christian recalled that La Rocca offered him $200 and a return railway ticket to go back home. After a band featuring New Orleans musicians Alcide Nunez, Tom Brown, and Ragbaby Stevens won a battle of the bands against the O.D.J.B., drummer Ragbaby found his drum heads all mysteriously slashed. Frank Joseph Christian (September 3, 1887 - November 27, 1973) was an early jazz trumpeter. ... Alcide Nunez (March 17, 1884 - September 2, 1934) was an early jazz clarinetist. ... Tom Brown, sometimes known by the nickname Red Brown (June 3, 1888 - March 25, 1958), was an early New Orleans jazz trombonist. ... Joe Stevens, generally known as Ragbaby or Rag Baby Stevens, (January, 1887 - 1927) was an early New Orleans ragtime and jazz drummer. ...

The band gave La Rocca the nickname "Joe Blade", and published a song called "Joe Blade, Sharp as a Tack".

La Rocca led this band on tours of England and the United States into the early 1920s, when he suffered a nervous breakdown, and returned to New Orleans and retired from music, going into the construction and contracting business. Royal motto: Dieu et mon droit (French: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area  - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population  - Total (2001)  - Density Ranked 1st UK 49,138,831 377/km² Ethnicity... Sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or primarily in North America as the Roaring Twenties. // Events and trends Technology John T. Thompson invents Thompson submachine gun, also known as Tommy gun John Logie Baird invents the first working mechanical television system (1925) Charles Lindbergh becomes the first person to...

In 1936 he reunited the O.D.J.B. for a successful tour and more recordings. La Rocca proclaimed that he and his band were the inventors of the now nationally popular Swing music. Personality conflicts broke up the band again the following year, and La Rocca again retired from music. 1936 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

In the 1950s he started writing numerous vehement letters to newspapers, radio, and television shows, stating that he was the true and sole inventor of jazz music, and that those who claimed that the music had Negro origins were part of a Communist conspiracy. // Events and trends The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the height of the baby-boom from returning... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a popular movement. ...

When Tulane University established their Archive of New Orleans Jazz in 1958, La Rocca donated his large collection of papers related to the O.D.J.B. to Tulane, after adding numerous glosses in the margins, often very insulting to his fellow musicians, and occasionally modifying documents to make them more in line with his own version of history. Tulane University Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian university located in New Orleans, Louisiana. ... 1958 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

At the same time, he worked with writer H.O. Brunn on the book The Story of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (sometimes sarcastically nicknamed by jazz historians as "The Gospel according to Nick La Rocca"). While Brunn toned down some of La Rocca's most extreme rhetoric, the book still presents a curious tale of La Rocca growing up in a New Orleans apparently devoid of African Americans where he founded the Original Dixieland Jass Band in 1908 (8 years before anyone else recalls it existing). The book is dismissive even of the other members of the O.D.J.B.; it is perhaps kindest to clarinetist Larry Shields who was already dead at the time, but still it claims that Shields, unlike La Rocca, was not an essential member of the band. 1908 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Lawrence J. Larry Shields (September 13, 1893 - November 21, 1953) was an early jazz clarinetist. ...

Those trying to assess La Rocca's contributions to jazz are sometimes perhaps as much hindered as helped by La Rocca's own statements. A small few (mostly in England) have taken La Rocca on his word, while a much larger segment of jazz historians have simply dismissed him out of hand. La Rocca may have inadvertently done much damage to his own reputation, especially in some of his statements which are unusually racist even when compared to interviews with other white southerners born in the late 19th century, and his dismissal if not outright insults of his fellow white musicians. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...

If few of his contemporaries had anything kind to say about La Rocca, it should be remembered that they were very aware of how he had little kind to say about them. La Rocca's statements in his later life were made when he was not completely well. A balanced assessment may be to regard LaRocca as an important figure in taking jazz from a regional style to international popularity, the leader of the most influential jazz band of the period from 1917 to 1921, a good player in a very early jazz style on records such as "Clarinet Marmalade", and unfortunately his own worst enemy with his bragging in his old age. La Rocca's playing and recordings were an important early influence on such later jazz trumpeters as Red Nichols, Bix Beiderbecke and Phil Napoleon. Ernest Loring Red Nichols (May 8, 1905–June 28, 1965) was a United States jazz cornettist. ... Bix Beiderbecke (March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was a notable jazz cornet player. ...