The Autobiography of Pops Foster: New Orleans Jazz Man

The Autobiography of Pops Foster: New Orleans Jazzman by Pops Foster/Tom Stoddard

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An- uther important aspect of this concept in left-hand technique is its relation to the "attack and decay" pattern. The securely depressed string produces everything mentioned above plus a long decay time. Pops Foster was one of the few contemporaries who were into this aspect of bass technique, and it should be clear that the afore- mentioned results ot his technique not only made Pops indispensable, but helped the double bass push aside the tuba as the preferred bass instrument in jazz.

Gunther Schuller 1 - is the first to discuss the attack and decay characteristics of the pizzicato bass in print, but he onlv mentions the right hand, which is not nearly as important. Schuller articulates the most musicianly dis- cussion of the superiority of the double bass of the tuba I have ever read, 1.

This book is hardly the place for a rehash of that tired old ar- gument; besides time has given us the answer. There is no question that this aspect o Foster's left-hand tech- nique had a great deal to do with one of the most significant compo- nents ot his style — his powerful sound. Wellman Braud, and Rill Johnson] is probably Pops foster, for the extraorclinarv power of his plaving.

H Scores ol others wrote and spoke about Popss drive and power that inspired so many soloists and bands. There was also his extraordinary innate sense of time. Liirlv jazz New fork: Ifius there arc in realttv three differ- ent timbres in contrast to the usual one "big sound" pizzicato and the occasional bowed solo I. Slapping is the least lamiliar ol these tech- niques and is executed in two dillereni ways: Its subsequent release causes the string to hit the fingerboard and produce the forceful slap or snap!

It is important to note thai "slapping" was considered a "hot" sound, like gnmling through a trumpet or trombone, which af- fected a Umbra! Slapping was an integral part of Pops's playing throughout his life In the s and s he slapped less, but we will never know if this was a bow to the ever-changing aesthetic or purch a physical situation. Tom Parent i, who first met Pops in 19 IS. It seems like I've been switching like hat all my life-" 1 " I le Irequcntly began a piece arco and then changed to pizzicato, thus adding to the rhythmic crescendo that has traditionally been an important element in jazz.

Pops used what resembles the French grip" and utilized both Trench and German bows. The bow moved from the arm anil not the u risl as is traditionally taught I. Letter frum Hadlnck lb. Letter jmm Tony F'uivnIi to Tiiretrby. July I I, I97Q. Technically he was the equal of any recorded jazz bassist before Jimmy Blanton. If the notes you play add to the Feeling of swinging together with the rest of the group, then they're pmbably the right ones. Regarding Blunfon, Pops said. They could both play a whole lot of melody hut had trouble keeping a rhythm foundation.

Raglan d was a guitar player and Bkmton a cello player before they switched to bass, Riant on played string bass like he played the cello'' '-p. This is one of the two moments of braggadocio to be jound in the autobiography. Letter from Bill Crow to Turetzfcy. Many writers have advanced what Rudi Blesh calls "the base ca- nard that New Orleans jazz is a hippety-hop "two-heat" music. In fact, after the s. Pops often did more than simply "run changes" On some such occasions, his bass countermelodies would be projected pizzicato, but frequently — especially in the blues— they would be arco.

One good recorded example is to he Found in the bowed countermelodies he extemporized with Dan Burley's harrel- house piano on the Old Circle "skiffle" record, "Dusty Bottom. Il is as pure as any Baroque duo — purer, I should say. I'm sure, would have loved it Ldgard Varese did. This caused another hit ol braggadocio as Pops responded, "I know Braud couldn't pick as fast as I could, and I never knew anyone else who could. What we most definitely know is that he was one ot the mosl inspired and inspiring, steady, now - erful.

In the l l J20s many New Orleans bassists played a two-beat style. Stomping sound dominated many rhythm sections, especially that Page ' lo walk on through. Pops came through, and it can be said without fear of contradiction that Pops fostered the bass- dominated rhythm section in the 1 s. Musicologists have traditionally evaluated performers through doc- umented reports of their prowess I mm contemporary sources, in is time-honored approach will be followed here. Pops had a year plac- ing career; il must be decided when he hit his peak. Many musician- fell that Pops was in peak performance from on.

I low to settle this with scholar! I decided to discuss Pops at peat: Recordings were of some assistance, but. I personally felt that tl i critique of colleagues would help illuminate mam things that are not clear on the recordings, espeualk lor those readers who are not lor- tunatc enough to have heard Pops Foster "rompin' the big fiddle.

His only peers were We 1 1 man Brand, bis con- temporary, and the much older Bill Johnson. His heat was an inspi- ration. What else can I say? Don Morgenstern, July I always en- joyed him and was amazed when I heard him play.. Obviously he had not read Harriet Beeeher St owe. July f0, Pups was one of the few greats on any instrument one encounters in a musical I il clime.

There was a primitive quality to this sound which appealed to me. Iik-nnic m this insirument. This is not to put them down, hut without him. He just laid out the high- way trials all Sttdj lilesli. L Chapter 1 On the Plantation 'This book is gonna straighten a lot of things out. I'd do just I he same thing I did. But I'd want it like it was when I was a young man around New Orleans. Musicians had fun ihen and never had am Jim Crow [racial segregation].

Sometimes in my life I ve had it good and some- times bad. So it gets rough. Some of the books are fouled up on it, and some ol the guys weren't telling the truth. One of them says Louis Armstrong played the District. Louis played Saturday nights at Buddy Bartletts look and didn't have no regular job.

The critics and guys who write about jazz think they know more about what went on in New Orleans than the guys that were there. We had a whole lot of trumpet plavcrs around New Orleans besides Oliver and Armstrong. Tins book is gonna straighten a lot of things out. I he guys that teach music, thev're another hunch; they don't know about it. Any of them that sec you playing a string bass want to show you how to hold the bow or tell you you aren't lingering right.

The teachers always want to tell you to finger the strings with the tip 2 The Autobiography of Pops Foster ends of vour fingers. You can't finger for tin-can music like lhat — it's loo delicate. You've got to grip those babies to get a tone.

All your tone is in the left hand, If you just half muffle the string you don't get no lone; it's like playing with a mute on a horn. It's the same way with the bow. No guy can teach you how to hold it. You've got to pick it up the way that's most comfortable lor ynu and it's gonna stay that way. All the guys I've taught, I loid to hold the bow the way it s comfortable and go on and play. Siune of those critics and dicly [high-falutin'l teachers should see the first bass I had. My brother Willie did most of the work to make it. I le put a two-by-four through the hollow ot a lour barrel and nailed it on.

Down on the two-by-four we pounded some nails in to tie the strings to. We couldn't afford regular strings so we used twine. It had three strings Wed twist three pieces of twine together for the lowest, then two. For two or three days we'd rub the twine with wax and rosin before we'd put them on the bass. I he first bow was a bent stick with sewing machine thread tied on it. After a while we got a regular bow uithoul any hair in it. For hair we caught a neighbor's horse and cut the hair off his tail, but it didn't work, and we went back to sewing machine thread.

I got awfully sick ol sawing on it. We just played it around the house. My older brother Willie was the first one to take Up music in the fam- ily, tie learned how to play the homemade bass, and then our uncle VVyall on my father's side hired him to play cello in his little band. Uncle Wvatt was what we called a hanifal violin player — he wasn't so good and he wasn't so bad. Uncle Wyatt would gel jobs playing dances around the McCall Plantation from eight at night until four in the morning, and Willie would play for him.

Hack in those days the band owned the instruments. If the whole band 1 On the Plantation 3 broke up, whoever ended up with all the instruments could sell them. One day Uncle Wyait gave Willie a mandolin to play and 1 got the homemade bass. I've been playing ever since. The earliest I can re- member playing, I was seven years old. After a while I started play- ing in Uncle Wyalt's band too. Even alter that we didn't have real strings and had to use twine rubbed with wax and rosin.

Willie is the one who taught me to play the bass. Willie first learned cello bass, and [hen he was so Fast he learned violin and mandolin too. Later on he picked up banjo, guitar, and all the other stringed instruments. Started getting jobs for our little trio playing lawn parties and birthdays in the afternoons and evenings. It seems like we played a birthday every Sundav. I was so small at the time I had to stand on a box to reach die neck of the cello.

My brother and sister were both belter reading musicians than me, but 1 could play better and couldn't read so good. My daddy saw that we bad a good thing started, so he got Willie and me to start our own hand to put on dances. We called the band the Fosters, None of the Held hands around McCall Plantation played anything, but there were a few guys around who played.

In our little band we hired a guy named Louie Budour to play valve trombone, and a guitar player.

Willie played the mandolin and I played cello or bass. Elizabeth didn't play night jobs with us. Our first guitar player was a guy named Frank who came from around Fort Barrow, Louisiana. I ie worked on a dredge in the Mississippi River and be was a sleepwalker. One nijjht he walked oft' the barge and they never found him. Our next guitar player was June Skinner, who worked around the planta- tion. Me played mandolin too. My daddy would throw the dances on Saturday night.

He'd rent an empty bouse. It would cost 1 5 cents to get in. Any- where from I 5 to 20 people would come to them. We'd play quadrilles, polkas, rags, and lancers [sets of quadrilles]. Our little hand was very good, and we started taking Uncle Wyatt's jobs away from him. Uncle 4 The Autobiography of Pops. He car- ried on about how it wasn't good lor ns kids. Later on i tried to gel ii hack, hut he wouldn't sell it. I played the cello in my brother's hand lor a while before I sold it. I le worked lor I he Met 'alls as the huller and spoke Trench, l: The McCalls usually cooked too much food, and he'd bring home the Winners to us or we'd go get them, I always said I'd kill my daddy.

I stole his pistol onec, and it it wasn t lor the coachman. I'd ve killed him then. The coachman saw me and told my mama, and she took the gun away. I told my daddy. Once in a while we'd whitewash the walls inside and the On I'tn- i J i;i stnti n 5 outside was just hoards. There was a big fireplace, a really big one.

That's where you did all your conking and got all your heat. It snowed at McCall in the winter, and at night we'd put a great big log in the fireplace to burn all night. There were two huge rooms in the house. Most of the cooking was done in our room where wc had two big beds. Mama had a stove, but must people didn't — thev had big pots with legs on them, You baked your bread in a round oven with legs on it. My brother and sister slept in one bed in the big room.

She slept in my bed. The reason I slept alone was 1 was always fighting. I'd even hide rocks in my bed so I could throw them at my brother and sister after we went to bed. When my daddy would slay out all night- he didn't hardly stay home at all — -my sis- ter slept with my mother. In the yard outside the house we kepi chickens and washed clothes. Back then you washed clothes in a big iron boiler that had a fire under it. You made vour soap from ashes from the fireplace and lye. It was the strongest soap you ever wanna see. Out in the yard we kept chickens. Oft my mother's side everybody was musical.

My grandmothers name was Charlotte Williams, ifer people were all from around Donaldsonville, Louisiana. There were a tot of Indians around there. My cousin C lair- borne Williams had a hand around Donaldsonville and Plaquemine. Everybody in it was named Williams or related to them, and it was called the Williams Band. Lucy Williams played piano. Clair- borne's youngest son played clarinet, his son-in-law played drums — he was the onh one not named Williams.

Clairbornc p laved trumpet and clarinet, and his brother Michael played bass. They played mostly rag- time music. It's through my mother I'm related to that horse thief Clarence Williams, but I found out about that way late. Annie Foster, was years old when she died in Her mother lived to be over a hundred and had 21 children; Mama was the youngest. She spoke seven languages — French, Spanish. I remember Mama sewing up a lot of gingham dresses around the plantation. Gingham was the same as silk in the women in those days.

Years later on the road the guys used to say. Martin Luther King's funeral reminded me of l lie funerals on the plantation. I he family and close iriends would sit in chairs on the funeral wagon. Then they'd have more mules pulling sugarcane cans with ihe rest of the people riding on them.

New Orleans Jazzman

It was all very quiet with no music, music was sinful back then. I was born on Harry McCalfs plantation on May The ground around the plantation was black bottomland. Some of the people would eat the black mud. Ihey said they liked it; it's salty I here were three or four hundred shacks where the field hands lived about a mile from the house.

They all kept chickens, hogs, and cows, and the horses and mules were kept out there. The field hands didn't play am music, not even guitars and sing blues. Up around ion Barrow there were a lot of guvs w ho placed blues on yuilar. All of them were colored; you never saw a while man with a guitar or a mandolin. Around the plantation there were all kinds of trees. Around the big house there was a fence, and inside there were all kinds of fruit and nut trets.

One big tree we called a muskevdyne was like a big cherry tree, lliey had hitter-orange trees, big black fig trees, and pecan trees. Ls kids could ask to go through the gate and get the fruit if we wanted, but we'd climb the Fence and steal it. II we got caught, we got a good liekin'. All On the Plantation 7 around the house there was a honeysuckle rose vine that smcllcd so nice, and the bees would buzz around it all summer. Near the plantations there was a little one-horse town called Philadelphia Point where we'd play sometimes. Another place wed play was Smoke Bend near Fort Barrow. We played a lot of dances in the bouley where the Cajuns live.

Thai's like the hack- woods. Most of the Cajuns were half- breed people who were so mixed up you didn't know what they were. For the Cajuns we played mostly country or hillbilly music. It's a lot like Jewish music, f'hey liked their music very fast and they danced to it. Some of the numbers they liked were "Lizard on the Rail. First you'd play eight bars of a tunc, then stop. Then the announcer would get up and call, "Cel your partners," When everybody got their partners, he'd blow a whistle and he band would start play- ing again.

The announcer would call the figures like, "Ladies cross, gents right, promenade" and all that stuff. You'd play three fast numbers then take it down to a waltz, a slow blues, or a schottische. The Cajuns would dance till four in the morning and sometimes just go on all night. After we'd come home, we'd do our homework and prac- tice music. I just loved any- thing that had to do with a horse.

I guess that's why grandmother Foster bought me one. My daddy would try to loan the horse to a clerk at the store For whiskey He'd send Willie out to catch it and I'd hear them talking, I'd go out and start shooting rocks at her with my peashooter to make her run off. Willie would run to catch the horse and I'd run and shoot again. Sometimes they wouldn't catch the horse: Other times when they'd catch her, she'd be so tired she was no good: One time Willie caught her and I threw a cat on her and she threw Wiltie off and hurt him pretty bad.

When I surtcd playing. I was the youngest thing playing I or a long time. Now 1 can't find anyone who started when 1 did. He gol married and settled lor a year, then he sent down For Willie to come and work tor him. She got us out by telling him she was gonna take us to New Orleans to visit Willie.

Wc were gonna stay and he thought so too, so he wouldn't let Elisabeth go. When we left lor New Orleans we left with just w hal we had on. Then Mama got a job cooking for the Wilmans and me and Mama moved over there. I had the job of taking I lam Wilman to school and bringing him home so the other kids wouldn't beat up on him. The move to New Orleans required a journey of some 60 miles, sufficiently long al that time, actually a leap from the 19th century to the 20th.

I he feudal enclave of the McCall Plantation was replaced hy a comer of the most cosmopolitan city in America. Al the turn of the century, when Pops arrived, the population of New Orleans exceeded They came from a variety oj cultural and ethnic back- grounds — French. New Orleans was one oj I he great melting pots of music history. One heard snatches of melody plucked jrom the latest tango or French music hull, jrom a schottische or landler, from Tannhauser or II Trovatorc.

Melody was always in great demand; New Orleans musicians were not overly concerned will harmonic invention: The main thing was to tailor the material to ihe require- ments oj dancers, and. For a bov oj len with music in his Mood and something of a head start as a string pfaver.

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New Orleans was a most exciting city in which to five and grow up. In those davs the markets opened at three or four in the morning and stayed open till noon. They sold even thing you wanted to eat at the outdoor markets. A lot ol guys drove vegetable wagons around selling to peo- ple in their home 4 ' I In vegetable wagons weren't legal andlhev had to have fast horses to get away when the cops chased them. When that happened, you could get all the fruit and vegetables you wanted for free; it would My all over the street.

A lot of kids made money driv- ing the vegetable wagons. One guy got so big he had 12 wagons going. In the heart of town they bad a big dump, and if you lived near it you sure could smell the rotten garbage and stuff, Later on they started carrying I lie garbage out in the Gulf in big barges. We used to have backs ard toilets in those days, and colored guys used to come around and clean them out. You niuld smell those aggravat in' wagons lora long way, and the only thing that would kill the smell was lime " Tic guvs uho worked the aggra- vatin" wagons made more money than anv of the other colored, but most guvs couldn't lake it lor more than a week.

You could smell those guys coming — the srncllcd terrible. Those outdoor toilets caused some ol the biggest roaches you ever saw. The mosquitoes were ter- rible too. It was so bad in one place we played, named Howard's Canal, we had to wear nets over our heads. Very few streets had gravel, and only the ones like C an. It was a big amusement park. They had a pavilion where a brass hand plaved in the afternoon and people would dance.

I here were different kinds of things to do, like a merry -go-round, living horses, a roulette wheel. Then they'd have the hot-air balloon ride. Iheyd get a big lire going and ftll this big balloon up with smoke. Buddy Bottle would climb in the basket and go way up in the sky with it. The balloon would turn over then and come down. Some Unit - it didn't work right. They also had a woman who went up.

After the balloon ride, they had a stage show in the theater. John Rubicliauv's band would plav the show, which lasted from about 6: After the stage show, the people would come in and the brass hand would take over onstage to play a dance. It cost ] 5 cents to get in and 1 was lucky to have a nickel to take the streetcar home, so I had to sneak in.

Id hide behind a post, then get mixed up in the crowd and move on in. The cop in the place would catch me sneaking around every Sunday and chase me off. Kim ha 1 1 play the string hass- He said, "Why don't you learn to play itr" I said. Years later I was asked to show him how to play. We lived there a little while and moved to Adams Street. My mother and me got along real good; she was comical and had a funny name for everyone. My sister and 1 couldn't get along for one minute.

Us kids would spend the evening playing around a corner under the street light until one of the cops came along and chased us off. Then we'd go on home or run and little in the cemetery where we'd play hide and seek. My father, my uncte YVyatl.

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My lather used to come around to fuss and light with Mama. One time when he was there 1 got up behind him with a base- ball bat to hit him. Mv father told Mama I'd never he no good. Sometimes I used to go over to set- my grandmother and take some money over. I le'd be there. I'd tell him, "Vou ain't never been no good to us, and now I've got to take care of you.

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Hed say, "HI smash you. It made me mad. He finally got so sick we had to put him in the hospital. They called his sickness TB of the throat, but I think now it would he cancer of the throat. Papa finally died in 1 at about SO years old. Foster [ went to school al New Orleans University on St. Charles Street and Leontinc. It cost Mama a dollar a month tor hnth my sister and me.

I didn't do well in school be- cause f was too busy playing music. I used to steep all day in class so I could play at nighl. I hcv even loaned us to other schools like Lei and L nhersity to play their shows. I left school jusl when 1 was turnin' to go into the fifth grade — 1 got a job with the Mimson Peo- ple in Audubon Place and unit school.

I always lell kids to finish their schooling before taking up music professionally. I sure wish I had All the kids around New Orleans had a goat and a wagon to ride around in. Kids used to gel 50 cents to buy a sickle and a shovel. Then you'd go around gelling jobs cutting grass to make a little money. You could buy a goat in ihose days for about 5 cents, and I bought a gam: If I'd buy one for SO cents and a hall hour later someone would ofier me 75 cents, he'd have a goat. There was a guy at Oak and Carte-ton lhai made harnesses for the goats ihat cost you two dollars.

It took me a long time to gel ahold ol Iwo dollars. Alter 1 turned professional, I spent a lot ol lime at I ;ike Pontchartrain. Sunday was your big d. LikclrurU and Milneherg thered he. The clubs would all have a picnic and have their own hand or hire one. I he people would dance to the bands or listen to them.

The lood was mostly every tub: Mondays at the lakes was for the pimps, hustlers, whores, and musicians. We'd all go out there for picnics and lo rest up. At nighl Early Days in New Orleans 15 they had dances in the pavilions out on the piers. One night we were playing tit the lake and we had a clarinet player named Leb who ate so much fried fish he nearly choked to death. We had to lake him home, and he was sick lor a lung time.

He was from Breakaway. Louisiana, where Sam Morgan's from. Some people lived out at the lake all year long. The only time they had to he scared was in a storm. When ] went out at night around New Orleans it was mostlv to hear different hands play. I knew all the guys in the band and later on played with them.

Buddy played very good for the style of stuff he was doing. He played nothing but blues and all that stink music, and he played it very loud. Buddy got to drinking so bad they had to hire two trumpets, and Joe Howard played the other one. Joe played on the riverboats with us way late.

Jim Johnson the bass player was a very good friend of mine, and I used to hang out with him all the time. He was an older guy than me. Then he went with Jack Carey's Crescent Rand. Jim uorki-d on Hit. I le was touring Texas with Don Albert s's band when he got sick and died there. Brock Mumford was the guitar player. Brock had a barbershop at Cherokee and Ann Streets in the heart of what was called Mggertown.

Most of the guys in Bolden's band were barbers. Willie Warner was on clarinet and Frank Lewis played another one. Frank Keeley played valve trombone with the hand for a while, then Willie Cornish took over. Willie was a plasterer and bricklayer. None of the hand could read. Frankic Duscn never played with the band, hot he took it over and named it the Lagle Band after Buddy b lowed his top. Frankic was one of those cheeky guys.

There was another guy around named Buddy Bolden. The lawn parties were usually Monday or Wednesday night. If the guvs didn t have a job to play a lawn party, they'd put on their own and hire some- body s yard. Most of the lime you just hired a policeman you knew, then you didn't have lo take out no permit. To advertise, you'd gel a carriage with the horses all dressed up, a bunch of preth girls, and then the musicians would gel on, ant you'd go all over advertising for that night.

A quarter- keg cost you 80 cents and you got three or four, then packed them down with ice lo keep them cold, and sold it lor ten cents a glass. The wife usuallv did the cooking in l he morning. She'd In catfish, cook gumbo, make ham sandwiches, potato salad, and ice cream to sell. The man would gel the beer, wine. W hen it got toward dark, you'd hang a red lantern out on the I root door to let anybody going by know there was a fish fry inside and anybody could go in. A plate of catfish and potato salad or a plate of gumbo was 1 5 cents.

It usually cost 25 cents lo get in and it was a good way to make a little change. After some of the guys from New Orleans went to Chicago, they started giving fish fries in the bars. At the door you'd buy a ticket and get a lucky number. If you won the drawing you'd gel a bottle ol whiskev. The fish fry that had the best band w 7 as the one that would have the besl crowd.

The hand was usually a string trio of mandolin, guitar. String trios would get a whole lot of jobs around New Orleans where they wanted soft music. Some guys were big stars on the mandolin and would draw a croud to a fish fry. Buddy Kyle was one of them w hn p laved a whole lot of mandolin and was very hard to book. He played a lot of jazz. It was a lot more pleasure for me to play in the siring trios than in the trass band. There were a lot of string trios around Ikying street corners, fish hies, lawn parlies, and private parties.

In the di-strict there were the barets. Some bands played dances in milk dairy stables, d the bigger-name ones played the dance halls like the Tuxedo nee Hall. Out in the emintry. Louisiana, or Baj St. Mississippi, you plavcd dances,.. We had plenty of fun together and there was musk everywhere. Jesus, there's some noise and talk. It was started in 1V0S by my brother.

I started playing with them in 14 h, and that's when Willie bought me im first real bass They were a seven-piece band, and thai was a big band. Our first guitar player was Ralph I bin is. Ralph gave up guitar and started playing trumpet, so we got another guitar player. Joe Johnson After that Ralph switched to trombone and joe switched lo trumpet, so we got a no t he r guitar player, joe was a very 1 good guitar places hut my brother had an E-fUil trumpet and Joe kepi borrowing it Sam- Dutrey taught him how lo play it and he switched about Rack in the early days, all of us guys used to hang out at Sam and Nora Dutrey's pressing shop at Cherokee near St.

There were four Dutrev brothers: Jimmy, who played drums: Sam and Nora always wanted us guys to hangout at their shop, and Sam would give us free music les- sons lo get us to stay. The Rozelle Rand played a lot ol lawn parties and milk dairy sta hie dances. In those days there were milk daily stables all over New Orleans.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF POPS FOSTER

Guys would hire the stable and clean it out for the dances. Most of the time the owner of the stable would put on l he dance. They were on Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday slights. Most milk dairy jobs you'd get 75 cents Lo Si. You'd start playing at 8;0U p. A lot of parents would come to the dance, bring their kids, and stay all night. In the morning you'd be playing along and outside you d hear the cows start mooing because they wanted to come in and get milked. When that started you knew the dance was over. Sometime we'd be romping real good and keep playing with the mooing going on.

Those times they'd open the doors, bring the cows in. Rack in those days 1 was real small and still had to stand on a box to reach the string bass right, I always told Willie that live siring bass was too big for me to carry: I'd carry his violin or banjo on a job. Then one time 1 got a job and had to get there right away, Willie wasn't around so i carried the bass. We thought it meant you could go down there, pick out a chick, and roll around with her. So we went dnwn ant! The 1 loliness church was the only one that didn't consider music sinful. I'h fir music was something. They'd clap their hands and bang a tambourine and sing.

Sometimes they bad a piano player, and he'd really play a whole lot of jazz. Way late they added things like guitars, trombones,, trumpets, and so on. The first time 1 heard one of their bands was about in Washington. We used to hurry to finish our theater job so we could go listen to them play. They really played some great jazz on the hymns they played. She really thought they were some- thin'.

The closest thing we had to religious music around New Orleans was when the bands played for funerals. I was with the Rozelle Band for about two years. Around we moved lo St. James Street near St. James Street I met Eddie Garland: He was playing with the Ory Band and got me a job playing with a little band that Louis Keppard had. It was called the Magnolia Band, and we got Joe Oliver to play irj: Willie Foster and Jfi'iin 1 Kirnlwll, Sr.. C I fondy in u photo signed I" Pups Foster, about James H Jatfeson, piujiu.

I te was a bar- ber like Buddy Bofden. Many leading jazzmen worked at hard manual labor; jazz drew some oj its besi talents J rom proletarian ranks, und working- class virtues rubbed off in the music. Armstrong, and Bechet owed their reputations in part to an ability to keep going, to pile chorus upon chorus, creating a feeling oj suspense und excitement in the listener. Such demands were imposed to an even greater degree on men in the rhythm section, especially the drummers and bassists. Strength, endurance, and solidity were manifest in Pops's playing from the very first; his beat was compelling and powerful, his tone big and alive.

African blood; at one time they had formed a petite bourgeoisie class. I hey spoke French and prided themselves tin being co-heirs oj French culture. I he incidence oj musical attain- ment in Creole ranks was high. As colonial Frenchmen, they were one with the tradition oj cfis- tingutshed French recti playing. Creoles were considered even hit as goad as white folk.

The Civil War and the violent upheavals of postbeflum day s changed all that: The musicians among them found themselves obliged to compete for fobs with the black man. Socially the clash between dccLisse unci p. Sidney Story hud heen the author oj an ordi- nance restricting prostitution, gambling, and other forms of vice to a specified area in the French Quarter i Anderson, propri- etor oj. About I Of part-time ladies of the night worked in cabarets, where they danced with customers, encouraged the purchase "I liquor — especially champagne — and escorted interested customers to nearby rooms for amorous asides, ufl as described by Pops, knifings and Rights were common and murders frequent.

When the official suggestion was not acted upon fav local au- thorities, the latter was put on notice that either they would dose Storyville without delay or the federal government would Jo it for them: New Orleans had become the favorite duty station for tens of thou- sands of servicemen. Che candid Pops Foster makes no effort to play down the licen- tious environment encountered and something relished by early fair musicians. TMs association of jazz with vice hung on in the minds of most Americans for years and died hard; the notion fitted perfectly into widespread prejudice encouraged by the middle-class white es- tablishment toward.

African -America n mores and culture. From about to l L J 17, the best paying and steadiest employment jar jazzmen was to be found in Storm fie. It was not ant if the middle 'iOs with their swing hands and popular ballrooms that conditions of employment for jazz musicians u nderwe ni any significant change.

Sometimes 1 didn't go home for weeks. Orleans, but I never thought it would be a way to make a living. I usually had a regular job longshoring or something. My job with the Magnolia Band in the District was the first music job that uas a full- time joh. When 1 first started with the Magnolia Band, we made most of our money on Saturday. Sunday, and Wednesday Sunday was the biggest day. I used to do longshore work. It was pretty rough playing and working a hill job loo; Mon- dav was your roughest day.

On Sunday you might have an allemoon joh at the lake playing a picnic till six o'clock. Then you'd get on a streetcar and go way over to Octna to play a night joh at the Come Clean Hall. Back in those days when you took the string bass on the streetcar you had to have a special pass. Its still in Gretna. I lamp was a trombone player, and Joe Johnson played trumpet with them.

The Autobiography of Pops Foster: New Orleans Jazz Man

The were guys rum around die Irish Channel. Wul go home then, hang up your tuxedo, pin on year overalls, and leave about 5;0Q a. Sometimes you had a helper: Hed wake you up to load or deliver. II you had a Monday-night job you'd go home, get a little shuteye. Wi didn't work lale on Monday night, though. Johnny Garland was on trombone when I first started with them, hut he wasn't so good SO we got rid nt him and got Zue Robertson lor a while.

He played piano before the trombone. He wasn't with us too long, and he left to go on the road with his sister and brother-in-law in a vaudeville show. He couldn't play unless In looked at the musii. The Dupas brothers and I. Arnold Dupas because he wasn't any good on drums [hey were afraid that ii ihev fired Arnold that Dave and I: All it said was, "You. After we went into the District, we had [-'rnest Trippania; we called him Quank. Ms brother Willie replaced Emile on violin.

Alphonse Picou played clarinet for us sometimes, and sometime Papa Tio did. Picou was the only guy around who plaved soprano saxophone. Most guys said it sounded too tinny. Papa Tio said to Picou one time. Some of the notes are beautiful and some are out of tune. Years later Sidney Bechel and I used to argue about thai all the time.

I le was tall and drank a lot. One night he was playing for the Magnolia Hand. He was drunk and sleep- ing through the numbers. He'd get the clarinet up to his mouth and finger the horn, hut nnthin Was coming nut. Then he turned to me and said, 'You did this. He met his wile, Stella, when ihex were working together waiting tables. Joe got mad one night and quit the Lagle Band, and came with us. I never heard anyboch down ihere called "King. Right after Joe joined us we got the Job playing in the District. When we started I was so vnung. I had to he careful ol the cops run- ning me in just for being there.

Thej didn't allow no kids in the Dis- trict at night. When I'tl go to work I'll be careful to Staj nn the side of the street where I knew [he cops. Once 1 got to work. Pile girls inside would be sitting with their dresses up to their knees, and I'd get to see a lot of legs. I'hat was something in those days. We used to he bapp when it rained beiause wc could see more. Things w ere right on i up of each other in the Dis- trict.

I'hev wen two Jew guvs and were good guvs to work lor. In the middle of the block was the Tuxedo Dance Hall. It was owned bv Gyp the Blood. He went to the penitential after he killed BilK Phillips and his place closed. Iven after the killing and both places i krsed down, the band kept the luxedo name. U hen all of us were playing the District, we couldn't wait ior night lo come so we could go to work.

Most of us loved the District and tried to stay there as much as we could Sometimes I didn't go home lor weeks. We made a dollar and a hall a night, or nine dollars a week play- ing the Disrriet. Wc were the best-paid band in the District- Viu could live real gitod on it and save money Wc hired. The Ge rman guys would drink wine and champagne and have a good time. The Dutch and English sailors were kind or' rough. They'd drink beer; we had Budweiser or Sehlitz in those days, and it was as strong as your whiskey is today.

They didn't spend much money until they got real drunk. The French were nowhere. We had some heautilul girls in our cabaret, and if a good ship came in we'd pass the word For all the girls to get out that night, A lot of the girls were white. In those days carpenters and bricklayers made! If you were just working on night jobs you usually got a dollar- fifty a night.

On haster Sunday and if you got a job playing one of those swell dances downtown you made two-fifty. Long after I left New Orleans guys would come around asking me about Storyviile down there. When I found out they were talking about the red-light district, I sure was surprised. We alwavs called it the District, Liquor at the cabarets was high. They had two kinds of whiskey. Best whiskey was l. Pops Foster often said, "I'm just another bass player trying to make a living.

A pioneer of the string bass at a time when tuba was more commonly used in rhythm sections outside New Orleans, Pops remarked, "The string bass is best for swinging the band. On tuba, you hit a note, man, and it's gone. A tuba never did fit in no orchestra, but they tried to make 'em. String bass had been commonly used in New Orleans but in New York it was a different story.

Every bass player in town was playing tuba in the 20s. Rhythm section of the Louis Armstrong Orchestra, about The experience of hearing Pops Foster live—'rompin' the big fiddle'—was often transforming for the listener. Swing Era bass legend Bob Haggart put it this way:. There was a primitive quality to this sound which appealed to me and it played a large part in my background and influenced my concept of bass playing This week on Riverwalk Jazz Pops Foster tells his own story in rare archival interviews, and actor Vernel Bagneris portrays Pops in scenes from his autobiography.

He was a modest man with a giant talent, and only late in life did Pops Foster put himself forward to play improvised jazz solos on the bass. His infectious, relentless beat drove the band and got dancers out of their seats and onto the floor. He toured California in the early 20s with Kid Ory. He ate barbecue and played music with Bix on the road in Illinois.

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