Biography
One of the earliest groups engaged to capture music resembling jazz on record, the Louisiana Five drew notice from a keen listener who charged the ensemble with an obsession for plant life, citing numbers like "Orange Blossom," "Golden Rod," and "Weeping Willow" along with a sheet-music folio that showed the musicians poring over the score to "California Blossom." In truth the septet cut dozens of sides from 1918 through 1920 that explored subjects far removed from botany, among them "Big Fat Ma," "Clarinet Squawk," "Down Where the Rajahs Dwell," and "Yelping Hound Blues." Those sessions commenced only months after the Original Dixieland Jass Band issued what are widely regarded as the first jazz recordings ever made. Clarinetist Alcide "Yellow" Nunez, who had already performed with the Original Dixieland Jass Band, later became a member of the Louisiana Five.
Emerson, Columbia, and Edison all released Louisiana Five material and gave the band prominent coverage in Talking Machine World, the trade publication devoted to the nascent phonograph industry. The arrival of cornetist Doc Behrendson on "Slow and Easy" reportedly expanded the group's sonic palette, yet the numerical name stayed unchanged. Period advertisements highlighted effects that might now evoke a John Zorn production, declaring that "by a clever manipulation of the clarinet the effect of a yelping hound is realistically brought out and at the same time a perfect Fox Trot rhythm and also a humorous melody are maintained."
Before the Roaring Twenties had begun, one reviewer characterized a Louisiana Five performance as "cyclonic jazz, played by a quintet which has steeped its musical interpretive qualities in a concentrated essence of contortive jungle music." Edison's own promotional copy of the era ventured an etymology for the word "jazz," tracing it to the African Gold Coast where it signified "to liven things up." On certain releases an augmented personnel appeared under the billing Louisiana Five Jazz Orchestra.
Emerson, Columbia, and Edison all released Louisiana Five material and gave the band prominent coverage in Talking Machine World, the trade publication devoted to the nascent phonograph industry. The arrival of cornetist Doc Behrendson on "Slow and Easy" reportedly expanded the group's sonic palette, yet the numerical name stayed unchanged. Period advertisements highlighted effects that might now evoke a John Zorn production, declaring that "by a clever manipulation of the clarinet the effect of a yelping hound is realistically brought out and at the same time a perfect Fox Trot rhythm and also a humorous melody are maintained."
Before the Roaring Twenties had begun, one reviewer characterized a Louisiana Five performance as "cyclonic jazz, played by a quintet which has steeped its musical interpretive qualities in a concentrated essence of contortive jungle music." Edison's own promotional copy of the era ventured an etymology for the word "jazz," tracing it to the African Gold Coast where it signified "to liven things up." On certain releases an augmented personnel appeared under the billing Louisiana Five Jazz Orchestra.