The Eureka Brass Band

The Eureka Brass Band traces its origins to 1920, when clarinetist Willie Parker assembled the ensemble. According to Richard Knowles's 1996 account of New Orleans brass bands, Parker selected the name after encountering West Indian musicians who already performed under the Eureka banner. Percy Humphrey, a trumpeter, became the ensemble's best-known director beginning in 1946. Over the years the group committed material to tape for Pax, Alamac, Folkways, Jazzology, and Sounds of New Orleans. Its most widely circulated recordings appeared on Atlantic in 1962, issued while Humphrey led the band and his brother Willie Humphrey played clarinet; the sessions yielded the album Jazz at Preservation Hall, Vol. 1: The Eureka Brass Band of New Orleans. The personnel at that time featured trumpeters Kid Sheik Colar and Pete Bocage, trombonists Albert Warner and Oscar "Chicken" Henry, tenor saxophonist Emmanuel Paul, sousaphonist Wilbert "Bird" Tillman, snare drummer Josiah "Cie" Frasier, and bass drummer Robert "Son Fewclothes" Lewis.