Biography
Born Antonio Sparbaro to a Sicilian immigrant household in Louisiana, he was already active on drums by 1911 in the Frayle Brothers Band. He next became a member of Papa Jack Laine’s Reliance Band, whose players routinely took outside jobs to sustain themselves. Additional early work found him in Merritt Brunies-led ensembles and backing pianist Carl Randall. In 1916 he traveled to Chicago to join the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, the first jazz ensemble captured on disc and the source of the earliest commercially issued jazz recording. The group cut two sides in early 1917, one for the Victor Talking Machine Company and another for the Columbia Graphophone Company, igniting the nationwide craze first labeled “jass.” The now-standard spelling with two z’s emerged only later. At the time of those sessions the lineup also featured cornetist Nick LaRocca, clarinetist Larry Shields, trombonist Eddie Edwards, and pianist Harry Ragas. Sbarbaro ultimately held the drum chair for five decades, remaining the sole original member when the band finally disbanded. He composed several of its signature pieces, among them the somber “Mourning Blues,” and assumed leadership around the ensemble’s thirtieth year. His long identification with the Dixieland revival, especially its Chicago adherents, fixed him in the public mind as an archetypal New Orleans drummer. Performing at times under the name Tony Spargo, he actually drew from ragtime and circus-band traditions that prized visual flair and spontaneous rhythmic invention over the steady propulsion associated with New Orleans percussionists. Contemporary listeners can hear this approach on his circa-1917 recordings, which employed an extensive array of woodblocks, cowbells, Chinese tom-toms, custom snare and bass drums, and a large novelty kazoo. He excelled at double-drumming, striking the bass drum with the stick’s butt end—an early technique that predated the bass-drum pedal. The term “traps” for a drum kit is thought to derive from his vaudeville-inspired antics, which occasionally involved placing stuffed animals inside the drums. Later avant-garde players have revisited his style: Paul Lovens amassed similar Chinese tom-toms, and Japanese-American percussionist Toshi Makihara has staged an elaborate duet with a stuffed squirrel. Sbarbaro appeared at the 1941 New York World’s Fair and, during the 1950s, recorded with vocalist Connee Boswell. In later decades his playing grew less extravagant yet retained striking theatrical gestures. He continued working in New York with classic-jazz figures such as Miff Mole, Big Chief Moore, Pee Wee Erwin, and Eddie Condon; several independent labels captured these small-group performances. He ceased performing in the 1960s as rock and roll dominated the scene.