Manuel Perez (musician)
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Emanuel Perez – also known as Manuel - (1871 – 1946) was an early New Orleans jazz cornetist and bandleader. Being a contemporary of Buddy Bolden, Perez is considered one of the originators of the jazz sound.
[edit] Life
Some details of his early life remain obscure. Most likely he was born into a Creole family of Spanish or Cuban descent. His family continues to live in New Orleans, Louisiana. When scholars attempted to speak to Perez in the 1930s he refused to cooperate (by some accounts he was already suffering from senile dementia) and thus not much is known about his personal history. He made his start in brass bands around the late 1880s.
At the turn of the century, he became a member of the Onward Brass Band and led the band from 1903 to 1930. He also started his own brass band called the Imperial Orchestra from 1901-1908. The Onward Brass Band was one of the most respected of its day. Some of the best-known players in New Orleans were apart of the group including King Oliver, Peter Bocage, Henry Kimball, Lorenzo Tio, Luis Tio, George Baquet, Isidore Barbarin, and Benny Williams. The Perez & Oliver two cornet, or "trumpet" team, was one of the most renowned in New Orleans. Perez was known for his beautiful tone, staying close to the lead, while Oliver improvised variations as a second cornet part.
Later, Perez went north to Chicago in 1915 playing with Charles Elgar’s Creole Orchestra at the Arsonia Cafe and also with the Arthur Sims Band. Although Elgar and his Creole Orchestra recorded a few sides (albums) during this period, Perez is not to be heard, and so our chance to enjoy that smooth sound of the cornet. Returning to the Crescent City in the 1920s, he played in the District (Storyville), on steamboat excursions with Fate Marable, and in parades with the Maple Leaf Orchestra and multiple other bands. During the Great Depression in 1931, Manuel quit playing music and turned to the occupation of cigar rolling, which he had long done part-time when music jobs were scarce. “ I was down in New Orleans and I saw Manuel before he died. I saw him and I couldn’t bear to see him; it was something awful. He just began to slobber at the mouth when you spoke to him...And when he looked at you there wasn’t anything in his eyes . . . it was like they were missing from his face, and his face, it had just come apart.” tells Sidney Bechet when seeing Perez in the early 1940’s after he had suffered a series of strokes leaving him disabled and eventually leading to his death in 1946.
[edit] Style and legacy
Louis Armstrong stated "Manuel and Joe King Oliver played together in the Onward Brass Band, really something to listen to when they played for parades and funerals. They had twelve musicians in their brass band. Eddie Jackson used to really swing the tuba when the band played marches. They sounded like a forty piece brass swing band." Armstrong would follow the band day and night, in the second line, listening to the sweet tones cascading off the buildings and street corners.
In contrast to Buddy Bolden and his more improvisational free approach, Perez was a sight-reader and highly technical musician, some say he refined the play of Bolden and allowed for more of an orchestral (big band) style. Sidney Bechet comments "Manuel Perez was one. He played much better cornet than Buddy. Perez, he was a musicianer; he was sincere. He stuck to his instrument." In the terminology of early 20th century New Orleans musicians, a "musicianer" was someone with good technical ability on their instrument adept at sight-reading written music.
Manuel Perez was an innovator, with a supreme sound. His legacy might be best understood, in looking at the musicians that praised him, and the styles he influenced. King Oliver went on to become the jazz impresario of Chicago. Sidney Bechet toured the world featuring some of the same tunes Perez belted out, while battling other bands on the neutral ground of Claiborne Ave., and sitting solitary on the banks of the Mississippi River.
[edit] References
- Bechet, Sidney. Treat it Gentle.
- Armstrong, Louis. In his own words: selected writings.
