King Watzke

Alex "King" Watzke (1872-1919 or 1928?) was a violinist and bandleader in New Orleans, Louisiana. His band enjoyed fair popularity ca. 1900-1910. The band played ragtime, popular music, and possibly an early or ancestral version of what later became known as jazz. By 1904 Watzke's band's repertory included an early version of what later became known as "Tiger Rag" or a similar melody.

Alexander Watzke, Junior ("King") was the youngest child of Alexander Watzke (Senior), a member of the Louisiana State Legislature, and a leader of New Orleans' German community, who died in 1914. He had several siblings. "King" Watzke was one of the first white bandleaders to take up ragtime and jazz, what had hitherto been primarily African-American musical genres, and thus was responsible for more widely popularizing these musical styles.

Watzke decided to bill himself as "King" after the example of Buddy Bolden.

It is believed by some that Watzke and his band, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", were the real-life inspiration for Irving Berlin's 1911 song, and subsequent 1938 movie, both of that time.

His later years and his death, are a subject of controversy; it was believed by many that King Watzke died in the Spanish Flu pandemic. An obituary was published in The New York Times,and his inscription on the family tombstone in St. Charles Cemetery in New Orleans suggests a date of death on January 14, 1919. However, an obituary published in the " New Orleans Times-Picayune " suggests an actual date of death almost a decade later, on June 2, 1928, for what clearly appears to be one and the same person.

King Watzke and his band are referred to in a recent scholarly book about the history of New Orleans jazz. Clarinetist Larry Shields played occasionally with the band.^[1]

References

See also

• Jazz royalty