Family Ties

[Mark Stryker]

Trying to think of the first of the many famous jazz families -- Jones, Heath, Adderley, Dorsey, Marsalis, etc. -- and I'm coming up with Johnny and Baby Dodds. Am I missing somebody obvious?

Edited October 17, 2012 by Mark Stryker

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Lots of the New Orleans jazz musicians were related. I seem to recollect that Jelly Roll Morton was related to the Barbarins.

MG

[Hot Ptah]

Von and Chico Freeman

Kenny Drew and Kenny Drew, Jr.

[Mark Stryker]

To be clear -- I'm not creating a list of all the famous families in jazz and did not mean to start a thread requesting that we all chime in with the all the jazz families we can think of, though if anyone's looking for a time waster, don't let me stand in your way. But I'm really just asking if there's any earlier significant sibling or father-son example other than the Dodds.

Edited October 17, 2012 by Mark Stryker

[Cyril]

But I'm really just asking if there's any earlier significant sibling or father-son example other than the Dodds.

The Montgomery Brothers.

[BillF]

But I'm really just asking if there's any earlier significant sibling or father-son example other than the Dodds.

The Montgomery Brothers.

You mean the 19th century Montgomerys, of course.

[Niko]

a similarly well-known and earlier father-son team seems fairly unlikely since the dodds brothers were born in the 1890s, closest thing i could find were the dorsey brothers but they were younger, even more so for the teagardens and mcpartlands (and in both cases one is much better known than the other)

[jeffcrom]

To be clear -- I'm not creating a list of all the famous families in jazz and did not mean to start a thread requesting that we all chime in with the all the jazz families we can think of, though if anyone's looking for a time waster, don't let me stand in your way. But I'm really just asking if there's any earlier significant sibling or father-son example other than the Dodds.

"Professor" James B. Humphrey (1859-1937) - trumpeter and leader of the Eclipse Brass Band; father of:

Willie Eli Humphrey (1880-1964) - clarinet; father of:

Willie James Humphrey (1900-1994) - clarinet

Earl Humphrey (1902-1971) - trombone

Percy Gaston Humphrey (1905-1995) - trumpet

Willie J. and Percy recorded extensively; Earl a few times. Professor Jim and Willie E. never recorded, although Willie E. is cited as an important early jazz clarinetist by Jelly Roll Morton and others.

The Humphrey brothers' younger cousin was:

Emery Humphrey Thompson (later Umar Sharif) (1927-1998) - trumpeter; played with Luis Russell and the Lincoln Center Orchestra, among others; father of:

Jamil Sharif (b. 1963) - trumpet; played and recorded with Johnny Adams, Dr. John, and has three albums of his own. I like Jamil's playing.

[marcello]

Freddy Keppard) and Louis Keppard (brothers)

I just happen to be re-reading the Pops Foster book.

Just about everyone in New Orleans was related to each other!

[Joe]

The Teagardens -- Jack and Charlie -- are another prominent family from this earlier era.

I feel like there are some cousins to be considered as well... like maybe Ben Webster was cousin to an musician of a slightly prior generation?

[marcello]

What about the Barbarins?:

"Isidore Barbarin began with the cornet as a young teenager: the year was 1886. After taking up alto horn he marched forward with the Onward Brass Band but was also involved with other brass groups. I

Isidore Barbarin had to wait quite awhile to get his sound on record. By 1945 there was finally some evidence of the man in discographies, courtesy of bandleader Bunk Johnson. Some musicians naively call their records their children; perhaps this artist's actual acts of procreation have meant more to the history of jazz than his time in front of a microphone. He produced four children that became musicians: Paul Barbarin, Louis Barbarin, William Barbarin and Lucien Barbarin. Furthemore jazzman Danny Barker is his grandson."

[Chuck Nessa]

What about the Barbarins?:

"Isidore Barbarin began with the cornet as a young teenager: the year was 1886. After taking up alto horn he marched forward with the Onward Brass Band but was also involved with other brass groups. I

Isidore Barbarin had to wait quite awhile to get his sound on record. By 1945 there was finally some evidence of the man in discographies, courtesy of bandleader Bunk Johnson. Some musicians naively call their records their children; perhaps this artist's actual acts of procreation have meant more to the history of jazz than his time in front of a microphone. He produced four children that became musicians: Paul Barbarin, Louis Barbarin, William Barbarin and Lucien Barbarin. Furthemore jazzman Danny Barker is his grandson."

And many of them are related to friends of Robert E Lee.

[Don Brown]

What about the two great alto saxophonists whose sons both play drums? There's Johnny Hodges and Johnny Hodges Jr. as well as Ornette Coleman and his son Denardo.

[BeBop]

Sidney and Wilbur DeParis (Later than the Dodds', in the 1940s)

And Mangiones (Gap and Chuck) (1970s?)

Edited October 18, 2012 by BeBop

[jeffcrom]

What about the Barbarins?:

"Isidore Barbarin began with the cornet as a young teenager: the year was 1886. After taking up alto horn he marched forward with the Onward Brass Band but was also involved with other brass groups. I

Isidore Barbarin had to wait quite awhile to get his sound on record. By 1945 there was finally some evidence of the man in discographies, courtesy of bandleader Bunk Johnson. Some musicians naively call their records their children; perhaps this artist's actual acts of procreation have meant more to the history of jazz than his time in front of a microphone. He produced four children that became musicians: Paul Barbarin, Louis Barbarin, William Barbarin and Lucien Barbarin. Furthemore jazzman Danny Barker is his grandson."

There's another Lucien Barbarin, a very fine trombonist currently playing in New Orleans, who is the grandson of one of those four brothers - I don't know which one, but it's not Paul.

[Mark Stryker]

Thanks, folks.

[johnlitweiler]

Larry Kart, critic, and Jacob Kart, guitar

[king ubu]

I heard that Girolamo LaRocca's great grand uncles (seven of them) had a great jass band in Sicily in the 1860s