Kid: Musicians and their cohorts nicknamed “Kid” in Louisiana

Musicians and their cohorts nicknamed “Kid” in New Orleans

Kid Brown
A “famous parachuter” who owned a honky-tonk at corner of Gravier & Franklin, with a piano and dance floor, near Louis Armstrong’s childhood home and where Armstrong first heard Sidney Bechet play clarinet.

Kid [Jimmy] Clayton, trumpet 
Listen to him being interviewed, courtesy of Music Rising, Hogan Jazz Archives, Tulane University, New Orleans.

Kid Sheilk [George] Colar (1908-1996), trumpet. 
His first mouth piece was a kzaoo; played ni Kid Rena’s marching band and Eureka Brass Band

George “Kid Sheik” Colar

Tulane Rising has two excellent interviews you can listen to.

July 20, 1958

George “Kid Sheik” Colar 1958-7-20

& a 1959 interview.

Kid [Wesley] Dimes.
Had his own band; was killed in Baton Rouge, “a good trumpet player,” Harold Dejan said.

Kid Twat  [Joseph Butler], bass
Played with Papa Celestin’s orchestra &  was director of Brown Buddies

Kid Green
An ex-prize fighter who  ran a hotel at Rampart & Lafayette streets, Green was a friend of Louis Armstrong’s and would make available to him a room whenever he needed it for  entertaining. Armstrong recalled that he had “so much gold in his mouth they called him Klondike.”

Kid [Avery] Howard, trumpet,
Cobojo called him the Louis Armstrong of the South.” Also played drums early on with Harold & Leo Dejan.

Kid Punch Miller
Called Kid Punch by Kid Clayton; not to be confused with Punch Miller

Kid [Ernest] Moliere.
Leo Dejan said he was “the son of old man Paul Moliere” & brother of drummer Paul Moliere, and did act in which he took his clarinet apart, piece by piece down to the mouthpiece while still playing it.

Kid [Edward] Ory
Ory and his band, from LaPlace, “took New Orleans by storm” about 1907, said Welman Braud.
     Louis Armstrong’s first good gig was with him before Armstrong went to Chicago in 1922. Alvin Alcorn said he “didn’t have great range but a big tone.” John Casimir recalled that he and Johnny Dodds would play all day long for funerals and parades.

Kid Shots [Louis] Madison, trumpet
William.Ridgley said, “Shots is very good and sweet, and on ragtime he had a good touch. They always asked Shots to play the blues and “Careless Love.” also played with Papa Celestin.

Kid Rena, trumpet, aka Little Turk
Harold Dejan said he was “the best,” and that he “always came out well” in musical battles; he was also  in waif’s home with Louis Armstrong,

.Kid Thomas Reel
Played with a Dejan band from Reserve, La.

Kid Thomas Valentine

Kid Victor, trumpet
From Baton Rouge

• • •

Sources

Alcorn, Alvin. Interview by Richard B. Allen & Marjorie T. Zander. New Orleans: Nov. 30, 1960 . Hogan Jazz Archives, Tulane University, New Orleans.

Alexander, Adolphe “Tats.” Inteview by William Russell & Harold Dejan. New Orleans: Mar 8, 1961. Nov. 30, 1960 . Hogan Jazz Archives, Tulane University, New Orleans.

Armstrong, Louis. Statchmo: My Life in New Orleans. 1954. New York, Da Capo P, 1986.

Beaux, McNeal. Interview.  New Orleans: 24 Nov. 1958. Hogan Jazz Archives, Tulane University, New Orleans.

Braud, Wellman. Interview by William Russell et al. New Orleans: 31 Mar. 1958. Hogan Jazz Archives, Tulane University, New Orleans.

Casimir, John. Interview. New Orleans: 17 Jan. 1959. . Hogan Jazz Archives, Tulane University, New Orleans.

Cobojo. “Out on the Limb.” Louisiana  Weekly 9 Dec. 1939: 6.

Dejan, Harold. Interview by WIlliam Russell. New Orleans: Oct 14 1960. Hogan Jazz Archives, Tulane University, New Orleans.

Kennedy, Al. Chord Changes on the Chalkboard: How Public School Teachers Shaped Jazz and the Music of New Orleans. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2002.

Ridgley, WIlliam. Interview by William Russell and Ralph Collins, New Orleans: June 2, 1959. Hogan Jazz Archives, Tulane University, New Orleans.

Alex Albright
May 11, 2023