WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.240 Louis Armstrong, arguably the most recognizable 00:00:03.240 --> 00:00:05.219 face and voice in the history of American music, 00:00:05.320 --> 00:00:08.119 once made a very bold scene setting statement. 00:00:08.259 --> 00:00:11.179 He really did. He said, if it had not been for 00:00:11.179 --> 00:00:14.199 Joe Oliver, jazz would not be what it is today. 00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:17.500 Which is just a massive claim. It is. And welcome 00:00:17.500 --> 00:00:20.000 to today's Deep Dive, where we are taking that 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:22.839 exact claim and exploring the Wikipedia archives 00:00:22.839 --> 00:00:25.739 to uncover the biography of Joseph Nathan King 00:00:25.739 --> 00:00:27.699 Oliver. Yeah, we're really getting into it today. 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:30.239 Our mission for this Deep Dive is to understand 00:00:30.239 --> 00:00:33.420 how an early 20th century cornet player from 00:00:33.420 --> 00:00:37.939 Louisiana, essentially, built the blueprint for 00:00:37.939 --> 00:00:41.210 modern music. And shaped its absolute biggest 00:00:41.210 --> 00:00:43.649 star. Right, but ultimately faced a decline so 00:00:43.649 --> 00:00:45.829 heartbreaking that it serves as a stark warning 00:00:45.829 --> 00:00:47.990 about just how ruthless the music industry can 00:00:47.990 --> 00:00:50.369 be. Okay, let's unpack this. Yeah. Because we 00:00:50.369 --> 00:00:52.530 are looking at a man whose life is a master class 00:00:52.530 --> 00:00:55.810 in both extreme innovation and sadly devastating 00:00:55.810 --> 00:00:58.750 historical obscurity. Yeah. And his story actually 00:00:58.750 --> 00:01:00.969 begins with a bit of a historical mystery right 00:01:00.969 --> 00:01:03.329 out of the gate in Aben, Louisiana. It does, 00:01:03.450 --> 00:01:06.099 yeah. When tracing the origins of someone who 00:01:06.099 --> 00:01:08.239 changed the cultural landscape so profoundly, 00:01:08.439 --> 00:01:11.219 you expect a definitive starting point. You'd 00:01:11.219 --> 00:01:12.900 think there'd be a plaque or something. Exactly. 00:01:13.260 --> 00:01:16.299 But Oliver's early records are completely contradictory. 00:01:16.799 --> 00:01:19.359 How so? Well, if you look at his World War I 00:01:19.359 --> 00:01:21.980 draft registration card, which he filled out 00:01:21.980 --> 00:01:25.099 on September 12, 1918, he wrote down his birth 00:01:25.099 --> 00:01:28.469 year as 1881. Okay. But if you look at census 00:01:28.469 --> 00:01:30.590 records and various other historical documents 00:01:30.590 --> 00:01:33.010 from the era, they strongly point to him being 00:01:33.010 --> 00:01:37.049 born in 1884 or 1885. Wait, how does a discrepancy 00:01:37.049 --> 00:01:39.170 like that even happen? I mean, did he just forget 00:01:39.170 --> 00:01:41.590 his own age or was there a reason to alter it? 00:01:41.670 --> 00:01:44.390 It is actually incredibly common for that specific 00:01:44.390 --> 00:01:47.390 era, particularly for African -Americans born 00:01:47.390 --> 00:01:50.549 in the post -Civil War South down near Donaldsonville, 00:01:50.609 --> 00:01:52.650 Louisiana. Oh, because the record keeping was 00:01:52.650 --> 00:01:55.560 just spotty. Right. Official record keeping in 00:01:55.560 --> 00:01:58.620 rural areas was notoriously inconsistent. Birth 00:01:58.620 --> 00:02:01.120 certificates weren't always standardized or preserved. 00:02:01.379 --> 00:02:04.120 That makes sense. Plus, people frequently adjusted 00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:07.180 their ages on official documents for survival 00:02:07.180 --> 00:02:09.879 reasons. You know, whether to qualify for certain 00:02:09.879 --> 00:02:12.460 types of labor or to manipulate their eligibility 00:02:12.460 --> 00:02:15.259 for military drafts. Oh, right. Sure. Or simply 00:02:15.259 --> 00:02:18.039 because the exact date was never officially recorded 00:02:18.039 --> 00:02:20.599 to begin with. But regardless of the exact year 00:02:20.599 --> 00:02:23.469 he was born, what really matters is... his geographical 00:02:23.469 --> 00:02:26.110 positioning. He was born into a world where the 00:02:26.110 --> 00:02:28.729 cultural tectonic plates were shifting. Exactly. 00:02:28.810 --> 00:02:31.650 And in his youth, he moves right to the epicenter, 00:02:31.810 --> 00:02:34.949 New Orleans. And what's surprising to me is that 00:02:34.949 --> 00:02:37.349 the man who became famous as the king of the 00:02:37.349 --> 00:02:39.729 cornet didn't even start on that instrument. 00:02:39.949 --> 00:02:42.810 No, he didn't. He initially studied the trombone. 00:02:42.870 --> 00:02:45.349 Right. But once he makes the switch to the cornet, 00:02:45.490 --> 00:02:48.639 he becomes an absolute fixture in the city. From 00:02:48.639 --> 00:02:52.580 1908 to around 1917, he is everywhere. He's playing 00:02:52.580 --> 00:02:55.000 in brass bands, dance bands. He is a staple in 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:57.479 Storyville. Ah, Storyville. Which, for those 00:02:57.479 --> 00:02:59.919 who don't know, was the famous legalized red 00:02:59.919 --> 00:03:02.300 light district of New Orleans. It was a wild 00:03:02.300 --> 00:03:05.120 place. And our sources give us this wonderfully 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:09.080 gritty, unfiltered oral history from Oliver's 00:03:09.080 --> 00:03:12.379 widow, Stella. I love this story. Right. So she 00:03:12.379 --> 00:03:14.199 recalled a time they were playing a dance in 00:03:14.199 --> 00:03:17.699 Storyville and a massive brawl broke out on the 00:03:17.699 --> 00:03:20.340 floor. Just total chaos. Total chaos. Yeah. The 00:03:20.340 --> 00:03:22.199 police arrived, but instead of just breaking 00:03:22.199 --> 00:03:24.099 up the fight or grabbing the instigators, they 00:03:24.099 --> 00:03:26.199 just swept the entire room. They took everyone. 00:03:26.439 --> 00:03:28.719 Everyone. They arrested the fighters, the patrons, 00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:31.819 Oliver and his entire band. Yep. They all went 00:03:31.819 --> 00:03:34.659 to jail just for being in the room. That anecdote 00:03:34.659 --> 00:03:37.060 paints such a vivid picture of the environment 00:03:37.060 --> 00:03:40.080 where this music was forged. Jazz wasn't born 00:03:40.080 --> 00:03:42.460 in pristine concert halls. Not at all. It was 00:03:42.460 --> 00:03:45.180 born in the humid, chaotic, deeply alive spaces 00:03:45.180 --> 00:03:48.080 of New Orleans nightlife. And what's fascinating 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:51.259 here is Oliver's role within that chaos. Right. 00:03:51.340 --> 00:03:54.479 He co -led a band with the trombonist kid Okari, 00:03:54.699 --> 00:03:56.960 which was widely considered one of the absolute 00:03:56.960 --> 00:04:00.000 hottest bands in the city. But look at his social 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:02.620 impact. It was huge. In the deeply segregated, 00:04:03.020 --> 00:04:05.759 highly stratified society of the early 1900s 00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:08.860 South, Oliver's talent acted as a unifying force. 00:04:09.219 --> 00:04:11.319 Yeah. The sources note that he was immensely 00:04:11.319 --> 00:04:13.800 popular across all economic and racial lines. 00:04:14.060 --> 00:04:16.420 Wealthy white society wanted him for their private 00:04:16.420 --> 00:04:18.980 events. And the working class black dance halls 00:04:18.980 --> 00:04:22.199 demanded him for their weekend parties. His sound 00:04:22.199 --> 00:04:25.240 was so undeniable. that it temporarily bridged 00:04:25.240 --> 00:04:29.120 deeply entrenched social divides. Everyone, regardless 00:04:29.120 --> 00:04:31.779 of background, just wanted to hear the man play. 00:04:31.959 --> 00:04:34.680 That power to command a room, regardless of who 00:04:34.680 --> 00:04:36.980 was in it, is a rare kind of genius. It really 00:04:36.980 --> 00:04:39.819 is. Yeah. But the Storyville era didn't last 00:04:39.819 --> 00:04:43.399 forever. No. In 1917, the district is shut down 00:04:43.399 --> 00:04:45.680 by the federal government, and this forces a 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:48.060 massive shift. Great northern migration. Exactly. 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:51.519 Oliver joins it. In 1918, he packs up with his 00:04:51.519 --> 00:04:53.459 wife Stella and his stepdaughter Ruby Tuesday, 00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:56.060 and they move up to Chicago. And he doesn't just 00:04:56.060 --> 00:04:58.379 relocate his family. He uses this transition 00:04:58.379 --> 00:05:00.920 to evolve his sound. Yeah, back in the New Orleans 00:05:00.920 --> 00:05:03.420 African -American dance halls, the popular style 00:05:03.420 --> 00:05:06.180 involved what were called slow drags. Right. 00:05:06.300 --> 00:05:09.259 But in Chicago, Oliver starts pushing the tempo. 00:05:09.420 --> 00:05:11.639 Which was a vital adaptation. To understand this, 00:05:11.699 --> 00:05:13.879 you have to picture what a slow drag actually 00:05:13.879 --> 00:05:16.120 is. That's exactly what it sounds like. Yeah, 00:05:16.180 --> 00:05:18.980 it was a heavily syncopated, grounded, blues 00:05:18.980 --> 00:05:22.680 -based dance style. It matched the languid, humid, 00:05:22.899 --> 00:05:25.720 slow -moving pace of the Deep South. But Chicago 00:05:25.720 --> 00:05:30.519 in 1918 is a booming, industrial, fast -paced 00:05:30.519 --> 00:05:33.279 northern metropolis. The energy of the city was 00:05:33.279 --> 00:05:35.519 completely different. So Oliver finds work with 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:37.519 colleagues who had also migrated from New Orleans. 00:05:38.339 --> 00:05:40.560 clarinetist Lawrence Duhay, bassist Bill Johnson, 00:05:40.860 --> 00:05:43.100 trombonist Roy Palmer. And he eventually takes 00:05:43.100 --> 00:05:46.300 over leadership of Duhay's band. Yes. And he 00:05:46.300 --> 00:05:48.300 realizes that the music needs to match the pulse 00:05:48.300 --> 00:05:50.819 of the city. He accelerates the tempo. He brings 00:05:50.819 --> 00:05:55.019 a frantic, driving northern energy to that southern 00:05:55.019 --> 00:05:57.779 foundation. And that adaptation sets the stage 00:05:57.779 --> 00:06:00.720 for 1922. The big year. Oliver had briefly gone 00:06:00.720 --> 00:06:03.060 out to the West Coast, but he returns to Chicago 00:06:03.060 --> 00:06:05.439 and he sets up shop. at the Lincoln Gardens. 00:06:05.660 --> 00:06:08.459 As a band leader. Yes, he is now officially leading 00:06:08.459 --> 00:06:11.519 King Oliver and his Creole jazz band. And the 00:06:11.519 --> 00:06:13.579 lineup is staggering. You've got Baby Dodds on 00:06:13.579 --> 00:06:16.579 drums, Johnny Dodds on clarinet. Henri Dutri 00:06:16.579 --> 00:06:19.079 on trombone, Bill Johnson on bass, Lil Hardin 00:06:19.079 --> 00:06:21.360 on piano. But there's a missing piece. He needs 00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:23.459 a second cornet player. So he sends a message 00:06:23.459 --> 00:06:26.300 back to New Orleans and summons a young protege 00:06:26.300 --> 00:06:29.819 he had previously mentored and hired in Kid Ory's 00:06:29.819 --> 00:06:33.180 band. And that protege is Louis Armstrong. Think 00:06:33.180 --> 00:06:35.339 about the weight of that summons. It's incredible. 00:06:35.600 --> 00:06:38.040 Louis Armstrong always referred to Oliver as 00:06:38.040 --> 00:06:42.160 Papa Joe. Wow. Papa Joe. Oliver wasn't merely 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:44.600 an employer. He was a surrogate father figure 00:06:44.600 --> 00:06:48.600 and a profound musical mentor. Armstrong wrote 00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:50.839 in his autobiography that his entire ambition 00:06:50.839 --> 00:06:53.199 as a young man was simply to play the way Joe 00:06:53.199 --> 00:06:55.899 Oliver did. That's high praise. And Oliver didn't 00:06:55.899 --> 00:06:57.959 just teach Armstrong how to play the notes. He 00:06:57.959 --> 00:07:00.399 taught him how to lead, how to utilize space 00:07:00.399 --> 00:07:03.120 in a solo, and how to capture an audience's attention. 00:07:03.579 --> 00:07:06.139 So bringing Armstrong up to Chicago was the passing 00:07:06.139 --> 00:07:08.439 of the torch. Exactly. Even if neither of them 00:07:08.439 --> 00:07:10.600 fully realized it at the time. Well, here's where 00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:13.339 it gets really interesting, because this powerhouse 00:07:13.339 --> 00:07:16.279 ensemble didn't just play live. They went into 00:07:16.279 --> 00:07:20.949 the studio. Yes, 1923. In 1923, they made a series 00:07:20.949 --> 00:07:25.490 of recordings for labels like Jeanette, OK, Paramount, 00:07:25.490 --> 00:07:28.269 and Columbia. And these sessions are incredibly 00:07:28.269 --> 00:07:30.410 important because they captured the New Orleans 00:07:30.410 --> 00:07:33.829 style of collective improvisation. Known as Dixieland. 00:07:33.949 --> 00:07:37.629 Right. And packaged it for a mass audience. But 00:07:37.629 --> 00:07:39.509 I want to pause on the actual recording process 00:07:39.509 --> 00:07:41.509 here because it sounds like a logistical nightmare. 00:07:41.769 --> 00:07:44.189 Oh, it was. They didn't have electronic microphones. 00:07:44.370 --> 00:07:46.649 It was an entirely acoustic recording process. 00:07:46.769 --> 00:07:49.689 How did that actually work? It is hard to fathom 00:07:49.689 --> 00:07:52.029 today with our digital studios. But back then, 00:07:52.129 --> 00:07:54.949 capturing audio was purely mechanical. No electricity 00:07:54.949 --> 00:07:57.990 involved. None. The band would stand in a room 00:07:57.990 --> 00:08:00.490 and they had to play directly into a massive 00:08:00.490 --> 00:08:02.829 cone -shaped horn. Like an old phonograph horn. 00:08:03.029 --> 00:08:05.610 Exactly. Yeah. That horn gathered the sound waves 00:08:05.610 --> 00:08:07.990 from the air and channeled them down into a diaphragm. 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:10.879 The physical vibrations of the music caused a 00:08:10.879 --> 00:08:14.120 stylist to literally carve grooves into a rotating 00:08:14.120 --> 00:08:17.120 wax or metal master disc in real time. That is 00:08:17.120 --> 00:08:20.079 wild. There was no mixing board. There was no 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:23.040 volume control. The balance of the track depended 00:08:23.040 --> 00:08:25.879 entirely on where the musicians physically stood 00:08:25.879 --> 00:08:29.019 in the room. If the trombone was too loud, the 00:08:29.019 --> 00:08:31.740 trombonist had to take two steps backward. Which 00:08:31.740 --> 00:08:34.460 brings us to a hilarious and telling detail from 00:08:34.460 --> 00:08:36.259 the source material. I know exactly what you're 00:08:36.259 --> 00:08:39.080 going to say. Louis Armstrong was a powerhouse. 00:08:39.240 --> 00:08:43.000 Yes. His playing was so forceful that the sheer 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:45.580 acoustic energy coming out of his cornet kept 00:08:45.580 --> 00:08:47.860 causing the stylus to bounce right out of the 00:08:47.860 --> 00:08:50.799 groove on the master disc. He was literally ruining 00:08:50.799 --> 00:08:53.919 the takes with raw power. So the engineers had 00:08:53.919 --> 00:08:56.799 to banish Armstrong. They made him stand way 00:08:56.799 --> 00:08:59.259 back in the corner of the room, completely separated 00:08:59.259 --> 00:09:01.840 from the rest of the band, just so his volume 00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:03.559 wouldn't destroy the mechanical recording equipment. 00:09:03.950 --> 00:09:06.370 If we connect this to the bigger picture, that 00:09:06.370 --> 00:09:09.549 immense, uncontainable power wasn't just disrupting 00:09:09.549 --> 00:09:12.450 recording equipment. It was disrupting the entire 00:09:12.450 --> 00:09:15.450 cultural landscape of Chicago. You have to consider 00:09:15.450 --> 00:09:18.809 the social context of the 1920s. The Lincoln 00:09:18.809 --> 00:09:21.169 Gardens was situated in a predominantly black 00:09:21.169 --> 00:09:23.730 neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, and 00:09:23.730 --> 00:09:26.110 the venue strictly admitted only black patrons. 00:09:26.289 --> 00:09:29.429 Right. Yet the music radiating from Oliver's 00:09:29.429 --> 00:09:32.970 band was so revolutionary that it created a gravitational 00:09:33.259 --> 00:09:37.700 pull the style they were playing that dense pulsing 00:09:37.700 --> 00:09:41.039 collective improvisation where the cornet takes 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:43.679 the melody the clarinet weaves a counter melody 00:09:43.679 --> 00:09:46.960 and the trombone anchors the rhythm all simultaneously 00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:49.379 without clashing it was something you couldn't 00:09:49.379 --> 00:09:51.600 learn from sheet music no you had to hear it 00:09:51.600 --> 00:09:53.779 so what did the white musicians in the city do 00:09:53.779 --> 00:09:56.200 if they couldn't get inside they gathered in 00:09:56.200 --> 00:09:59.779 the street wow white musicians many of whom would 00:09:59.779 --> 00:10:02.120 go on to become massive names in the big band 00:10:02.120 --> 00:10:04.840 era would travel to the lincoln gardens and crowd 00:10:04.840 --> 00:10:06.840 around the front door just standing out there 00:10:06.840 --> 00:10:08.779 they would stand on the sidewalk straining to 00:10:08.779 --> 00:10:11.580 hear through the walls and the open doors furiously 00:10:11.580 --> 00:10:14.139 studying the arrangements and the solos king 00:10:14.139 --> 00:10:16.620 oliver essentially ran an invisible university 00:10:16.620 --> 00:10:19.620 for an entire generation of american musicians 00:10:19.620 --> 00:10:22.220 who weren't even allowed to buy a ticket to his 00:10:22.220 --> 00:10:24.740 show that's a great way to put it Picture the 00:10:24.740 --> 00:10:28.120 scene outside those doors. You're out there, 00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:31.019 huddled on a Chicago sidewalk, and what you are 00:10:31.019 --> 00:10:33.120 hearing leaking out of the building isn't just 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:35.500 traditional brass playing. Not at all. You're 00:10:35.500 --> 00:10:38.580 hearing a man completely redefine what an instrument 00:10:38.580 --> 00:10:42.000 is capable of. Oliver developed what was termed 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:44.419 a freak style of trumpet and cornet playing. 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:46.820 He was a supreme pioneer in the use of mutes 00:10:46.820 --> 00:10:49.340 to alter his tone. But he didn't just go to a 00:10:49.340 --> 00:10:51.320 music shop and buy standard brass equipment. 00:10:52.080 --> 00:10:54.279 He looked around his house. He used whatever 00:10:54.279 --> 00:10:56.879 worked. He used rubber plumbers, plungers. He 00:10:56.879 --> 00:10:59.120 used derby hats. Ordinary blast bottles. And 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:01.820 regular drinking cups. He shoved everyday objects 00:11:01.820 --> 00:11:04.259 into the bell of his horn to manipulate the air. 00:11:04.500 --> 00:11:07.379 It reveals a brilliant engineering mindset. It 00:11:07.379 --> 00:11:09.940 really does. Prior to this, brass instruments 00:11:09.940 --> 00:11:12.720 were largely viewed through a military or classical 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:16.179 lens. They were tools for playing bright, clear, 00:11:16.279 --> 00:11:19.379 precise fanfares. But Oliver looked at the cornet. 00:11:19.929 --> 00:11:22.889 and decided he wanted it to speak. Yes, he wanted 00:11:22.889 --> 00:11:26.649 it to groan, to laugh, to mimic the cadence of 00:11:26.649 --> 00:11:28.970 the human voice. He was treating the horn as 00:11:28.970 --> 00:11:31.710 an extension of his own vocal cords. And he proved 00:11:31.710 --> 00:11:34.809 that it worked. By 1926, he had expanded his 00:11:34.809 --> 00:11:37.210 group into a nine -piece band called the Dixie 00:11:37.210 --> 00:11:39.750 Syncopators. And they record a track called Wah 00:11:39.750 --> 00:11:42.669 -Wah -Wah. That specific recording is where we 00:11:42.669 --> 00:11:46.029 get the name for the wah -wah technique. He pioneered 00:11:46.029 --> 00:11:48.669 a sound that is now a foundational pillar of 00:11:48.669 --> 00:11:51.029 modern music. Absolutely. Every electric guitar 00:11:51.029 --> 00:11:53.750 player who steps on a wah pedal today is tracing 00:11:53.750 --> 00:11:56.230 a direct lineage back to a guy with a rubber 00:11:56.230 --> 00:11:58.830 plumber's plunger in Chicago. That is the essence 00:11:58.830 --> 00:12:01.690 of true innovation. It rarely comes from possessing 00:12:01.690 --> 00:12:03.929 the most expensive state -of -the -art technology. 00:12:04.090 --> 00:12:06.190 It usually comes from taking a common object 00:12:06.190 --> 00:12:08.669 and forcing it to solve a completely new problem. 00:12:08.870 --> 00:12:11.580 He saw a household tool. and realized it was 00:12:11.580 --> 00:12:14.659 the key to unlocking a sonic texture that no 00:12:14.659 --> 00:12:16.720 one had ever documented before. And he wasn't 00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:19.299 just improvising these textures. He was composing. 00:12:19.460 --> 00:12:21.740 Right. The sources highlight his famous solo 00:12:21.740 --> 00:12:23.960 on a track he wrote called Dipper Mouth Blues. 00:12:24.320 --> 00:12:27.519 He played that solo using a small metal mute 00:12:27.519 --> 00:12:30.299 manufactured by the CGCon Instrument Company. 00:12:30.720 --> 00:12:33.730 And fun fact. Dipper Mouth was actually one of 00:12:33.730 --> 00:12:35.990 Louis Armstrong's early nicknames. That shows 00:12:35.990 --> 00:12:38.490 how deeply intertwined his personal relationships 00:12:38.490 --> 00:12:41.669 were with his creative output. And Dipper Mouth 00:12:41.669 --> 00:12:44.110 Blues wasn't a flash in the pan. It was later 00:12:44.110 --> 00:12:46.889 adapted by the arranger Don Redman for the Fletcher 00:12:46.889 --> 00:12:49.870 Henderson Orchestra. They retitled it Sugarfoot 00:12:49.870 --> 00:12:52.289 Stomp. And it became an absolute standard of 00:12:52.289 --> 00:12:54.649 the era. Oliver was writing foundational texts. 00:12:54.970 --> 00:12:57.610 Pieces like Sweet Like This, Canal Street Blues, 00:12:57.789 --> 00:13:00.570 and Dr. Jazz are essential chapters in the American 00:13:00.570 --> 00:13:03.330 songbook. But history is full of sharp turns. 00:13:04.009 --> 00:13:07.669 As we transition into the mid -1920s, the narrative 00:13:07.669 --> 00:13:10.870 shifts from extreme musical innovation to a really 00:13:10.870 --> 00:13:13.590 tragic sequence of business failures. This is 00:13:13.590 --> 00:13:15.889 where it gets tough. Oliver's Dixie Syncopators 00:13:15.889 --> 00:13:17.789 are playing at the Plantation Cafe in Chicago. 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:20.700 And right across the street, or rather right 00:13:20.700 --> 00:13:23.220 in the same scene at the Sunset Cafe, is a band 00:13:23.220 --> 00:13:25.440 called the Sunset Stompers. And who is leading 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:27.860 the Sunset Stompers? None other than Louis Armstrong. 00:13:28.179 --> 00:13:30.460 The mentor and the protege are now in direct 00:13:30.460 --> 00:13:32.740 head -to -head competition. This is the moment 00:13:32.740 --> 00:13:35.149 where the armor begins to crack, isn't it? It 00:13:35.149 --> 00:13:37.710 is. Joe Oliver was a maestro when it came to 00:13:37.710 --> 00:13:40.350 leading a band, voicing a chord, or manipulating 00:13:40.350 --> 00:13:43.970 a mute. But his business acumen was glaringly 00:13:43.970 --> 00:13:45.889 deficient. He just didn't have a head for business. 00:13:46.190 --> 00:13:50.190 The music industry was, and remains, a notoriously 00:13:50.190 --> 00:13:53.190 predatory environment. And Oliver was simply 00:13:53.190 --> 00:13:56.289 not equipped to navigate the sharks. The blunders 00:13:56.289 --> 00:13:58.809 are agonizing to read about. He went through 00:13:58.809 --> 00:14:01.210 a succession of managers who outright stole money 00:14:01.210 --> 00:14:03.899 from him. Yes. He tried to negotiate a higher 00:14:03.899 --> 00:14:06.100 rate for his band to play at the Savoy Ballroom, 00:14:06.320 --> 00:14:09.200 misread the room entirely, and ended up losing 00:14:09.200 --> 00:14:11.940 the contract completely. But the most devastating 00:14:11.940 --> 00:14:14.620 strategic error of his life happened regarding 00:14:14.620 --> 00:14:17.299 New York City. Oh, this one hurts. King Oliver 00:14:17.299 --> 00:14:19.820 was offered a residency at the Cotton Club. For 00:14:19.820 --> 00:14:22.220 anyone who knows jazz history, the Cotton Club 00:14:22.220 --> 00:14:25.139 was the mountaintop. It was the gig that guaranteed 00:14:25.139 --> 00:14:28.299 national radio broadcasts and immense fame. But 00:14:28.299 --> 00:14:30.960 Oliver held out. He demanded more money, the 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:33.480 negotiations completely stalled, and he walked 00:14:33.480 --> 00:14:35.860 away from the gig. Passing on the Cotton Club 00:14:35.860 --> 00:14:37.820 is one of the great what -ifs in music history. 00:14:38.039 --> 00:14:40.519 Because the venue still needed a band, so they 00:14:40.519 --> 00:14:43.860 pivoted and hired a young, relatively unknown 00:14:43.860 --> 00:14:46.620 band leader instead. And that young band leader 00:14:46.620 --> 00:14:48.899 was Duke Ellington. Duke Ellington takes the 00:14:48.899 --> 00:14:51.639 gig that Oliver rejected, and it launches Ellington 00:14:51.639 --> 00:14:54.299 into global superstardom. Oliver essentially 00:14:54.299 --> 00:14:57.570 handed the keys to the kingdom. to someone else 00:14:57.570 --> 00:15:00.230 over a contract dispute. And that single decision 00:15:00.230 --> 00:15:02.850 triggered a downward spiral that he could never 00:15:02.850 --> 00:15:05.230 pull out of. Right. When the Great Depression 00:15:05.230 --> 00:15:09.009 hit in 1929, the entire entertainment industry 00:15:09.009 --> 00:15:12.090 contracted. Bookings dried up. People didn't 00:15:12.090 --> 00:15:14.350 have the disposable income to go out dancing. 00:15:14.610 --> 00:15:16.970 And to compound the tragedy, Oliver had kept 00:15:16.970 --> 00:15:19.289 his entire life savings in a bank in Chicago. 00:15:19.899 --> 00:15:22.419 A terrible stroke of bad luck. When that bank 00:15:22.419 --> 00:15:24.639 collapsed during the financial panic, his money 00:15:24.639 --> 00:15:27.059 evaporated. He was left with nothing, trying 00:15:27.059 --> 00:15:29.440 to drag a band through a series of grueling, 00:15:29.460 --> 00:15:31.899 low -paying, hand -to -mouth gigs across the 00:15:31.899 --> 00:15:35.000 country just to survive. And as his wealth vanished, 00:15:35.179 --> 00:15:37.460 his health began to fail. This brings us to a 00:15:37.460 --> 00:15:40.519 highly specific... Memorable and, frankly, tragic 00:15:40.519 --> 00:15:43.200 detail from our sources. The diet. Yes. King 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:45.740 Oliver had a massive sweet tooth. He absolutely 00:15:45.740 --> 00:15:48.620 loved eating sugar sandwiches. Literally, just 00:15:48.620 --> 00:15:50.700 bread and sugar. Which sounds harmless enough, 00:15:50.759 --> 00:15:54.059 but over time, this extreme dietary quirk contributed 00:15:54.059 --> 00:15:57.460 to him developing a severe case of pyuria, which 00:15:57.460 --> 00:16:00.500 is advanced gum disease. Now, for most people, 00:16:00.659 --> 00:16:04.179 bad gums are painful. But for a cornet player, 00:16:04.500 --> 00:16:08.039 it is the end of your life's work. It is crucial 00:16:08.039 --> 00:16:10.720 to understand the physical mechanics of playing 00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:13.620 a brass instrument. Walk us through that. So 00:16:13.620 --> 00:16:16.100 the embouchure, the way a player shapes their 00:16:16.100 --> 00:16:18.480 facial muscles and lips against the metal mouthpiece, 00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:22.100 requires immense strength. Buzzing your lips 00:16:22.100 --> 00:16:24.279 into a small cup and using physical pressure 00:16:24.279 --> 00:16:26.139 to manipulate the pitch. Right, you're pressing 00:16:26.139 --> 00:16:28.700 metal against your mouth. If your gums are diseased 00:16:28.700 --> 00:16:31.259 and receding and your teeth are loosening, applying 00:16:31.259 --> 00:16:33.740 that necessary pressure against a metal mouthpiece 00:16:33.740 --> 00:16:36.059 becomes excruciatingly painful. You lose your 00:16:36.059 --> 00:16:38.480 range, you lose your tone. And eventually you 00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:40.860 lose the ability to produce sound at all. By 00:16:40.860 --> 00:16:43.879 the late 1920s, the periodontitis was destroying 00:16:43.879 --> 00:16:46.419 his ability to perform. The king could no longer 00:16:46.419 --> 00:16:49.120 hold court. He had to start hiring other trumpet 00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:53.120 players. Guys like his nephew Dave Nelson, Louis 00:16:53.120 --> 00:16:55.879 Metcalf, and Red Allen. To take over his solos 00:16:55.879 --> 00:16:58.740 during performances. Yes. He would stand on stage, 00:16:59.039 --> 00:17:01.580 holding his horn, and delegate the spotlight 00:17:01.580 --> 00:17:03.580 to the younger men because the physical pain 00:17:03.580 --> 00:17:06.980 was simply too much. By 1935, his gum disease 00:17:06.980 --> 00:17:08.940 had advanced to the point where he couldn't play 00:17:08.940 --> 00:17:11.259 the instrument at all. He officially quit the 00:17:11.259 --> 00:17:14.339 music business in 1937. The visual of him on 00:17:14.339 --> 00:17:17.559 stage, slowly being silenced by his own failing 00:17:17.559 --> 00:17:19.980 body while the music he invented roared around 00:17:19.980 --> 00:17:22.859 him, is haunting. It's devastating. And his final 00:17:22.859 --> 00:17:26.880 days are profoundly solemn. The man who architected 00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:29.779 the sound of the roaring 20s found himself stranded 00:17:29.779 --> 00:17:32.500 in Savannah, Georgia. He was forced to pawn his 00:17:32.500 --> 00:17:35.069 cornet. He pawned the elegant, tailored suits 00:17:35.069 --> 00:17:37.349 he used to wear while leading the hottest band 00:17:37.349 --> 00:17:39.849 in Chicago. He spent a brief period trying to 00:17:39.849 --> 00:17:42.390 run a fruit stall just to buy food. And ultimately, 00:17:42.549 --> 00:17:45.029 he took a job working as a janitor at Wimberly's 00:17:45.029 --> 00:17:47.329 Recreation Hall on West Broad Street. He was 00:17:47.329 --> 00:17:49.549 sweeping floors in a recreation hall. It is an 00:17:49.549 --> 00:17:52.730 incredible, terrifying fall from grace. This 00:17:52.730 --> 00:17:54.829 raises an important question about the machinery 00:17:54.829 --> 00:17:57.869 of cultural consumption. It really does. The 00:17:57.869 --> 00:18:00.869 industry and the public eagerly consumed his 00:18:00.869 --> 00:18:03.559 innovations. They took his swinging tempos, his 00:18:03.559 --> 00:18:06.900 plunger mutes, his collective polyphony, and 00:18:06.900 --> 00:18:10.380 they built an entire commercial empire upon them. 00:18:10.660 --> 00:18:13.460 Yet the architect himself was ruthlessly discarded 00:18:13.460 --> 00:18:16.180 the moment he could no longer produce. He was 00:18:16.180 --> 00:18:18.720 left behind to sweep floors while the students 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:21.660 he taught people like Louis Armstrong thrived 00:18:21.660 --> 00:18:25.160 and became untouchable global icons. The end 00:18:25.160 --> 00:18:28.319 of a king. Joseph Nathan Oliver died in a Savannah 00:18:28.319 --> 00:18:32.279 rooming house around April 10, 1938. He was roughly 00:18:32.279 --> 00:18:36.319 56 years old. The cause of death was arteriosclerosis. 00:18:36.500 --> 00:18:38.759 And the source material starkly notes that he 00:18:38.759 --> 00:18:41.440 died in poverty too broke to afford treatment. 00:18:42.059 --> 00:18:44.240 He was so destitute that his sister had to spend 00:18:44.240 --> 00:18:46.960 her own rent money just to have his body transported 00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:49.539 to New York so he wouldn't be buried in an unmarked 00:18:49.539 --> 00:18:51.819 pauper's grave. He was laid to rest at Woodlawn 00:18:51.819 --> 00:18:54.380 Cemetery in the Bronx. But there is a small measure 00:18:54.380 --> 00:18:56.619 of grace at the end. Yes, there is. He was not 00:18:56.619 --> 00:18:58.420 forgotten by the people who truly understood 00:18:58.420 --> 00:19:01.160 his magnitude. Louis Armstrong, along with a 00:19:01.160 --> 00:19:04.019 group of loyal musician friends, made sure to 00:19:04.019 --> 00:19:06.440 attend his funeral. They knew exactly whose shoulders 00:19:06.440 --> 00:19:08.579 they were standing on. And many decades later, 00:19:08.700 --> 00:19:12.599 in 2007, Oliver was finally honored as a charter 00:19:12.599 --> 00:19:15.279 member of the Janet Records Walk of Fame in Indiana, 00:19:15.519 --> 00:19:18.519 recognizing those monumental acoustic recording 00:19:18.519 --> 00:19:21.539 sessions. It's a fitting tribute. So what does 00:19:21.539 --> 00:19:24.410 this all mean for us today? When you look back 00:19:24.410 --> 00:19:27.109 at the life of Joe Oliver, you are looking at 00:19:27.109 --> 00:19:29.569 the ultimate musical trailblazer. He gave us 00:19:29.569 --> 00:19:31.930 the wah -wah sound. He took the chaotic, raw 00:19:31.930 --> 00:19:34.650 energy of New Orleans and refined it into the 00:19:34.650 --> 00:19:38.250 driving, polished force of Chicago jazz. He spotted 00:19:38.250 --> 00:19:40.410 a young kid named Louis Armstrong, brought him 00:19:40.410 --> 00:19:42.509 up north, and pushed him onto the world stage. 00:19:42.809 --> 00:19:45.450 His legacy lives on in every muted trumpet and 00:19:45.450 --> 00:19:48.890 every upbeat jazz tempo we hear. He is undeniably 00:19:48.890 --> 00:19:51.309 woven into the DNA of modern culture. But as 00:19:51.309 --> 00:19:52.789 we wrap up today, I want to leave you with a 00:19:52.789 --> 00:19:54.750 final thought to mull over, and it has to do 00:19:54.750 --> 00:19:57.180 with the cruelty of timing. King Oliver existed 00:19:57.180 --> 00:19:59.440 right on the edge of a technological revolution. 00:19:59.779 --> 00:20:02.279 The recording tech. Exactly. We talked about 00:20:02.279 --> 00:20:04.279 how his acoustic recording sessions with Louis 00:20:04.279 --> 00:20:07.680 Armstrong were so raw and powerful that they 00:20:07.680 --> 00:20:10.619 bounced the needle off the wax. The tragic irony 00:20:10.619 --> 00:20:14.259 is that early 1920s mechanical recording equipment 00:20:14.259 --> 00:20:17.380 was simply not sophisticated enough to capture 00:20:17.380 --> 00:20:19.960 the true magnitude of his live sound. By the 00:20:19.960 --> 00:20:22.359 time high -fidelity electrical microphones were 00:20:22.359 --> 00:20:25.119 standard in studios, Oliver's health had already 00:20:25.119 --> 00:20:27.819 failed. So the man who invented the live sound 00:20:27.819 --> 00:20:30.700 of modern music existed just a few years before 00:20:30.700 --> 00:20:33.759 the technology could accurately capture it. We 00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:36.019 only have a faint mechanical shadow of what he 00:20:36.019 --> 00:20:38.140 truly sounded like. It's a profound realization. 00:20:38.380 --> 00:20:40.539 We only know the echo of the king, never his 00:20:40.539 --> 00:20:42.819 full roar. It makes me wonder how much genius 00:20:42.819 --> 00:20:44.960 throughout history has been lost simply because 00:20:44.960 --> 00:20:46.980 the technology wasn't ready to witness it. Yeah. 00:20:47.039 --> 00:20:49.279 How much of historical greatness is raw talent 00:20:49.279 --> 00:20:51.759 and how much is just luck, timing and dental 00:20:51.759 --> 00:20:54.000 hygiene? Thank you so much for joining us on 00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:55.759 this steam dive. I highly encourage you to go 00:20:55.759 --> 00:20:59.099 find Dipper Mouth Blues or Wah Wah Wah. Listen 00:20:59.099 --> 00:21:01.700 past the static of those old recordings and hear 00:21:01.700 --> 00:21:03.859 the innovation for yourself. Keep questioning, 00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:06.259 keep exploring, and we will see you next time.