Last updated: September 21, 2019
Person
Joseph "King" Oliver
Public Domain
Quick Facts
Significance:
Early Jazz Cornetist
Place of Birth:
Aben, Louisiana
Date of Birth:
December 19, 1881
Place of Death:
Savannah, Georgia
Date of Death:
April 10, 1938
Place of Burial:
Bronx, NY
Cemetery Name:
Woodlawn Cemetery
Joseph "King" Oliver arrived in New Orleans sometime in his childhood years when his family migrated in from Abent, Louisiana (a community located in the city’s immediate hinterland). In 1918, after learning and working in New Orleans with such people as Henry Allen, Sr., Richard M. Jones, Edward "Kid" Ory, and his own band, he went to Chicago to join a band led by fellow New Orleanian and clarinetist Lawrence Duhe. While playing with Duhe, Oliver also "moonlighted" in Chicago for a time in a band led by another New Orleanian, bassist Bill Johnson. A year or so after his arrival in Chicago, he took over leadership of the Duhe ensemble. Following a brief stint in San Francisco, Oliver returned to Chicago to lead a band at the Lincoln Gardens. In 1921 Louis Armstrong joined Oliver in Chicago. Known principally for his eight-piece ensemble, the Creole Jazz Band, Oliver fielded a larger, jump-band style ensemble called the Dixie Syncopaters in the mid-to-late 1920’s. That group worked for a couple of years at the Plantation Inn in Chicago subsequent to also working dates briefly in Milwaukee and St. Louis (John Chilton’s Who’s Who of Jazz). Ultimately however, Oliver’s larger ensemble would enjoy considerably less success than his earlier group.