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The Holy Ghost Brass Band performed around early 1920s.
The name Holy Ghost was taken from the church or school hall on Louisiana Avenue where they rehearsed twice
weekly.
From this musicians it's known that they played in the
Brass Band:
Cornet/trumpet
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Trombone
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Clarinet
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Bariton horn
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Alto horn
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Corella
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Tenor horn
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Jesse Charles (Harold Dejan spook about a tenor sax)
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Bass horn
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Bucko Grammer
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Snare drum
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"Wells"
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Bass drum
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"Little Jim" Mukes,
"Koella"
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Leader
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Tour director
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Pinchback Touro
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Interview with Harold Dejan by Marcel Joly
Harold also started to play with the Holy Ghost Brass Band under the
direction of Pinchback Touro. He joined the Union which met at St.
Katherine's Hall on Tulane Avenue at that time.
H.D.: "In fact the Holy Ghost Brass Band was the first brass band I played
with. That's when Lorenzo Tio told my daddy that he would put me in a
brass band, he said I can get him in the Holy Ghost Brass Band, they need
an E-flat clarinet player, if you buy him an E-flat clarinet. So my daddy
went the next day and bought me an E-flat clarinet because he liked to
hear Eddie Cherie play it. Other good E-flat clarinet players were Lorenzo
Tio, Willie Humphrey, George Lewis, John Casimir and Louis Cottrell. So I
joined the Holy Ghost Brass Band. I once travelled to Opelousas, Louisiana,
with them. We played a concert, it was a church
affair, but it was at a dance hall. They had our band and a family band.
We stayed there about three days. Pinchback Touro was the director of the
Holy Ghost. Wooden Joe Nicholas and Alcide Landry played trumpet. Corella
played baritone and alto horn. Then there was a Jamaican playing French
horn. Bucko Grammer, who lived on Mandeville Street somewhere, was playing
bass horn. On snare drum was a guy called Wells, can't remember his first
name. On bass drum - I'm looking at him, a dark fellow - was Little Jim
Mukes. He was a helluva bass drummer, played with one of the good brass
bands. The bass drum was so big you couldn't see him behind it, but that's
how he beat that bass drum. Albert Warner was one of the trombone players,
I can't remember the other one. I played E-flat and they had a B-flat
clarinet too, as well as a tenor sax, Jesse Charles. I can't think of the
B-flat clarinet player's name, but he could play! He couldn't read good,
but he could play. He could blow the hell out of that damn horn. Can't
recall his name.it was over 60 years ago.
M.J.: "What was the repertoire of the Holy Ghost Brass Band? Was it much
the same as you play with the Olympia today?"
H.D.: "Some of 'em, like 'Panama', 'High Society', 'That's a plenty', 'Gloryland',
'Just a closer walk wit Thee', 'What a friend we have in Jesus'. They
never die. We also had a stack of music numbers that I can't recall.
M.J.: "Did they only play parades or did they play for dances too?"
H.D.: "Mainly parades. The only dance I ever played with the Holy Ghost
was in Opelousas."
M.J.: "Would the band play different songs or the same songs?"
H.D.: "They played the same songs, but for the dances they take a march,
they'd take the chord out of the march or the trio, you would say, and
they'd play that part for a dance. They'd play a lot of waltzes, 'Let me
call you sweetheart', a lot of beautiful waltzes.Like 'Over the waves'.
George Lewis played that one pretty, his improvising was just so beautiful.
You see, you got a drummer, a bass playing that good tempo (sings it and
beats tempo), I love that number."
Sources books:
Sources
(internet):
If you have supplementary information about
this song, please let us know.
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