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* Nov 17, 1885 Magnolia Plantion
† Jan 7, 1960 New Orleans, La
 (photo
Alden Ashforth - courtesy Terry Dash and
Footnote)
Sonny
Henry and Albert Warner
CHARLES 'SONNY' HENRY
'It is difficult to think of the Eureka without thinking of Sonny...Two of the choruses that Sonny and Albert
worked out, their chorus on "Lord,Lord, Lord" and on "Panama" were almost
standard with some of the brass band men, and sometimes younger players would
stand around trying to follow the notes, moving their trombone slide along with
the music...Because he was a tall man, with a stern, dignified face, strangers
usually approached him a little cautiously. He spoke with a stammer too, so he
often seemed to bluster at other musiains, but they had learned to pay little
attention to his moods, and he was one of the best liked brass band men in New
Orleans.' (Sonny Henry - An appreciation, S.B. Charters - Eureka Magazine,
Volume 1 Number 3, May/June 1960)
Magnolia Plantation
I was born on November 17, 1885 on Magnolia Plantation, they
used to call it Lawrence Post Office and Govenor H.C. Wallace Plantation. My
brother played alto in the band, the Magnolia band, called it the Eclipse Band.
I was a kid going to school, but him he was in the fields and every day I used
to grab hold of his alto and play it. And one day he'd come jump on me. And so
what he did , he took his mouthpiece in the field. And so my brother in law,
Effie Jones, he was a cornet player at that time and I used to go there and play
his horn. That's how I was starting playing. And he took the trumpet away and
then I didn't have a thing to play. And so I told my father about it and so he
said : 'You go to the store and you tell the storekeeper to go ahead and get you
a trumpet.' I told the storekeeper and he said 'Okay, Henry, I'll have it here
for you tonight.' And that train came that night and I took it and went home and
'til three o'clock in the morning I was playing the trumpet. My daddy told me,
'Listen here, I got to go to work and you're going to school. But now you put
that thing down.' But in the day when they gone out, I'd play!
I must have been around fifteen years old or so.
I didn't go no further to school than the seventh grade. At that time you know,
it ain't like it is now, but the seventh grade in them times was work. The
school used to be down there on the plantation. It was a big plantation in those
days, we used to raise sugar cane.
Bands from New Orleans didn't come to Magnolia, but they used to go down on
excursions. But I remember that Pacific Band from Algiers would come down there.
They didn't have much dances down there. If they would, the brass band down
there would take charge.
The band used to parade only on Sunday, because the men had to work the rest of
the week, sun up, sun down. We used to go to a place called Woodland, to St
Sophie and to Dear Range. They had funerals, but it wasn't often. At the
plantation, we had a society, The Morning Light. There were about two or three
hundred people on the plantation. There was just one church. It was called the
Macedonia Baptist Church.
Professor Jim Humphrey
They used to have a good band there. Jim Humphrey used to come
down there and teach the boys. Jim Humphrey used to come with the six o'clock in
the evening train, stay all night and leave with the eight o'clock train in the
morning. There were sixteen pieces in that band. Effie Jones, John Anderson,
Pierre Anderson and Harrison Barnes were on trumpet, Thomas and Alfred Barnes
were on clarinet. They Harrison's brothers. Harrison Barnes is a good musician,
he came up a little after me. My brother, Willie Henry played alto. Ybo was the
other alto player. On baritone you had Freddy Barnes. My cousin, Wright Reddick
played the tuba. Jim McGinnis was the snare drummer. And my other cousin, Robert
Reddick played the bass drum. They didn't have no wire beater like Son Lewis
uses now. They had two cymbals. They had one on the drums and the other cymbal
would beat on top of it. they didn't have no ring like they got to beat now.
When Jim Humphrey wasn't there, my brother-in-law, Effie Jones, was the leader
of the band.
Of course, me, I'd get right in the window there. Jim Humphrey used to show them
fellows everything. Then, when Jim Humphrey was gone, I could go there and show
them everything what Jim Humphrey had showed them. And after that, I got in the
band. Well, after I growed a little more older, they wanted me in the band.
They had only one trombone player, valve trombone, played by a man called
Musterfer Johnson. And so, they wanted him to change, they wanted him to take
E-flat trumpet. He told them he would take that if they would give me the
trombone, because he knew I would make that. So, they gave me the trombone. And
then Jim Humphrey came there then, that night and he said 'Where you get him
from?' so my brother said, 'That's my brother. That's that little fella used to
be in the window all the time.' Jim Humphrey said 'I'm going to see what he
know.' The first piece he brought was 'Whislin' Rufus'. And let me tell you, he
jumped on me and said 'Comment ça va…' I don't know what he said in French, but
he said 'Go on down, let me see.' And I played the whole thing. And then Jim
Humphrey told the boys, 'Now look here, that young boy done come in here and
look what he did. You fellas been around here for years and he did come in and
beat all of you.'
The first way Jim Humphrey would do, he would get the band on its feet and then
he would come in with his trumpet and then, he'd get them all straight first,
you see. But the first thing he would, that battery, that's the first thing he
would do, that's the bass and trombone and the drum and everything. Because that
battery, that's the foundation of the band, you see. And so, when he got that
straight, then after that the trumpets. And when he got that straight, he'd say
'Come on, let's go, everybody.' The way he taught the boys, I think was the
right way.
Jim Humphrey came out there twice a week sometimes.
Humphrey used to write out some things for the band, little light stuff. When I
got in the band, I used to write to H.N. White in Cleveland, Ohio for that music
and he used to send me samples. And I used to go around the boys and show 'em
all their parts. One time, I never will forget it, we had a piece called
'Greater Pittsburgh March' in split time (2/4). And every time he'd come down,
the band used to be out there and meet him at the train. And so, we went there
one evening with that piece. He turned and looked around when he got it and he
said, 'I didn't give you that! Y'all done get y'all another teacher!' Effie, my
brother-in-law told him it was 'that little fellow in the window' who had showed
them that music.
New Orleans
I came to the city around 1913 or 1914, something like that,
before the war, the First World War. It must have been before the 'Big Storm'.
The Big Storm was in 1915. When I came here, I played a little with Amos Riley.
Riley led the Tulane Brass Band.
George Fihlé showed me the positions on my trombone. I knew the valve trombone
already, but not the slide. Course, I had a book for it, but I wanted to be
perfect on it. I wanted to know exactly what I was doing. And I was living back
at 2315 Orleans Street and George Fihlé was living in the twentieth block of
Orleans Street. And so, I went to there and George showed me and he charged me
$0.75 for about twenty minutes. And I went to him twice and he showed me the
positions.
Well, I hadn't joined no band at all, but they used to come and get me
sometimes. The first funeral I played was with the Excelsior Band. They came
here one day to play and I didn't have no uniform, because I wasn't interested
in playing, I was working, you see. Vic Gaspard came around with George Moret,
they came to get me to play. I was back in the yard and my wife called, 'There
are some musicianers out there they want to see you.' I told Vic Gaspard I
didn't have no uniform. And he asked me if I could read and I told him I could.
So he said Well, I don't want the uniform, I want the man!'
So I went with Vic. I got on the pieces, but I couldn't hardly walk, since it
was my first time. I was playing, but I was a little afraid I was going to fall
sometime. So Vic showed me the step. August Rousseau was the one who made me
play first trombone. He was on me so tight, I had to get out of the way.
Vic Gaspard was good, he played trombone and baritone. And a fellow they called
Georgie Hooker, he was pretty good. And this old man, he played baritone,
Adolphe Alexander sr, he used to be good. Vic had a beautiful tone, he was so
sweet. Let me tell you, that 'West Lawn Dirge', there ain't but one man that
ever played that thing on the baritone like it should be played. He was the
first one and the best one, that fella called John Porter. When he first got
that piece, that man made everybody cry around the church. He had such
expression, in the tone and when he'd hold them notes to the value, get off it
so nice and smooth. It tore your heart out. Of course Manny paul, he plays nice,
but the real baritone is nicer. Old Man Barbarin was good on alto horn. And then
in Algiers, they had Joe Pyan. And a man called Flowers, he was good too. George
McCullum was outstanding for trumpet solos. And this other fellow, he used to be
pretty good too, Lionel Ferbos. Manuel Perez was a strong man on the trumpet.
Joe Howard was an outstanding on bass horn too. Because he used to play trumpet.
Tuxedo
Then, Celestin came for me and then I got in the Original Tuxedo
and I stayed in that band until it went down. Ernest Trepagnier was on bass
drum, Henry Martyn used to be on snare drum, Eddie Jackson on bass, Isidore
Barbarin on alto, George Hooker on baritone, Bébé Ridgley on trombone, Louis
Dumaine, Celestin and Willy Edwards on trumpet. Peter Bocage used to play with
us too. Lorenzo Tio jr on clarinet. Johnny Dodds used to play clarinet with us
too. He played B-flat clarinet. In that band, we all had to read. You couldn't
play in that band if you couldn't read. Celestin used to bring the music.
Louis Armstrong left here, playing with us up on Colapissa Street, somewhere up
there. He came in and told us Joe Oliver had sent for him and he was going. He
was a sweet trumpet player, he could put in anything there.
Henry Allen sr
I played with Joe Oliver with the Henry Allen sr band across the
river in Algiers. Old Man Allen had Buddy Johnson and also Yank Johnson. Course
Buddy played with the Excelsior. Many times the Excelsior had a job and Buddy
had to go with the Excelsior and he sent me to play with Allen. The band played
strictly written music. See, Allen wasn't much, but he got good men to play. He
paid you like he want. He paid one fellow one thing and the other fellow
another. If he's a good man, he'd pay him good, and other fellows that didn't
play so well, didn't get no money hardly. But me and him used to get along good.
His son, 'Red' came up playing with us in his daddy's band. He was just a little
kid. He used to come there with an alto all the time. He had a little cap and
come on in. Of course, we were trying to help him, we didn't care. And then he
got a trumpet and he got a little band. Well, I played with him in his little
band over in Algiers. I played with him a couple of times. It was a little dance
band. I used to help him out. I used to look over his card and I used to play
his part on my trombone. He was about four times better than the old man.
Well I played with any band that would come to hire me. If our
band didn't have no job, I'd go and play with any of them. When I'd get a job, I
didn't work, just lay off and go and play the job and the next day go back to
work. When I first came to the city, I used to work for the Sewerage and Water
Board. I used to be a flagman. I wouldn't get off that often because it would
have made bad business. One day a week I used to get off like that, sometimes
two.
I used to play with the Onward too. Manuel Perez had the Onward. I loved to play
with them, all them good bands. But them bands where you got nothing but heads,
I didn't fool with them. A long time ago, no I couldn't play nothing by ear. In
the first place, because I didn't want that. I wanted to learn it the right way.
And I always did love to read. Let me tell you : in the Excelsior, the Tuxedo
and the Onward Band, you just had to know your stuff. Them people used to put
them old heavy marches on you, and you had to jump. I also used to play some
with the Terminal Brass Band, a band that Willie Parker used to play with.
WPA
When the Tuxedo went down, I went with the WPA band. Louis
Dumaine was director at that time. Then after him they got another guy they
called Pinchback. Pinchback had double crossed Louis Dumaine first. Later he
himself was replaced by Old Man Martinez.
At the time Martinez joined the band, they had about twenty-five trombone
players and Martinez looked all around and said, 'Well, I'm going to have an
examination. All them can't make the grade, get a wheelbarrow.' That meant that
they had to roll a wheelbarrow instead of playing to remain on the WPA payroll.
And one day the old man came in with about fifty different pieces. And he said,
'Now listen, now the ones who can't make the grade, go get a wheelbarrow,
because I can't use you!' He jumped on the trombones first. Out of the
twenty-five trombones, he kept only four. Louis Nelson, Harrison Barnes, Oscar
Henry and I. Them guys had been fooling around, they were just there to make the
money. But the old man got in there and he made a band. He made them play
overtures and everything.
Dance bands
Sam Charters mentions Sonny as an occasional member of the Chris
Kelly Band.
I used to play with Wendell McNeal and Hyppolyte Charles. McNeal
played violin. Old Man George, that's George Moret, used to play with us too.
And Paul Beaulieu. We played strictly written music. All kinds of music,
schottisches, waltzes, polkas, mazurkas and fox trot. We played the 'slow drag'
too. That were just any slow blues. I used to play that 'Red Book', 'Maple
Leaf', 'Frog Legs' and all them things from that book.'
The Family Album mentions that he played with Professor John
Robichaux at the Lyric Theatre until 1927. And that for years, he worked in a
taxi dance hall at Carondolet an Canal.
Charters gave the following personnel of the band Hypolyte
Charles took into the Moulin Rouge in New Orleans in 1919 : Sonny Henry, Joe
Welch, drums, Sam Dutrey, clarinet, Emile Bigard, violin and Camilla Todd,
piano. During Piron's second New York tour, they replaced Piron at Tranchina's
and they went into the New Orleans Country Club. The only change in personnel
was Robert Hall who replaced Sam Dutrey. Hypolite Charles gave up playing in
1925.
'My band went into the Moulin Rouge which was opened by an
ex-waiter at Tranchina's. I had the following musicians in my band who came from
the Maple Leaf Band, Camilla Todd, Sam Dutrey and Henry Martin who had switched
from drums to banjo. I added Sonny Henry on trombone and later Albert Glenny on
string bass. Joe Welch was the drummer with the band. Red Dugas was the original
drummer with my band, but some of the other members criticised his playing so
much that he quit and so Welch came in. My band was also the first band to
broadcast on the radio, WSMB, from New Orleans.
When Piron took his band to New York, we had been playing the dinner dances at
the New Orleans Country Club and I took over the afternoon tea, although the
people there insisted on strings only. I played a number, 'The Rosary', very
softly on my cornet with Camilla 'Chick' Todd accompanying. After the number,
the people seemed to go wild. We played at the New Orleans Country Club until my
health forced me to quit playing altogether. The people who were attending these
afternoon teas were old and very rich.' (Hypolite Charles Tulane interview)
Charters mentions that Sonny was playing with Amos White in 1923
at Spanish Fort, occasionally with Professor John Robichaux until 1927 and at
the jitney with George McCullum, Eddie Jackson and Butler Gué Rapp on banjo.
They played there for three or four years after 1926.
Charters stated that Amos White organised the New Orleans Creole Jazz Band with
Red Dugie, drums, Barney Bigard, clarinet, Willie Willigan, second cornet, Sonny
Henry, trombone, Wilhelmina Bart, piano and José Ysaguirre, bass.
Sonny Henry, Shorty Johnson and Harrison Barnes were all good
readers. At the request of Armand Piron, I organised the Imperial Orchestra for
the City of New Orleans. In it were such men as Barney Bigard, Jose Ysaguirre,
Albert Nicholas, Sonny Henry, Willie Le Boeuf, Ethel Finney on piano and George
Moret played second cornet for a while. We played for the circus acts in the
park and at the pavillion for dancing. Across the way was Piron's Orchestra at
Tranchina's Restaurant. I used eight pieces except on Sunday nights when I added
tuba, besides the regular string bass and banjo, played by Charlie Bocage.
Sometimes I would bring in a sax player from Texas, who was a mail carrier. The
pay was good.' (Amos White)
In his book 'With Louis and the Duke', Barney Bigard only
mentioned that "Meanwhile Amos White had landed a job playing a 'jitney' dance
out at Spanish Fort. Lorenzo Tio was playing on the same nights as us at
Tranchina's Restaurant at Spanish Fort. We would wind up before them each night
so I would be able to go over to hear Tio play every night.'
Eureka Brass Band
Albert Warner came for me to get in the Eureka. I didn't wanted
it, but he insisted. That must have been about 1946 or 1947, I believe. My son,
Bernell used to pick both Warner and me up with his automobile. See when they
needed a bass player, they put Joe Clark on bass. Dominique Remy put Joe Clark
on bass and said he wanted a trombone player. So Warner told them he wanted to
play with me and convinced Remy and Clark.
Warner and I were the men who got Sheik in the Eureka. One day Sheik helped us
out. We went on a job and we didn't have no trumpet player. We waited for the
trumpet player, nobody didn't come. So Sheik held up the band the best he could.
So that day Albert and I got together and we said 'Sheik gonna stay in the band
because he did a favour for the band.'
A missed opportunity
'Because Sonny's playing was so much a part of the New Orleans
tradition, it seemed important to record him with a smaller group. An informal
session was set up with Willie Pajeaud to play trumpet, Ray Burke, clarinet,
Danny Barker, banjo and guitar and a small rhythm section. The others came and
played for three or four hours, but Sonny never arrived. The next day, he came
to apologise. Someone had come to visit him that he didn't feel he could bring
to the small party. The other person would not go home, so Sonny had sat there
with him in his room, his trombone case out on the bed ready to take with him in
case the other person had left. There was never again a chance to record him'
(Sam Charters, Eureka Vol 1 N° 3 May/June 1960).
Charles Sonny Henry died in New Orleans on January 7, 1960.i1
Magnolia Plantation
Charles 'Sonny' Henry and Harrison Barnes were born on
Magnolia Plantation long before the turn of the century, Sonny Henry on
November 17, 1885 and Barnes January 13, 1889. The Magnolia Plantation was
well known for its brass band and skilled musicians. A very important role
in this musical wealth was played by Professor Jim Humphrey.
"Magnolia Plantation, they used to call it Lawrence Post Office and
Governor H.C. Warmouth Plantation...The boys called me 'Sonny' when I was
a kid. My brother played alto in the band, The Magnolia Band, called it
the Eclipse Band. I was a kid...going to school, but him was in the field,
working, and every day I used to grab hold of his alto and play it...and
he'd come jump on me. And so what he did...he took his mouthpiece in the
field. My brother in law, Effie Jones, he was a cornet player at that time
and I used to go there play his horn. That's how I was starting playing.
And he took the trumpet away and then I didn't have a thing to play. And
so I told my father about it. He said: 'You go to the store and you tell
the storekeeper to get you a trumpet.' I took it and carried home and all
night with the trumpet, till three o'clock in the morning I was playing. I
must have been fifteen years old or so, just finishing school. I did go to
school no further then the seventh grade. Seventh grade in them times was
work. The school used to be at the Plantation. They were raising sugar
cane.
Jim Humphrey used to come there and teach the boys. I was a little kid.
I'd get in the window. Jim Humphrey used to show them fellows everything.
They did have sixteen men in that band. When Jim Humphrey was gone, I
could go there and show them everything what Jim Humphrey showed them.
When I growned a little more older they wanted me to get in the band.
On trombone, valve trombone was a fellow they called Musterfer Johnson.
They wanted him to change, to take E-flat trumpet. He told me that he
would take the E-flat trumpet if they would give me the trombone. So they
give me that trombone. Then Jim Humphrey came there that night and he say
'I'm going to see what he know, you get your trombone' and the first piece
he brought was 'Whistling Rufus'. He say 'Come on, I want to see what you
know'. And I played the whole thing. Then Jim Humphrey told the boys 'That
young boy done come in here and look what he done did. You fellows been
around here for years and he done come in and done beat all of you'.
Musterfer Johnson played valve trombone. They had about four trumpets, two
clarinets. Effie Jones, John Anderson, Pierre Anderson and Harrison
Barnes. They had E-flat clarinet, Alfred Barnes, that was Harrison's
brother. And Thomas Barnes, B-flat clarinet, that was his older brother.
They had two first and second alto horns. My brother Willie Henry played
second and Ybo first. I know they used to call him Ybo, but his right name
(William Ybor?) I done forget. Barritone was Freddy Barnes. On tuba a
fella called Wright Reddick, one of my cousins. It was an old upright
tuba. The bass drum player was Robert Reddick. They didn't have no wire
beater, but they had two cymbals. They had one on the drum and the other
cymbal would beat on the top of it.
When Jim Humphrey wasn't there my brother in law Effie Jones was the
leader of the band. The first way Jim Humphrey he'd play with the band. He
would get them on its feet and then he'd come in with his trumpet. But the
first thing he would do, that battery, that's the first thing he would get
straight. That's the bass and the trombone and the drum. And then he'd
jump on the trumpets. Because that battery that's the foundation of the
band.
He used to write the music we played. Professor Humphrey used to write out
all kinds of little stuff, little light stuff, hymns and 6/8 marches. He
was really good. He could write out the parts and give it to you and you
should play it.
I used to write to H.N. White, Cleveland, Ohio for that music and he used
to send me samples. I got a piece called 'Greater Pittsburgh March'. Every
time Professor Humphrey came down, the band used to go out there and meet
him at the train. And so we went there one night with that piece and he'd
say 'I didn't give y'all that!'
Professor Jim Humphrey used to come at night with the six o'clock train
and he would stay until the next morning. He would get on the eight
o'clock train. He used to go from place to place, Woodland, St Sophie,
Dear Range and other places'.i2
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