I went on and still fooled with the violin, we used to play at parties, small groups - piano, violin and drums. Finally, it was keeping me out so much at night that the 'Mils' did not like it too much, so she pulled me in. I had to put the violin on one side for a while. She thought something was missing, though, so she said why not try to like some other instrument, so she thought of the banjo. Well, it had to be a string instrument. I didn't want any blowing instrument, which I didn't think I would ever do. I bought a banjo and learnt to play it myself.

A few months later, a cousin of mine, named James PAUL, he played piano, he asked me to come out and play with him. From him I went to different other groups and at one time we had a little fellow called Shelley Lemelle, he was a wonderful little trumpet player. Now his brother-in-law, Wills, he was a good trumpet player as well, but discontinued playing. We all had an orchestra, we had a fellow by the name of Emanuel Pere he played the saxophone and there were others whose names I cannot recall. We used to have a rehearsal every Sunday, getting together to form the band, but that band kind of broke up with fellows pulling out and playing with other groups. There were so many different bands that I played with during the twenties. I continued with the banjo up to around 1934 and then I gave it up. I worked at the Marine Bank and the Canal Bank from 1923 to 1933. Then came the Depression and I had to seek other work. I had no time for music; I had to make a living for myself and my family.

In 1935 I joined the E.R.A. Band, being led by Louis Dumaine, Then in 1936, the W.P.A., a relief organisation, formed a band that was how I feel into that. At that time I didn't have an instrument, so I borrowed one from a friend of mine, then when he needed it, I borrowed another instrument from another friend and so on. I played soprano sax, guitar, banjo, different instruments. Later I purchased my own instrument, a soprano sax, and so I played that in the W.P.A. Band. I stayed in that band a long while, but later I left because they had some kind of theory instrument and questions were given for different fellows to answer and we were kind of too clever for them, so we lost our work. Later I worked on private construction work, until that work ran out and then I was just jobbing around.

Finally, the W. P, A, called back they wanted me as a tenor player, well at that time 1 had no tenor, so I borrowed a cousin's tenor, Being laid up the condition of it was so bad that I had to have it repaired, later I started back playing with them. A month after 1 began playing, my cousin found he wanted to use the tenor so that left me in another pickle, I had a tough time then, Sam Lee, he helped me to find a tenor sax, and it cost $72.00. The neck was bent up, but it was useful, you know I still have that tenor at my house. I used it for a long time, it had a good tone, but 1 could not get a good neck to fit it, Later on I found another old horn a kid had, it was one of the first tenors they made, l used the goose neck off of that instrument and let the rest go for scrap. From then on I played with different fellows around.

I played at Shadow land with Albert French and Sam Mossey tin drums, just the three of us. We played the Shadow land during the war-time and we used to pack that place. Our tips used to be as high as $30.00. Albert used to sing many songs. At that time we were not in the Union, so one day this fellow, Victor (the owner) he managed to get us in the Union and then he wanted a larger band. Now he forgot that the three men he put in the Union had to be paid the Union rates. Now that big price came on and now he didn't want to pay it, but it was too late then, so he had to pay the Union rate to everybody, so that cut out the big tips, but they started having big bands there. Later we left Vie and went to a place on St. Charles Avenue, I forget the name now. Our group was made up of Anderson Minor, Specks Robinson, drummer Alvin elements, Dominique T-Boy Remy was the trumpet player, and he had a girl friend who used to go around with him, this girl used to play some piano, wonderful piano player. I cannot recall her name though; she left New Orleans and went to California. Then after she left, they had this fellow from across the river, Benny Turner, he played the piano with us and we stayed there about three months. Our tips were so much then that Minor would take about half an hour to count the tips while we were still playing, we used to make good money there. Then along came some tax troubles, so we quit that job. T-Boy he found another place out on Napoleon Avenue, near the river, we made up a new out-fit there. Now this girl, Ruby Thompson, she played piano with us, she's dead now, she was a school teacher and she was very critical about who she would play with, but she liked to play with us, we had T-Boy. Minor and a non union drummer from across the river, and that was when T-Boy asked me around 1945 to play with the Eureka Brass Band. Before that I had played with Kid Howard, the first funeral I ever played was with Kid Howard that was before the Eureka Brass Band. Since then, most of you know my story and of my connections with the Eureka Brass Band and Kid Thomas's band, so much so, that I will not go into that for the present, that remains to be told later.

To read more about Emanuel Paul, please visit Jean Pierre Alessi's website: www.emanuelpaul.com