|
* New Orleans, La Feb 19, 1899
† New Orleans, La Sep, 1948
As a brass band musician he played with:
Eureka,
Tuxedo,
Zulu Brass Band
The trumpeter with a nickname like a boxer in a '40s melodrama has
historical credits on the New Orleans jazz scene deserving of a round-one
knockout. He played in a band for orphaned street urchins alongside none
other than Louis Armstrong, at that point wisely allowing Satchmo the
brass duties while Louis "Kid Shots" Madison managed nicely on the first
instrument mastered by any New Orleans player, the drums. Soon Madison
would learn trumpet from historic yet shadowy figures of mastery such as
Joe Howard and
Louis Dumaine. Another of Madison's childhood associates
had been Kid Rena. By the early '20s the trumpet- and cornet-blowing
Madison was working with Oscar Celestin and the Original Tuxedo Jazz
Orchestra.
Madison was a fixture in several of the main brass bands in New Orleans
during the '20s and '30s. Recordings exist of him performing with such a
group under the direction of Bunk Johnson
in 1945; he also worked with the
Young Tuxedo Brass Band and the
Eureka Brass Band. His health would not last out the '40s, but the final
half of the decade was certainly a busy one for this man, combining a
regular evening musical drive at the Cadillac Club with a day job for the
city board of health. A musician who was quite unique in an almost total
lack of musical influence from outside of New Orleans, Madison also
performed the music of his last years on the edge of the city, at a venue
located on the vast Lake Pontchartrain. He stopped playing his horns
following a stroke at the beginning of 1948. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All
Music Guide.i1
Born on February 19th 1899, he was a
wild child and confined to the famous Waif’s Home at an early age. There -
alongside his lifelong friends Louis Armstrong and ‘Kid’ Rena - he learned
to play drums. Then he switched to cornet and was taught (still in the
Home) by Joe Howard and Louis Dumaine. David Jones - the main teacher at
the Home who also taught Louis - taught Kid Shots music theory. After
leaving the Home he was given a trumpet by Armstrong and played with Oscar
Celestin (at Beverly Gardens) and the Original Tuxedo Orchestra. In 1925 he recorded with them
on three titles - Original Tuxedo Rag, Careless Love and A Black
Rag. (Azure CD12). It is interesting to note that in this very fine
band were Manuel Manetta, the man Bolden used as conductor of his larger
bands, and two of the Marrero family - John on banjo and Simon on bass.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s Shots
continued to live in New Orleans working for the city’s Health Department
and playing regularly with various brass bands including the Young Tuxedo,
Eureka and W.P.A.
It is obvious
- from a study of the available evidence - that unlike the many NO musicians who
sought to further their careers away from the city, Shots preferred a quiet life
at home. He worked a steady job by day and by night played residency’s like that
with his own band at the Cadillac Cafe and at the P. & L Club on Lake Ponchartrain. Throughout the 1920s, 1930s and
early 1940s he continued to play a wide variety of dates but sadly Shots
suffered a stroke in January 1948 and didn’t play again.i2
|
