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1892 Point A La Hash, La
† 1951
Most of the information about D'Jalma Garnier was send to me by
related family:
Leilani Bell - Garnier
Tania R. Answorth
Nickname: "Papa" Garnier
D'Jalma Garnier with his
second wife
Gloria
Baham Garnier.
D'Jalma Thomas Garnier was born in 1892 in Point A La Hash,
Louisiana
from
the hurricane-ridden Plaquemines Parish. Point A la
hash is the parish seat of Plaquemines parish. He was one of eight children. He left Point La Hash to escape the
flood and promised never to return if he made it out alive. He played the
trumpet, the piano, and the violin. He also read and wrote music exceptionally
well. He played music at the Happy Landing Club on Haynes Blvd.
(New Orleans).i1
D'Jalma played with the
Camelia Brass Band
and a brass band
playing under his own name.
It's possible
He taught Louis Armstrong during Louis' stay at the New
Orleans, Louisiana boys home for colored waifs (1).
Along with these brass bands he also played with the
Louisiana Buzzards(2); a Mardi Gras/Second-line
marching band. The
D'Jalma Garnier Brass Band probably
broke up during the early depression years, due a lack of work.
His first wife, Florence Naborne Garnier was a songstress. She also played the
piano. They had 13 children (4
of them are now deceased) with his second wife (Gloria
Baham Garnier) he had 3
children and 2 step-children that he adopted.
He also conducted the Works Progress Administration Symphony
Orchestra in the 1930's, this was stated by Wilbert Tillman.
He was know to them as Professor Albert Garnier as he did not want his real name
revealed.
D'Jalma held many jobs. The WPA bands, were made up of people that
worked for the light company (meter readers, etc...). He worked for the
railroad, he was a longshoreman, and a contract carpenter (he built the
house at 1819 Lombard Street). He was also a member of the ELKS
Club.
He wrote many marches for the Jefferson City Buzzards which he turned
over to a fellow musician by the name of Booker T. Green. He died at the age of
59 of a heart attack. He lived at 1819 Lombard Street at the time of his
death. He was laid to rest in Soniat Cemetery.
(Could this have been Henry Booker T.
Glass, because he played in D'Jalma's Brass Band)
The fiddler of the Cajun band Filé, D'Jalma Garnier is family of
D'Jalma. He's called Lil "D" (D'Jalma
Jr.). His father was D'Jalma Jr.
and has 10 children, all of which are
instrumentally talented in music. One of his son's Tony Garnier is the
bassist and band leader
for Bob Dylan.
Garnier's father, D'Jalma Garnier II, also
musically inclined, relocated from
New
Orleans
seventh ward to Saint Paul, Minnesota, for its enlightened political climate.
1) "D'Jalma Garnier and
Charlie Valteau are said to have tought Louis Armstrong during his time in the
Waifs Home Brass band. It is possible that Peter Davis (who
taught the fundamentals of music) was not a good reader and that outside
help was brought in". This has to be happened between 1913-1915.
Other pupils of D'Jalma were
Lawrence Tocca and Buddie Petit.
Albert Burbank (clarinet player) discribed him as a "straight musician",
by what he presumably meant he did not play much by ear and relied heavily
on written music. 2"Fallen Heroes, Jazzology Press"
2) The band mentioned as
"Louisiana Buzzards", was probably the Camelia Brass
Band, who seems to have been a Carnival Day fixture with the Jefferson City
Buzzards, a white Uptown carnival club, that continued to hire brass
bands until into the 1960s.
2"Fallen Heroes, Jazzology Press"
Hi Hugo: Most of the oral history material on D'Jalma Garnier was used by
Knowles in FALLEN HEROES.
The Waif's Home connection is more mysterious. We have a field note in the
Garnier persons file by Dick Allen dated April 29, 1968 which states "Met man at
Symphony Book Fair on April 19, 1968, who knew D'jalma Ganier[sic]. Although he
was white, he had played with Garnier, perhaps only for fun. He said that Garnier
had taught Louis Armstrong in the Waif's Home. Cf. Armstrong, SATCHMO, MY
LIFE...He added that I could get more information on Ganier by asking at the
house on the uptown river corner of N. Tonti and Mandeville. Also we should see
Leonard J. Denena and an official of the Carpenter's Union on S. Broad. Garnier
was a carpenter and would be about 90 if he were alive. This anonymous man said
that he will mail us a write-up on everything he remembers about New Orleans
jazz. His family owned a shop in which phonograph records were sold. This was
on N. Tonti, I believe in the same block as Ganier's house." Apparently, no
further information was forthcoming and the clues were not followed up. I see
no reference to Garnier in SATCHMO, MY LIFE IN NEW ORLEANS (which is not
indexed), so this connection remains uncorroborated to my knowledge. So, this
may be where the connection started, but it seems that additional proof would be
required to verify the claim. On the other hand, it was not unknown for former
students and other musicians to assist Peter Davis with his teaching duties at
the Waif's Home, so the Garnier connection is certainly possible.
Bruce
Boyd Raeburn
(curator
of the Hogan Jazz Archives)
Thanks Bruce for sending this information.
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