Alcide Nunez - Biography

Biography

Alcide Patrick Nunez was born in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. His parents were Victor Nunez and Elisa Nunez Chalaire and were of Isleño and Louisiana French descent respectively. The family moved to New Orleans when he was a child.

He grew up among the Marigny and Bywater the district of New Orleans. For a time, Nunez lived at 1340 Arts Street, in the St. Roch neighborhood of New Orleans. He initially played guitar, then switched to clarinet about 1902. He soon became one of the top hot clarinetists in the city. By 1905 he was a regular in Papa Jack Laine's band, in addition to playing with Tom Brown (trombonist) and sometimes leading bands of his own. Alcidez could play several instruments, but mainly played the clarinet. In addition, he was able to improvise variations on the songs he heard. Before he was able to make music a full-time profession, Nunez worked for a while driving a wagon drawn by mules, in which he carried to his fellow musician "Chink" Martin Abraham.

In early 1916 he went north to Chicago with Stein's Dixie Jass Band, which was to become famous as the Original Dixieland Jass Band, but Nunez left the band shortly before they made their first recordings. In 1917 the Dixieland Jass band achieved great success with their recording of the instrumental "Livery Stable Blues" under the direction of Nick LaRocca. However Nunez and Ray Lopez filed copyright to a sheet music version of the tune before LaRocca. Nick LaRocca and the band sued Nunez for $10,000. At the end the lawsuit was thrown out without decision; the judge denied that any "musicians" who could not read written music could be said to have written anything.

After some time playing with Tom Brown's band in Chicago, he went to New York City with Bert Kelly's band.Pee Wee Russell announced in Chicago and New York that Nunez was the greatest jazz clarinetist of the world. Nunez be become the band leader of Bert Kelly. After playing with Kelly through 1918, at the start of 1919 Nunez helped form the band the Louisiana Five led by drummer Anton Lada. They quickly became one of the most popular bands in New York at the time and recorded for several record labels. In early 1920 Nunez worked with the New York dance band of Harry Yerkes, but in the same year, Nunez returned temporarily to the Louisiana Five, touring the United States.

In 1922 he returned to Chicago to lead the house band at Kelly's Stables, one of the city's top nightclubs and played with the band of Willard Robison. After Bert Kelly replaced him with Johnny Dodds. However, Nuñez began to lose his teeth, so he was almost unable to play his clarinet with which had worked on most of the bands in which he participated. Therefore he returned with his family to New Orleans, where he got a denture and returned to play with various bands in addition to his day job with the police department until his death.

He died in September 2, 1934 of a heart attack.