New Orleans Rhythm Kings - History of The Band

History of The Band

The New Orleans Rhythm Kings in its earliest stages was the brainchild of drummer Mike “Ragbaby” Stevens, solely in that he sent the first telegram to Albert Brunies about going to Chicago to make a band and find better gigs than what New Orleans had to offer. Albert “Abbie” Brunies and his younger brother and trombonist George Brunies were initially hesitant but suggested the idea to friend, trumpet player Paul Mares, who immediately lunged for the opportunity.

“So I says Paul, I says, Abbie don’t want to go to Chicago and I’m kind of leery, I’m afraid”, George recalled. “Paul says, ‘man, give me that wire. I’ll go.’ So Paul went up and introduced himself to Ragbaby Stevens and Ragbaby liked him… and Paul got the railroad fare from his father and sent me $60”.

George Brunies picked up his trombone and set off to join Mares in Chicago, playing gigs and going to afterhours clubs with Paul Mares.

It was at one such club where the pair met some of their future band mates, drummer Frank Snyder, pianist Elmer Schoebel, and saxophonist Jack Pettis.

The name “New Orleans Rhythm Kings” in fact did not initially refer to this group, but rather to a group under the direction of a vaudeville performer by the name of Bee Palmer. Though Palmer’s group didn’t last, one of the musicians from the group, clarinetist Leon Roppolo, did. Within several months of Palmer’s group breaking up, Roppolo found himself playing on riverboats in Chicago with Elmer Schoebel, Jack Pettis, Frank Snyder, George Brunies, banjoist Louis Black and (possibly) Paul Mares.

Mares, ready to move on from riverboat life, found the group an engagement at a club called the Friars Inn, owned by Mike Fritzel. Bassist Arnold Loyocano joined forces with the growing band and thus began the group’s engagement at the Friar’s Inn that lasted 17 months beginning in 1921. During this time the group performed under the name “The Friar’s Society Orchestra”.

While at the Friar's Inn, the group attracted the interest not only of fans, but of other musicians. Cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, who had been sent to school in Chicago by his parents in the hopes of removing any jazz influences, regularly attended New Orleans Rhythm Kings shows. He was often allowed to perform with the band.

The group recorded a series of records for Gennett Records in 1922 and 1923. On two of these sessions, they were joined by pianist and composer Jelly Roll Morton. (The session with Morton has sometimes been incorrectly called the first mixed-race recording session; actually there were several earlier examples.)

After their engagement at the Friar’s Inn ended, the New Orleans Rhythm Kings were largely scattered and disorganized. Though they would reform periodically, with significant member turnover (Roppolo and Mares were more or less the two ringleaders and constants of the group), to make recordings, the group never played all together again. They all went their separate ways: Paul Mares continued to play music, releasing a record in 1935 and ran the “P&M New Orleans Barbeque” with his wife in the late 1930s Leon Roppolo was (and always had been) mentally unstable and spent the last years of his life in and out of institutions until his early death in 1945, though he managed to keep playing music as best he could. Most of the other members of the NORK also kept successful musical careers after the group dissolved.