Audio file
Title: Interview with Albert Glenny and Leonard Bechet about sporting life costumes, segregation, and opportunities for people of color in New Orleans
Date recorded: April 4, 1949 to April 14, 1949
Contributor(s): Performer: Lomax, Alan; Performer: Glenny, Albert; Performer: Bechet, Leonard; Recordist: Lomax, Alan
Genre: interview/commentary
Instruments: voice
Culture: African American, Louisiana Creole, Southern U.S.
Language: English
Setting: At the home of Albert Glenny, 1315 St. Anthony St.Original format: Reel to Reel
Tape number: T995
Track: 5
Part of: Albert Glenny and Leonard Bechet 4/49
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Date recorded: April 4, 1949 to April 14, 1949
Contributor(s): Performer: Lomax, Alan; Performer: Glenny, Albert; Performer: Bechet, Leonard; Recordist: Lomax, Alan
Genre: interview/commentary
Instruments: voice
Culture: African American, Louisiana Creole, Southern U.S.
Language: English
Subject(s):
Note: Discussion of the outfits of the sporting characters in Storyville and the rise of segregation in New Orleans. Around the turn of the century, Bechet says, there was "a better understanding" between the races. Bechet and Glenny recall the trades (such as bricklaying) that were available to people of color in New Orleans. Lomax asks Glenny and Bechet why there were so many musicians in New Orleans; Glenny says that the early players were all Black, though the "white boys can play now!" They were taught, they say, by Big Eye Louis and Freddie Keppard. Bechet says that Manuel Perez was responsible for Las Vegas.Setting: At the home of Albert Glenny, 1315 St. Anthony St.
Location: New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, United States
Archive ID: T995R05
Tape number: T995
Track: 5
About the session: Interviews with Albert Glenny and Dr. Leonard Bechet. Albert Glenny (1870–1958) was a member of Buddy Bolden’s marching band (c. 1900) and played string bass with the bands of Kid Rena, Big Eye Louis Nelson, John Robichaux, and the Depression-era WPA Brass Band and ERA Orchestra. The box of the recording tape bears this description: “79, spry old gentleman, spots and freckles, eyebrows gone, toothless, his memory slow, eyes blurry and red, the slightly clawed fingers, clean, poor clothes, broken but polished shoes, quiet old fellow, looks 60.” Dr. Bechet was a trombonist, dentist, and older brother of renowned clarinetist Sidney Bechet. He led the Silver Bells Brass Band, featuring Sidney, until World War I and was a member of the Young Superior Brass Band in the 1920s. (See Lomax's interviews with Bechet with Glenny.)
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