Freddie Keppard
| Freddie Keppard | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Freddie Keppard |
| Also known as | King Keppard Fred Keppard |
| Born |
February 27, 1889 New Orleans, Louisiana, United States |
| Died | July 15, 1933 (aged 44) Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Cornettist |
| Instruments | Cornet |
| Associated acts |
Buddy Bolden Joe "King" Oliver Jimmie Noone |
Freddie Keppard (sometimes rendered as Freddy Keppard) (February 27, 1889 – July 15, 1933) was an early jazz cornetist who once held the title of "King" in the New Orleans jazz scene. This title was previously held by Buddy Bolden and succeeded by Joe Oliver.
Keppard (pronounced in the French fashion, with relatively even accentuation and a silent d, as opposed to the somewhat harsher English manner which rhymes with “leopard”) was born in the Creole of Color community of downtown New Orleans, Louisiana. Born in 1889, Freddie Keppard was Buddy Bolden’s junior by thirteen years and Louis Armstrong’s senior by eleven years. Keppard’s father, Louis Keppard (Sr.), had been a New Orleans man and had worked as a cook in the Vieux Café until his early death. His mother, Emily Peterson Keppard, was from St. James parish. His older brother Louis Keppard was his elder by one year and also became a professional musician later in life. The first tune they learned to play together was called “Just Because She Made Them Goo-Goo Eyes.” Freddie Keppard was raised on Villere Street in New Orleans in a home environment filled with music. His mother first started him on the violin, while his brother Louis first played guitar. When he was still a young boy, he and Louis, who by then had become an aspiring guitarist, would disguise their age from police by putting on long pants before going to Basin Street to shine shoes for a nickel a shine, hoping to get in on the music scene and get advice or even tutelage from their favorite musicians in the District while shoe-shining. As such, Keppard did not receive any formal musical training and may have been a non-reader who, instead of reading arrangements, most likely learned all of his parts by ear and used his powerful and imaginative abilities to improvise parts that were even better.
Freddie played violin, mandolin, and accordion before switching to cornet. By the time he was ten years old, Freddie had already learned to play mandolin and was performing in a duo with Louis around their neighborhood. He did not begin playing cornet until he was sixteen. This is most likely because, according to Louis Keppard, one strategy available to aspiring string players in those days was to switch to brass instruments in order to get more job opportunities with brass bands in parades. The Keppards’ mother apparently “didn’t think much of this music” until she saw them in their band uniforms, at which point Louis recalled that she became very proud.
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