Jazz royalty

Jazz royalty is a term encompassing the many jazz musicians who have been termed as exceptionally musically gifted and informally granted honorific, "aristocratic" or "royal" titles as nicknames. The practice of affixing honorific titles to the names of jazz musicians goes back to New Orleans at the start of the 20th century, before the genre was commonly known as "jazz". Cornetist Buddy Bolden was popularly known as "King Bolden".

The realization that such titles had commercial or public relations values that increased popularity also dates to this era. Violinist and bandleader Alex Watzke, observing Bolden's popularity, started billing himself as "King Watzke", and paid children to publicly point at him as he walked down the street and say "There goes King Watzke". While he succeeded in acquiring the title for himself, some fellow musicians used it more with amusement than with the respect accorded to Bolden. After Bolden was institutionalized in 1907, his "crown" was taken by Freddie Keppard who, in turn, "ruled" until 1914 when Joe Oliver took over the title.

Joe Oliver left New Orleans in 1919. Some later writers have assumed that the trumpet crown at that time went to Oliver's protégé Louis Armstrong, but Armstrong and his contemporaries made no such claim. Armstrong had a powerful rival in Buddie Petit, whom many ranked higher than young Armstrong in the period of 1919-1922. Neither billed themselves as "king". Oliver was known as "King Oliver" in Chicago, and was still regarded as the jazz king as late as 1925, when Louis Armstrong returned to Chicago from New York City. Armstrong's great respect and affection for Oliver was probably a factor in never claiming Oliver's kingship, although at the urging of his wife Lil Hardin Armstrong, Louis Armstrong was billed as the "world's greatest jazz trumpeter", rendering Oliver's title more ceremonial than a claim of supremacy.

...
Wikipedia