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How
did the Ensemble come into being? It happened when clarinetist Fred Starr
proposed to drummer John Joyce and banjoist John Chaffe, that they assemble New
Orleans' best musicians to perform classic jazz as it was originally played.
Starr, who has written several books on the music and culture of New Orleans,
set about mining the archives and interviewing surviving New Orleans veterans
about the early styles and repertoire. Joyce, who taught the world's first
course on the history of jazz at Tulane, and Chaffe, the student of two
legendary players, Laurence Marrero and Edmond Souchon, immediately turned to
trombonist Fred Lonso, a noted brass band player, and the late Sherwood
Manigiapane, one of the city's greatest bassists.
The
Louisiana Repertory Jazz Ensemble is a nine-member group of New
Orleans-based musicians who have been performing classic New Orleans
jazz in absolutely authentic formats and period instruments since 1979.
Members of the Ensemble can trace their musical or family / musical
genealogy to the earliest days of jazz.
Veterans of years on
Bourbon Street, Mississippi steamboats, and in local brass bands, the
LRJE players are drawn from all the racial and ethnic groups that make
up the New Orleans "melting pot." Jazz critic Al Rose calls
the LRJE "the most authentic band on the scene today . . . I
haven't heard that sound for 40 years."
The group's repertoire
features compositions by "Jelly Roll" Morton, Armand Piron,
"King" Oliver and Nick Larocca. Whether recovered from
archival manuscripts or rare printed scores, reconstructed from early
recordings, or simply passed down from older players, the arrangements
of the LRJE exude the lost textures of an earlier age.
The Louisiana
Repertory Jazz Ensemble has performed at the Grammy Awards, the
prestigious Doubleday Lectures at the Smithsonian, numerous jazz
festivals in Connecticut, New Orleans, Chicago, Atlanta as well as in
France, Hong Kong, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Russia. The group has
issued six recordings.