Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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De PARIS, Sidney and Wilbur

Brothers from Crawfordsville, Indiana. Sidney (b 30 May 1905; d 13 September 1967, NYC) played trumpet; Wilbur (b 11 January 1900; d 3 January 1973 NYC) trombone; their father was a music teacher and bandmaster. Reliable section man Wilbur worked with Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Noble Sissle, Edgar Hayes, others; with Duke Ellington '46-7. Sidney was much the better soloist, and made fine records with McKinney's Cotton Pickers '29, Don Redman '32-6, Morton '39; Sidney Bechet '40 on Victor; with Bechet, Ed Hall '43 and James P. Johnson '44 on Blue Note, etc.

The brothers worked together '27-8 and from '47, mainly at Jimmy Ryan's NYC '51-62 in a sort of modern dixieland style described as 'New New Orleans Jazz' which pleased tourists, but disappointed many jazz fans. This was the era of the jazz wars of the beboppers vs the moldy figs, complicated by the fact that the moldy figs wanted only what they heard as the New Orleans style, either the original stuff or slavish copying of it; some of them did not like Bunk Johnson because he was no longer playing the same style he had played 25 years earlier, and they certainly did not want to know about 'New New Orleans Jazz'.

Nevertheless the De Paris brothers made a living, and sold albums on Atlantic: that label's Ahmet Ertegun was a fan. He loved Sidney's playing, and Omer Simeon, who played with the band from 1951-7, was his favorite clarinettist. Ahmet would also use Wilbur on the occasional R&B date; he can be heard on Big Joe Turner's 'Shake, Rattle and Roll'.