Arnett Nelson

Few early jazz clarinetists possess generated just as much posthumous controversy among historians as Arnett Nelson, a quirky sessionman who enlivened many a saving date through the 1920s and ’30s. Due to one latter-day enthusiast’s determination to recklessly “recognize” Nelson because the clarinetist with an improbably variety and wide stylistic selection of early jazz and blues information, every citation is still re-examined and reassessed. His verifiable function areas Nelson in group with clarinetists Wilbur Sweatman, Volly DeFaut, Wilton Crawley, Johnny Dodds, Arville Harris, Jimmy O’Bryant, and Mezz Mezzrow. His renowned eccentricity is noted on “Chicago Tempo,” an archive manufactured in 1936 with the Condition Road Swingers (better referred to as the Harlem Hamfats), where Leonard Scott is normally heard to state “what’s you are carrying out, Arnett? I hardly ever heard nobody do this before.” Blessed in Ellisville, MS, about 140 mls northeast of New Orleans on March 3 1892, Nelson was raised in close by Laurel, MS and was conscripted for provider within the First Globe Battle in 1917. Nelson’s initial gigs were using a music group led by the daddy of cornetist Lee Collins, who afterwards explained Nelson as “an excellent clarinet participant” but additionally like a vaudevillian with “a strange design” who “loved to do methods along with his clarinet. He’d take everything aside and play it.” Nelson’s first recordings were manufactured in Chicago during Dec 1923 and Feb 1924 with cornetist Jimmy Wade’s Moulin Rouge Orchestra, a punchy clothing that included violinist Eddie South and pianist Teddy Weatherford. While with Wade, Nelson constructed “Buddy’s Habit,” a perky stomp using a name motivated by Wade’s tuba participant, Louis “Pal” Gross, who evidently made frequent vacations towards the men’s area to be able to fulfill some unspecified dependence on self-medication. This melody was immortalized when, in Oct 1923, Ruler Oliver’s Jazz Music group made an archive from it that is still valued for Louis Armstrong’s single on glide whistle. In 1926-1927, Nelson documented with Wade in a variety of groups associated composer and vocalist Perry Bradford and blues queen Victoria Spivey — her support ensemble was billed as Erby’s Fidgety Five. Although Nelson’s addition in a music group billed as Ruler Mutt & His Tennessee Thumpers continues to be available to conjecture, there is no mistaking his use cornetist Punch Miller and pianist/arranger Alex Hill as associates of Jimmy Wade’s Dixielanders in Oct 1928. In Feb, 1929, he helped pianist Jimmy Blooms, banjoist Ikey Robinson, and drummer Big Sid Catlett in offering accompaniment for comedian and feminine impersonator Frankie “Fifty percent Pint” Jaxon. The final lap of Nelson’s documenting career included leading his very own Sizzling hot Four which contains metal guitarist Casey Costs Weldon, guitarist Big Costs Broonzy, pianist Dark Bob Hudson, and bassist Costs Settles in Oct of 1936, and many appearances being a Windy Town sideman through the years 1935-1937 as he sat along with Victoria’s sister Special Pease Spivey (as Hannah Might & their state Road Four); Mary Mack & their state Road Swingers; Lil Johnson & Her Chicago Swingers, Leonard Scott & His Blue Children; Ike Smith’s Chicago Children; Lorraine Walton; Tampa Crimson; Bumble Bee Slim; Washboard Sam, Crimson Nelson & His Washboard Music group; the Washboard Rhythm Kings, the Chicago Rhythm Kings, as well as the Harlem Hamfats. After 1940, alcoholism undermined Nelson’s health insurance and curtailed his professional actions. He withdrew into anonymity and passed on in Chicago on March 14, 1959.