History The Eureka Brass Band

The Eureka Brass Band was a brass band from New Orleans, active from 1920 to 1975.

The group was founded by trumpeter Willie Wilson, and its early members included clarinetists Willie Parker, John Casimir, and George Lewis. In the 1930s Wilson became ill, and trumpeter Alcide Landry had nominal control over the band, but after 1937, when Wilson's condition forced him to leave, trombonist Joseph "Red" Clark became the group's leader briefly, followed by Dominique "T-Boy" Remy (1937-46) and then Percy Humphrey, who led the group for the remainder of its existence.

The group's membership varied at any given time, usually holding between nine and eleven members. The typical instrumentation was three trumpets, two trombones, two reeds, tuba, snare drum, and bass drum. They recorded prolifically, for Pax, Alamac, Folkways, Jazzology, and Sounds of New Orleans. A 1951 album, New Orleans Parade, features the players Humphrey, trombonists Charles "Sunny" Henry and Albert Warner, and saxophonist Emanuel Paul. Their 1962 sessions Jazz at Preservation Hall, Vol. 1: the Eureka Brass Band of New Orleans, issued on Atlantic Records, features Humphrey and his brother, clarinetist Willie Humphrey, trumpeters Kid Sheik Cola and Pete Bocage, trombonists Albert Warner and Oscar "Chicken" Henry, Emanuel Paul on tenor sax, Wilbert "Bird" Tillman on sousaphone, snare drummer Josiah "Cie" Frazier, and bass drummer Robert "Son Fewclothes" Lewis.

After 1975 the group disbanded, but Humphrey occasionally revived the name for festival performances and other appearances.

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