Jimmie Noone

Biography

James "Jimmie" Noone (April 23, 1895 – April 19, 1944) was an American jazz clarinetist and bandleader whose elegant, fluid playing helped define the clarinet’s role in early jazz. Born on a farm in Cut Off, Louisiana, to Lucinda (née Daggs) and James Noone, he grew up in Hammond, Louisiana, first playing guitar before switching to clarinet in his mid-teens.[1][2][6] Around age 15 he moved to New Orleans, where he studied with influential clarinet pedagogue Lorenzo Tio Jr. and a prodigiously talented 13‑year‑old Sidney Bechet, absorbing both technical refinement and a supple, vocal approach to phrasing.[1][3][5] By 1912–1913 he was playing professionally in Storyville with cornetist Freddie Keppard, and soon worked with Buddy Petit, Kid Ory, Papa (Oscar) Celestin, the Eagle Band, and the Young Olympia Band, quickly becoming part of the core New Orleans jazz community.[2][3]

After the closure of Storyville in 1917, Noone toured on the vaudeville circuit with Keppard’s Original Creole Orchestra and first appeared in Chicago, where he would later become a central figure.[2][3] He settled permanently in Chicago in 1918, studying with Chicago Symphony clarinetist Franz Schoepp and working at the Royal Garden Café in a band that included King Oliver, Bill Johnson, Paul Barbarin, and others.[1] In 1920 he joined Keppard again in Doc Cook’s Dreamland Orchestra, playing clarinet and saxophone for about six years and beginning his recording career in the early 1920s, including sessions with Ollie Powers’ Harmony Syncopators and possibly King Oliver’s band.[1][2][3] In 1926 Noone formed his own group at Chicago’s Apex Club; Jimmie Noone’s Apex Club Orchestra, featuring the two‑reed frontline of Noone and alto saxophonist Joe Poston with piano, guitar, and drums (later tuba), became one of the most celebrated small ensembles of the late 1920s and recorded extensively for Vocalion.[1][2][3] Historian Richard Hadlock noted that Noone’s quintet preserved New Orleans ensemble concepts while omitting brass, with Noone and Poston trading loose, melodic leads and Earl Hines’s powerful right hand often joining the front line, placing Noone “with one foot in traditional New Orleans bandsmanship and the other in the new movement toward virtuoso swing solo playing.”[1][3]

Through the 1930s Noone remained active in Chicago clubs, continued to record (for Vocalion into 1935, then Decca and Bluebird in the later 1930s and 1940), and briefly experimented with a big band, in which future star vocalist Joe Williams made his professional debut in 1937.[3] Although the swing era’s large ensembles often dominated the market, Noone’s reputation rested on his small‑group work, where his warm tone, polished technique, and lyrical, songlike improvisations stood apart from the more driving, blues‑oriented styles of fellow New Orleans clarinetists Johnny Dodds and Sidney Bechet.[1][4] In early 1944 he joined an all‑star New Orleans revival band assembled for Orson Welles’s CBS radio program “The Orson Welles Almanac,” playing alongside Kid Ory, Mutt Carey, Zutty Singleton, Ed Garland, Bud Scott, and Buster Wilson; the group’s success on air helped launch Ory’s comeback and underscored Noone’s continuing stature as a link between classic New Orleans jazz and later swing idioms.[1][3] Noone died suddenly of a heart attack in Los Angeles on April 19, 1944, just as this renewed attention to early jazz was gathering momentum, but his recordings—especially those with the Apex Club Orchestra—remain touchstones for clarinetists and historians of early jazz.[1][3][4]

Fun Facts

• Jimmie Noone initially played guitar as a child in Hammond, Louisiana; he only switched to clarinet around age 15, shortly before moving to New Orleans to study seriously.[2][3][6]
• He replaced Sidney Bechet in Freddie Keppard’s band while still a teenager, an early sign of how highly he was regarded among New Orleans musicians.[2][3]
• Jimmie Noone’s Apex Club Orchestra became famous for its unusual brass‑free frontline of clarinet and alto saxophone, a configuration that let his clarinet sound shine with exceptional clarity on recordings.[1][2][3]
• In March 1944 he joined an all‑star New Orleans group on Orson Welles’s CBS radio show; those broadcasts were so successful that they helped relaunch Kid Ory’s career and contributed to the wider New Orleans jazz revival.[1][3]

Musical Connections

Mentors/Influences

• Lorenzo Tio Jr. - Formal clarinet teacher in New Orleans, providing technical training and a refined approach to tone and phrasing. (Influence heard throughout Noone’s Apex Club Orchestra recordings rather than in a single documented project.) [c. 1910–1915 (Noone’s mid‑teens and early professional years in New Orleans).]
• Sidney Bechet - Early mentor and influence; Bechet, then only 13, gave Noone clarinet lessons and exposed him to a fluid, expressive New Orleans style. (No known joint recordings from this period; the influence is stylistic, evident in Noone’s later lyrical clarinet lines.) [c. early 1910s in New Orleans, before Noone’s move to Chicago.[1][3][5]]
• Franz Schoepp - Classical clarinet teacher with the Chicago Symphony, helping Noone refine his technique and intonation. (Reflected broadly in the polished execution on his Chicago recordings, including the Apex Club sides for Vocalion.) [Starting 1918 after Noone settled in Chicago.[1]]

Key Collaborators

• Freddie Keppard - Cornetist and bandleader; Noone replaced Sidney Bechet in Keppard’s band and later toured with his Original Creole Orchestra and worked with him in Doc Cook’s orchestra. (Performances with Keppard’s band in Storyville; touring with the Original Creole Orchestra; recordings and performances with Doc Cook’s Dreamland Orchestra.) [c. 1913–1917 (New Orleans and vaudeville circuit), 1920–mid‑1920s (Doc Cook’s band). [1][2][3]]
• Doc Cook (Charles Cooke) - Bandleader of a major Chicago dance orchestra (Doc Cook’s Dreamland Orchestra) where Noone played clarinet and saxophone for six years. (Recordings with Doc Cook’s band in the 1920s and nightly performances at Chicago venues such as the Dreamland and the Municipal Pier.) [1920–1926.[1][2][3]]
• Joe Poston - Alto saxophonist/clarinetist and Noone’s frontline partner in the Apex Club Orchestra, trading melodic leads in a brass‑less small‑group setting. (Vocalion recordings by Jimmie Noone’s Apex Club Orchestra (1928–1929) featuring clarinet–alto sax interplay.) [Mid‑1920s in Doc Cook’s band and 1926–early 1930s in the Apex Club Orchestra.[1][2][3]]
• Earl Hines - Pianist whose powerful right hand often functioned as part of the melodic frontline in Noone’s Apex Club group. (Apex Club Orchestra recordings for Vocalion in 1928–1929, where Hines’s piano is a defining feature.) [Late 1920s (Apex Club residency and recording dates). [1][2][3]]
• King Oliver - Cornetist and bandleader; Noone worked with Oliver at Chicago’s Royal Garden Café and possibly on early Oliver recordings. (Performances at the Royal Garden Café; possible participation (scholars debate personnel) on titles like “Chattanooga Stomp” and “Camp Meeting Blues.”) [1918–1920 in Chicago.[1][2]]
• Kid Ory - Trombonist and early New Orleans bandleader; Noone played jobs with Ory in New Orleans and later joined him in the all‑star band on Orson Welles’s radio show. (Early New Orleans gigs; 1944 performances on CBS’s "The Orson Welles Almanac" with the Kid Ory–led all‑star group.) [c. 1910s in New Orleans; March–April 1944 in Hollywood/Los Angeles.[1][2][3]]
• Mutt Carey, Ed Garland, Zutty Singleton, Bud Scott, Buster Wilson - Bandmates in the all‑star New Orleans revival band for Orson Welles’s radio program. (Live radio performances on "The Orson Welles Almanac," which helped spark renewed interest in New Orleans jazz.) [1944.[1][3]]
• Joe Williams - Future jazz singer who made his professional debut with Noone’s swing‑era big band. (Early band performances (specific recordings are not clearly documented in sources).) [1937.[3]]

Artists Influenced

• Benny Goodman - Goodman cited New Orleans clarinetists, including Noone, as important models; critics note that Noone’s smooth, technically polished style anticipated the swing‑era clarinet approach that Goodman popularized. (Influence heard broadly in Goodman’s 1930s small‑group and big‑band clarinet style rather than a single dedicated tribute work.) [Influence especially evident in the 1930s swing era.[4][9]]
• Joe Williams - As a young singer in Noone’s band, Williams gained early professional experience that helped launch his later career with Count Basie and others. (Early performances with Noone’s big band (precursor to his later recorded work as a major jazz vocalist).) [Late 1930s.[3]]
• Jimmie Noone Jr. - Noone’s son, a clarinetist who carried on his father’s instrumental legacy, performing and teaching jazz. (An album with John R. T. Davies (1985) and multiple recordings with Jeannie and Jimmy Cheatham’s Sweet Baby Blues Band.) [Professional career from 1964 until his death in 1991.[1]]

Discography

Albums

Top Tracks

1. Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me (The Complete Jimmie Noone (1923-29), Vol. 1)
2. Four Or Five Times (12-01-37) (Complete Jazz Series 1934 - 1940)
3. Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me (Essential Jazz Masters)
4. Way Down Yonder In New Orleans (That Amazing Soft World Of Jimmie Noone)
5. Let's Sow a Wild Oat (The Naughty 1920s: Red Hot & Risque Songs of The Jazz Age, Vol. 1)
6. Four Or Five Times - Original
7. So Sweet (07-01-30) (Complete Jazz Series 1930 - 1934)
8. You Rascal, You (07-29-30) (Complete Jazz Series 1930 - 1934)
9. I Know That You Know (Jimmie Noone: Apex Time, 1928-1930 (Jazz Archives No. 4))
10. Hell In My Heart (12-01-37) (Complete Jazz Series 1934 - 1940)

External Links

• Spotify
• Wikipedia