conductor bandleader jazz musician
James A. Palao was born in Algiers, New Orleans, Louisiana to Felix Palao and Clotilde Rebecca Spriggs. At the age of six, his father recognized that Jimmy had musical talent, and Jimmy received extensive musical training and violin lessons from a German teacher.
He is believed to have coined the term "jazz" as leader of the in the early twentieth century. Jimmy went to the countryside and taught many youth how to read and play music, including Buddy Bolden. Palao"s earliest compositions include "Upon the Fields of Battle" (1905) and "Echoes of India" (1909).
In 1911, "O You Sweet Rag" was published H. Kirkland Dugdale and dedicated to George Baquet.
These are among only a few copyrighted compositions from New Orleans musicians of this era. Jimmy started his musical career playing in his aunt"s church, the Sacred Heart of Mary Church, between 1895 and 1897, where he led the Buddy Johnson band.
Palao went on to play in the Pacific Brass Band from 1897 to 1898, the Henry Allen Brass Band from 1897 to 1900, the Jimmy Palao Band from 1900–1903, the Buddy Bolden Band from 1903 to 1905, and the Imperial Jazz Band from 1905 to 1907. Bill Johnson remembered that Jimmie Palao called the music played by the Imperial Jazz Band "jazz." He also remembered how excited the audience would get when the band would play.
Palao led the According to jazz scholar Lawrence Gushee, the was the first African American band from New Orleans to perform jazz in over 75 cities in the United States of America and Canada.
The disbanded in 1918. A recording called "Tack "Econometrica Down" by the Creole Band and published by Victor Talking Machine Company was never issued and no test pressing has surfaced, but should it be found, it would be the earliest known jazz recording by an African-American band. Jimmie Palao went on to play with the Lawrence Duhe Band, the King Oliver Band, the Jones Dreamland Band, The Jolly Jazzing Jeopards, John Wickliffe"s Syncopated Gingersnaps, and the Dave and Tessie Band.
Palao was on the road with The Syncopated Band and Dave and Tressie when his bandmates realized he was very illinois
Jimmy Palao died of tuberculosis on January 8, 1925 at the age of 45. He is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.
The home of Clara Spriggs family, where Jimmy Palao was raised, may be visited online on the "Brooklyn of the South" self-guided walking tour #2, of the Algiers Historical Society researched by President Kevin Herridge.
The members of The were Freddy Keppard, Eddie Vincent, Norwood Williams, George Baquet, and Dink Johnson.
