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THE EXODUS |
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Many of those* that moved North used a stepping-stone on the way: the Riverboats.
Riverboat Jazz
These Riverboats plied up and down the Mississippi, not only carrying passengers to and fro, but undertaking to entertain them at halts. Their tourist season lasted from May till October and their Southern terminal was New Orleans. Out of season, they moved down to the Southern half of their territory, where it was warmer, and plied on short excursions. Many of the musicians who had been thrown out of work from Storeyville found employment on the boats, and thus carried the new jazz to such places as Memphis, St. Louis, Davenport, Minneapolis, Omaha, Kansas City, Pittsburg and Shreveport.
The big boatowner, Captain Joseph Strekfus, was an enterprising man who figured that he would get the most varied entertainment for his passengers if he hired musicians who could read music. He took on pianist and bandleader Fate Marable (1890-1947) to spot and hire talent for him; and in 1918 Marable secured Louis Armstrong to play in the band on the steamer Dixie Belle. Armstrong appreciated the fact that Marable5 s men could read music; the band could always learn the very latest tunes and, as Armstrong writes: "I wanted to do more than fake the music all the time, because there is more to music than just playing one style." |
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