Lu Watters

All Music Guide:

He was a young jazz trumpeter in love with a style of music that reached its creative peak while he was still in diapers. Wynton Marsalis? No...Lu Watters, one of the leading New Orleans revivalists of the 1940s. Watters was a die-hard fan of King Oliver's Original Creole Jazz Band (which included a young Louis Armstrong); his Yerba Buena Jazz Band featured the two-trumpet lineup made famous by Oliver. Watters and the other white revivalists believed in the primacy of early jazz -- specifically, the music made in New Orleans by black musicians during the '10s and '20s -- eschewing subsequent stylistic developments like swing and bop. The Yerba Buena Jazz Band was founded in 1939 and Watters drew its members from a large swing group he led in Oakland, CA. His intent was to resuscitate the Oliver style, which he did with a great deal of success. Although Dixieland revivalists were a dime a dozen in the '40s, the Yerba Buena Jazz Band stood apart by virtue of its authenticity and helped spread the revival worldwide. The band began playing the Dawn Club in San Francisco in 1939 and the gig continued until Watters was drafted in 1942. The band regrouped after the war and returned to the Dawn Club, where they attained great popularity. In 1947, they moved to Hambone Kelly's in El Cerrito, where they remained until Watters broke up the band in 1950. On its most influential recordings, made in the mid-'40s, the group included Watters on first trumpet, Bob Scobey on second trumpet, Harry Mordecai on banjo, Bob Helm on clarinet, Turk Murphy on trombone, Bill Dart on drums, Wally Rose on piano, and Dick Lammi on tuba. Scobey and Murphy went on to lead their own popular Dixieland outfits. Besides playing tunes from the trad repertoire, Watters also supplied new arrangements and compositions. Watters retired from playing music full-time in 1957; he studied geology and later became a chef. He began playing again in 1963, performing with Turk Murphy's band at anti-nuclear rallies in Northern California. He made one last record before retiring.

Wikipedia:

Lucius "Lu" Watters (December 19, 1911 in Santa Cruz, California – November 5, 1989 in Santa Rosa, California) was a trumpeter and bandleader of the Yerba Buena Jazz Band in the "West Coast revival" of Dixieland music. This is relational to trad jazz as the musicians tended to be white and had little or no actual connections to New Orleans.

He played trumpet by the age of 11 and had his first work on a cruise ship. He then worked for Bob Crosby before deciding to form a Dixieland-style band. He founded the Yerba Buena Jazz Band in 1939 and it would be a leading force in the Dixieland revival for the next 11 years, with a small off-period caused by the war. In 1950 he broke up the band and in 1957 he retired from full-time playing.

In his life after music, he studied geology and lectured on the subject at Sonoma State University. His main area of interest was coastal earthquake conditions. He also became a chef.

In 1963 he made a bit of a return by playing with Turk Murphy at anti-nuclear rallies. He opposed building a nuclear plant on the San Andreas Fault. This related to his interest in geology and study of earthquakes. After this he returned to his life as a geologist and chef.