Arthur Frank Hazel (August 15, 1903, Harvey, Louisiana - March 5, 1968,

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

), better known as Monk Hazel, was a jazz drummer and cornetist.Rye, Howard; Barry Kernfeld.
"Hazel, Monk".
''Grove Music Online''. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 27 November 2022.

Career background

In addition to being a drummer, Hazel occasionally took solos

cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. There is also a soprano cor ...

and mellophone. Hazel performed with several bandleaders in and around New Orleans in the 1920s, among them Abbie Brunies, Tony Parenti, Jules Bauduc, and Johnny Wiggs. Hazel's father was a drummer as well. Early on Monk played drums with Emmett Hardy, who gave him his first cornet, and then with Stalebread Lacombe. In the 1920s, Hazel worked with many bands including those led by Abbie Brunies (the Halfway House Orchestra), Tony Parenti (with whom he recorded in 1928) and Johnny Wiggs. From the late 1920s to the early 1930s, Hazel led his own Bienville Roof Orchestra (which played atop the Bienville Hotel at Lee Circle, and made recordings in 1928) and then spent time in New York playing with Johnny Wiggs, Jack Pettis and with his own group (1929–31). Hazel was in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

for a period (working with

Gene Austin Lemeul Eugene Lucas (June 24, 1900 – January 24, 1972), better known by his stage name Gene Austin, was an American singer and songwriter, one of the early " crooners". His recording of " My Blue Heaven" sold over 5 million copies and was for ...

) but eventually came back to New Orleans, performing with Joe Caprano (1937) and the Lloyd Danton Quintet. Hazel spent 1942-43 in the Army and then worked for a time outside of music. During his final 20 years, Hazel was once again active in New Orleans, recording with his own band in 1945 and performing with Sharkey Bonano (1949-52), George Girard, Mike Lala, Santo Pecora and virtually every other important name in New Orleans jazz. As a leader, Monk Hazel recorded four titles in 1928 for

Brunswick Records Brunswick Records is an American record label founded in 1916. History 1916–1929 Records under the Brunswick label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, a company based in Dubuque, Iowa which had been manufacturing ...

and a full album for Southland Records in 1954; Pete Fountain and

Al Hirt Alois Maxwell "Al" Hirt (November 7, 1922 – April 27, 1999) was an American trumpeter and bandleader. He is best remembered for his million-selling recordings of "Java (instrumental), Java" and the accompanying album ''Honey in the Horn (album ...

were among his sidemen on the latter recording.

References

* ''New Orleans Jazz, A Family Album'', Rose & Souchon, LSU Press, 1984 * ''Who's Who of Jazz'', John Chilton, Da Capo, 1985 American jazz drummers American jazz cornetists Dixieland drummers Dixieland cornetists Jazz musicians from New Orleans 1920 births 1980 deaths 20th-century American drummers American male drummers People from Harvey, Louisiana 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians New Orleans Rhythm Kings members Southland Records artists Brunswick Records artists Drummers from New Orleans {{US-brass-musician-stub