Bob French: 1910, it was started by Oscar “Papa” Celestin, and it was one of the bands that all the society people used to use.
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BF: The band was always dressed in tuxedos, and they played all the great halls and great homes, and they actually played the Eisenhower inauguration. My dad was in the band at that time.
Nick Spitzer: Now your dad was a banjo player, right?
BF: Correct.
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BF: And then Celestin died in ’54. Eddie Pierson, the trombone player, took it over for a year. He died, and then my dad took it over, and he had it until 1978.
NS: And he went out as Papa French?
BF: Mmhmm, somebody put that name on him.
NS: What was your relationship to you father’s music when you were young and growing up?
BF: Didn’t have a relationship because I didn’t want to play that BS, as I thought then, and I played R&B. When I started, R&B was popular then.
NS: What was wrong with the old jazz?
BF: Nothing.
NS: Why did you not want to play it?
BF: Stupid.
NS: [laughs]
BF: I didn’t realize how important the music was until I tried to play it.
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BF: I was living at home, I was still living at home with mom and daddy. And I got forced into it one night. My dad is getting ready, I hear him, I’ve got my door closed in the room, and he busts in there and said, “Put your blue suit on, you’re going to work with me.” I’m like, “Going to work with you?” He said, “Yeah!” You know, you don’t argue back to my daddy or nobody’s daddy at that time. We were raised, we were not half-raised. And we go down there, I said, “You know daddy, you know I know nothing about this music.” And he said, “Ah don’t worry, you’ll be alright, you’ll be alright.” So when I walked in, it was the Fairmont Hotel, right? I gotta tell you about this band. Jack Willis–great trumpet player, played with Ray Charles for years–Frog Joseph–one of the greatest trombone players that ever lived. The clarinet player was Joseph “Cornbread” Thomas–that was his nickname–great player, great singer, great entertainer. The piano player was Miss Jeanette Kimball, number one piano player in the world as far as playing New Orleans music. And the bass player was the most recorded bass player in the world, Frank Fields. Frank Fields played on every hit that came out of this city in the ‘40s, ‘50s on. And then my dad.
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NS: This is a pretty big time band for you to walk into to pick up on drums all of a sudden.
BF: That’s why I felt like one inch tall. I had no confidence, didn’t know the music. Frog and Jack told me, “Don’t worry about it, we’ll take care of you.” First tune, one of them turned around and said, “This is how the head of the tune goes.” Yeah okay, and I stumbled through that. As the night would go on, I would say, “You’re a dummy. You should know this music. You’re in the house with this man all your life, why don’t you know this music?” When we got off I was so embarrassed, I didn’t even want to take the money. I should be paying them for putting up with my BS. That day, that night, was a new beginning.
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