Portrait of Wellman Braud (Podcast #23-010)

“Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and Wellman Braud were like Jelly [Roll Morton]; they’d talk as long as anyone would listen and hung around outside the Band Box. After Braud got written up in Ripley’s “Believe It or Not” column, he was too big for anybody. Ripley said he could pick faster than any bass player. He quit Duke’s band and started one of his own. He got a nice little band together to play a place over in Jersey. He talked so much to the man who owned the place about where to put the tables and how things were in the wrong place, the man told him to get his band together and get the hell outta there. He was always talking himself in by showing the clipping from the column and then he’d talk himself right out again.”

George “Pops” Foster, The Autobiography of a New Orleans Jazzman

Wellman Braud [1891-1966]

Duke Ellington and his Orchestra, 1930

The Indianapolis Star, 12 January 1935

The recordings heard on this podcast episode:

(CD: “Duke Ellington, The Centennial Edition” RCA Victor ‎– 09026-63386-2)

Black Beauty – Recorded 26 March 1928, New York City

Arthur Whetsel, Bubber Miley, Louis Metcalf – trumpet; Joe Nanton – trombone; Barney Bigard, Otto Hardwick, Harry Carney – reeds; Duke Ellington – piano; Fred Guy – banjo; Wellman Braud – bass; Sonny Greer – drums.

 

(CD: “The OKeh Ellington” Columbia C2K 46177)

Arthur Whetsel – trumpet; Joe Nanton – trombone; Barney Bigard – clarinet; Duke Ellington – piano; Fred Guy – banjo; Wellman Braud – bass; Sonny Greer – drums.

Tough Truckin’ Recorded 5 March 1935, New York City

Rex Stewart –  cornet; Johnny Hodges – soprano sax; Harry Carney – baritone sax; Duke Ellington – piano; Wellman Braud, Billy Taylor – bass.

— Our closing music—-

It’s Something You Ought To Know (Paul Gonsalves – “Ellingtonia Moods and Blues,” RCA Victor / RCA63562)

Recorded 29 February 1960, New York City

Paul Gonsalves- tenor sax; Johnny Hodges – alto sax; Ray Nance – cornet; Mitchell “Booty” Wood – trombone; Jimmy Jones – piano; Al Hall – bass; Oliver Jackson – drums.