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In 1953, Oscar ‘Papa’ Celestin played jazz at the White House [1]

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Date: 2024-06-26  

The Original Tuxedo Jazz Band, led by Oscar “Papa” Celestin, was the first New Orleans jazz band to perform at the White House.

“I feel that I have made a wonderful mark and a wonderful success as a native-born Southerner to have the opportunity to play at this dinner,” Celestin said at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner on May 8, 1953.

According to 64 Parishes, President Dwight D. Eisenhower shook the band leader’s hand and said: “Mr. Celestin, you are a fine gentleman and a credit to your race and our country.”

Celestin was born in Napoleonville on Jan. 1, 1884 and moved to New Orleans when he was 22. He reached the pinnacle of his career in his 1960s. 64 Parishes describes the cornetist as a popular bandleader and personality.

“Celestin’s late-career celebrity obscures a more significant personal legacy as the innovative and highly successful leader of the Tuxedo Jazz Band,” the article states.

Bruce Boyd Raeburn, curator of the Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University, said the band, founded in 1910, was one of the first jazz bands to record in New Orleans and the first to hire women as pianists.

In 1911, Celestin started the Tuxedo Brass Band, which became the busiest and most popular in the city, according to brass band historian Richard Knowles. He said it dominated the brass band scene in the 1920s by playing arranged scores and “popular tunes of the day, which they played by ear.”

Celestin was 70 when he died from cancer on Dec. 15, 1954. According to 64 Parishes, an estimated 10,000 people watched his Canal Street funeral procession: “A 4,000-strong second line followed 15 black limousines, while the Eureka Brass Band and members of the original Tuxedo Brass Band played ‘Just a Closer Walk with Thee.’”

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[1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/06/26/bitd-oscar-papa-celestin-white-house-jazz/

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