Albert Nicholas

A superb clarinetist with an attractive mellow tone, Albert Nicholas had a long and diverse career but his playing was always consistently rewarding. He studied with Lorenzo Tio, Jr. in New Orleans, and played with cornet legends Buddy Petit, <a href="spotify:artist:24PJRbYtu3Cq5CuF24c1QZ">King Oliver</a>, and Manuel Perez while in his teens. After three years in the Merchant Marines, he joined <a href="spotify:artist:24PJRbYtu3Cq5CuF24c1QZ">King Oliver</a> in Chicago for much of 1925-1927, recording with <a href="spotify:artist:24PJRbYtu3Cq5CuF24c1QZ">Oliver's Dixie Syncopators</a>. He spent a year in the Far East and Egypt, arriving in New York in 1928 to join <a href="spotify:artist:2QYQ1OaqqulNz8o2c80ViP">Luis Russell</a> for five years. Nicholas, who had recorded in several settings in the 1920s, sounded perfectly at home with <a href="spotify:artist:2QYQ1OaqqulNz8o2c80ViP">Russell</a>, taking his solos alongside <a href="spotify:artist:1kEniOVLhKw78gS0myngEf">Red Allen</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5Qp4GPKEa8t2iM6ZDkg86Y">J.C. Higginbottham</a>, and Charlie Holmes. He would later re-join <a href="spotify:artist:2QYQ1OaqqulNz8o2c80ViP">Russell</a> when the pianist had the backup orchestra for <a href="spotify:artist:19eLuQmk9aCobbVDHc6eek">Louis Armstrong</a> a few years later, and Nicholas also worked with <a href="spotify:artist:4XepUkisa56DUeA3gbjDQD">Jelly Roll Morton</a> in 1939 (he had recorded with <a href="spotify:artist:4XepUkisa56DUeA3gbjDQD">Morton</a> previously in 1929). Things slowed down for a time in the early '40s, but the New Orleans revival got him working again in the mid-'40s with <a href="spotify:artist:7B2GLsoPPGTRUeNpJ6VbL3">Art Hodes</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4HGHKAXQPnK1YyzGmIFkrp">Bunk Johnson</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:7fvNIXXszS6FTHROnZVsK4">Kid Ory</a>; by 1948, the clarinetist was playing regularly with <a href="spotify:artist:78vaS34w6HBZi3epzpfTz9">Ralph Sutton</a>'s trio at Jimmy Ryan's. In 1953, Nicholas followed <a href="spotify:artist:1RsmXc1ZqW3WBs9iwxiSwk">Sidney Bechet</a>'s example and moved to France where, other than returning to the U.S. for recording sessions in 1959 and 1960, he happily remained for his final 20 years. ~ Scott Yanow, Rovi