[Dixielandjazz] Re: Louis VASNIER

[Laurence Swain]

Michel Vasnier wrote:

> I'm looking for biographic information about Louis Vasnier, a black
> singer and banjo player from New Orleans in the years 1890-1910. What
> i found on the net is very poor.

My google search on that name brought up, as the third hit, this page

	http://www.kelsorat.com/weblogs/alti/

which included the following:

    Louis Vasnier
    (Louis "Bebe" Vasnier Jr - B May 1858, in Louisiana; D sometime after 1900)

    Louis Vasnier was a New Orleans Creole housepainter and minstrel show 
    performer. Johnson and Vasnier's Colored Minstrels appeared at local venues in 
    the 1880s. Around 1891 he was recorded by the New Orleans Phonograph 
    Company: "...the Company has gotten out a line of negro specialties of great 
    popularity, consisting of old plantation songs, darkey melodies, etc. Probably the 
    most successful specialty is the work of 'Brudder Rasmus', whose sermons..., 
    with the characteristic participation of his congregation are wonderfully realistic 
    and attractive." "These sermonds, while very humorous, are characteristic Negro 
    delineations and are faithful reproductions of a dusky style of pulpit oratory that is 
    rapidly passing away. The sermons are very popular amongst both whites and 
    blacks and have proved to be among the most profitable of exhibition records..." 
    [company promotional material]. In addition to his "Brudder Rasmus" recordings, 
    Vasnier recorded a series of "coon songs".
    Vasnier moved to St Louis in 1897 during a yellow fever epidemic in New 
    Orleans. He continued working as a house and sign painter as well as a minstrel 
    performer: "In an original monologue turn, away from everybody else. (No elboe 
    or chin holding). Natural facial expressions, in five different dialects, no make up - 
    Negro, Dutch, Dago, Irish and French. I sing in all. The only colored comedian 
    who can do it. 'De proof of de eating vas in de puddings.' 'Sure it's the like of me 
    dat can do it.' 'I tella fo you no lie.' 'Je ne mant pas.' [Vasnier's advertisement in 
    the July 14 1900 Freeman.]

    Suggested Reading:
    Lost Sounds: Blacks And The Birth Of The Recording Industry, 1890 - 1919, by 
    Tim Brooks, Dick Spottswood (2004: University of Illinois Press)

Larry Swain