[Dixielandjazz] Armand Hug and Johnny Wiggs I'm Coming Virginia

[Bill Haesler]

Marek Boym wrote [in part]:
> ......I assume that Wiggs dropped "Hyman, because it sounded Jewish  
> and
> made finding work more difficult.
> I saw that bit of "one of the few
> Jewish cornet players."  OK, perhaps most played the trumpet, but
> there were quite  q few Jewish trumpeters - Max Kaminsky, Mannie
> Klein, et.al.

Dear Marek,
The reference, "one of the few Jewish cornet players in jazz at the  
time", in Bradley Torreano's short biography of Johnny Wiggs (real  
name: John Wigginton Hyman) in the on-line 'All Music Guide' was  
specific to New Orleans in the 1920s. Max Kaminsky, Mannie Klein, et  
al were from around New York.
The reason given for Johnny Hyman changing his name is that, in the  
1930s he was a school teacher and used the Wiggs name when  
moonlighting in jazz.
An acceptable explanation, which applied to jazz-playing  
schoolteachers here in Sydney, Australia right up to the 1960s.
Another reason may be that Jews and jazz was an unusual mix in New  
Orleans in the 20s, unlike Chicago and New York.
The following, from a press release for 'Jewish New Orleans', a TV  
documentary which premiered in August 2007 states: "Jewish immigration  
has been a part of local history since Sephardic traders plied their  
wares in colonial Louisiana . Although Jews never represented more  
than about two percent of New Orleans' population, they have been a  
major force in the city – dominating Canal Street commerce and shaping  
the city's social and artistic institutions.
Through interviews with historians Bobbie Malone, Catherine Kahn,  
Irwin Lachoff and others, JEWISH NEW ORLEANS explores the waves of  
Jews who populated the city. The program examines the different worlds  
of the French and German speaking Jews who established several Uptown  
Reform congregations in the 1800's and the Eastern Europeans Orthodox  
Jews who settled the Dryades Street area some fifty years later."
     http://wyes.org/programs/localprod/jewish_neworleans.html
I suggest that in 1920s' New Orleans, jazz-playing Jews were an out- 
numbered rarity, rather than that "Wiggs dropped Hyman, because it  
sounded Jewish and made finding work more difficult."
New Orleans was unique in Louisiana in that racism appears to have  
been less prominent than elsewhere in the US in those early days.
If you haven't done so already, you may be interested in the contents  
of Chapter 1 (Louis Armstrong + The Jewish Family) of Thomas Brothers'  
book 'Louis Armstrong in His Own Words' (1999. Oxford University Press).
Kind regards,
Bill.