[Dixielandjazz] DeDe Pieerce-New Orleans cornetist/ Billie Pierce/ Goodson sisters

[Marek Boym]

Billie and De De Pierce visited Israel twice in the early 1970's, with
the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.  And what a band that was, with Willi
Humphrey on clarinet and Big Jim Robinson on trombone!  Cie Frazier on
drums and Alan Jaffe on sousaphone completed the band.
I in particular remember their show at the old Roman amphitheatre in
Caesarea, where the band played, unamplified, to an audience of few
hundred - the place was full to capacity.  What excellent accoustics!
By the time they reached Just a Closer Walk, which started at a
whisper, the public was so enthralled and quiet that one could hear a
pin falling.  I had no car at the time, got there by bus, and had to
trabvel home by taxi - but it was worth it!  I followed the band to
haifa as well.
On the second visit, I already had a car, which caused my missing one
performance - I promised to meet an American friend at the airport and
drive him to Jerusalem.
Cheers

On 18 February 2011 18:54, Norman Vickers <nvickers1 at cox.net> wrote:
> To:  DJML;  Musicians and Jazzfans lists
>
> From: Norman Vickers
>
>
>
> This likely will be of limited interest to most on this list.  However  this
> post is for the real scholars,
>
> Today, Feb 18,  is birthdate  of DeDe Pierce, trumpeter/cornetist of New
> Orleans  1904-1973.  He was married to pianist Billie Goodson who was also
> active in New Orleans. (  excerpt From Jazz Age)
>
>
>
> Billie was one of six musical sisters who grew up in Pensacola—see item
> below. A few years ago  Barry Martyn of New Orleans brought a musical group
> over for a program about the Goodson sisters.  Bruce Boyd Raeburn,Director
> of Tulane Jazz Archives was one of the speakers at that event.
>
>
>
> The three most famous sisters  were  Billie Goodson Pierce,  Sadie Goodson
> and Ida Goodson.    By the time I got to Pensacola in 1965, only Ida was
> still here performing.  She would play nightclub gigs during the week and
> church on Sundays.  For a long time, she had a  weekend gig at Seville
> Quarter.   Local bassist and educator  Harold Andrews, now also deceased,
> related that he had taken piano lessons from Ida.
>
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> See item below on the Goodson sisters.
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> 1904
>
> DeDe Pierce, Trumpet/Cornet
>
> b. New Orleans, LA, USA.
>
> d. 1973
> Biography
> ~by Bradley Torreano
> De De Pierce was an incredible trumpeter and singer who made jazz in the
> '40s, '50s, and '60s with his wife, singer/pianist Billie Pierce. Pierce was
> born in New Orleans, LA, on February 18, 1904. He first appeared playing
> with Arnold Dupas' band in 1924, playing the trumpet. One night while
> working at the Blue Jay Club in New Orleans, he met Billie and the two fell
> in love. They immediately began playing together, and by 1935 they were the
> regular house band at the Luthjens Dance Hall, where they stayed until the
> mid-'50s. They released albums throughout this period, but their exit from
> the dancehall was due to illness, which also stopped their recording career.
>
> The two were both quite sick; eventually they were hospitalized and De De
> lost his sight during the ordeal. Despite this setback, they began recording
> again in 1960 and rekindled their careers. Deteriorating health would
> eventually take them out of the entertainment industry, but not before De De
> played with Ida Cox on her last tour. He passed away in November of 1973,
> leaving behind Billie after a long and fruitful career together.
> De De Pierce: Information from Answers.com
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> Sadie Goodson
>
> Born: March 29, 1901, Pensacola, FL
> Active: '20s, '30s, '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s
> Genres: Jazz
> Instrument: Piano
>
> Biography
>
> The music career of Sadie Goodson spanned almost the entire 20th century.
> She was only 16 years old when she began playing piano with New Orleans jazz
> bandleaders such as Buddy Petit and was closing in on 100 years old when she
> took the stage at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival in 1998. Despite this
> remarkable longevity, even more interest is generated by the Goodson family
> itself. There were six sisters, all of whom played piano and at least half
> of whom also sang. The best known of the sisters was born as Wilhelmina
> "Billie" Goodson but changed her name to Billie Pierce following her
> marriage to trumpeter and vocalist De De Pierce. The rest of the sisters
> hung on to their original surname: there were also Ida Goodson, Edna
> Goodson, Mabel Goodson, and Della Goodson, listed in order of least
> obscurity. Sadie Goodson attached the names of at least two of her husbands
> to some credits, showing up at gigs and on recordings as both Sadie
> Goodson-Colar and Sadie Goodson Peterson.
>
> The family is without a doubt the most important musical dynasty from the
> Pensacola, FL, area. Local historians referring to the Goodson Sisters,
> however, usually limit the list to the three most famous and active sisters:
> Billie, Ida, and Sadie. At least that was the perspective offered by a 2002
> stage show entitled The Goodson Sisters: Pensacola's Greatest Gift to Jazz,
> a combination of dramatized historical narrative and musical performances.
> Like Billie Pierce, Sadie Goodson backed up classic blues stars Bessie Smith
> and Ma Rainey in the early days and between the '60s and the '90s received a
> great deal of exposure internationally as part of the rotating lineup of the
> Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Her earliest important gig had been with the
> Petit band, lasting into the Roaring Twenties and including a stint on the
> S.S. Madison riverboat in which the band included a musician who may have
> been her first husband, Chinee Foster.
>
> There are many examples of the sisters working together in various
> combinations over the years. In the '20s Sadie Goodson accompanied Edna
> Goodson, at that point concentrating on her vocalizing, in a touring revue
> known as the Mighty Wiggle Carnival. Many years later the former sister
> performed together with Ida Goodson at festivals in both the United States
> and abroad. Apparently in their youth, all of the sisters trekked around the
> Gulf Coast to get in on jazz opportunities in New Orleans and surrounding
> environs, to the great horror of parents who had provided them with piano
> training with the hope that careers in gospel music would follow.
>
> For Sadie Goodson it was pretty much the opposite, mainly holding forth at
> many raunchy so-called cabarets with players including Kid Rena, Chris
> Kelly, and Alex Bigard. In an action-packed senior moment -- she was more
> than 80 years old at the time -- she married the illustrious Kid Sheik,
> apparently one of her childhood sweethearts. During the mid-'90s the couple
> relocated to Detroit. While Ida Goodson has provided lengthy and important
> information in interviews concerning the sisters' backgrounds, Sadie Goodson
> is the sibling who came up with what seems like a most succinct historical
> philosophy. When asked in 1993 by a journalist what it been like backing up
> Bessie Smith, Goodson reportedly snarled "Buy the records!" ~ Eugene
> Chadbourne, Rovi
>
> Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/sadie-goodson#ixzz1EKSYvdh3
>
>