Lu Watters and the 1939 Jazz Revival - U3A Lecture

The first successful revival of early jazz started in San Francisco in 1939 with Lu Watters Yerba Buena Jazz Band. They revived the music of King Oliver with their own lively interpretation, which became known as 'Frisco Jazz.

It could be argued that a revival was in New Orleans, or even in wartime England. However, there is no doubt that the high energy Frisco jazz was the most important in reviving Dixieland jazz which was by then being rapidly forgotten and replaced by swing etc. The revival led on to Traditional Jazz becoming the British pop music of the late 50s and early 60s - and that is probably when many of us started to love jazz music.

Today we will explore 'Frisco jazz and the musicians - Lu Watters, Turk Murphy, Bob Helm, Bob Scobey, Wally Rose and Clancey Hayes among others. Not only did they revive jazz, but ragtime as well - Wally Rose, pianist, made some great ragtime records, long before The Sting movie and Joshua Rifkin.
From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8iJizWvMZ0