Papa Celestin: Four Thousand People Marched in His Funeral

Four Thousand People Marched in His Funeral

When Papa Celestin died on December 15, 1954, four thousand people marched in his funeral parade through the streets of New Orleans. That tells you everything you need to know about what this man meant to the city.

Oscar Phillip Celestin was born on New Year's Day, 1884, in Napoleonville, Louisiana, into a Creole family. He worked on plantations and as a cook on the Texas and Pacific Railway before teaching himself music — guitar first, then trombone, then settling on the cornet that would make him famous. Around 1910, he landed the job that would define his career: leader of the house band at the Tuxedo Dance Hall on North Franklin Street, right next to Storyville.

The Tuxedo Brass Band, which Celestin co-led with trombonist William Ridgely, became one of the most important ensembles in early New Orleans jazz. The musicians who passed through the band read like a who's who of the genre: Louis Armstrong, Alphonse Picou, Joe "King" Oliver. Celestin's Original Tuxedo Orchestra made its first recordings during an Okeh Records session in 1925 and continued recording for Columbia throughout the decade.

The Great Depression knocked Celestin out of music in 1932 — like it knocked out a lot of New Orleans musicians. But after World War II, he came back with a new version of the Tuxedo Brass Band that was even more popular than the original. In 1953, Papa Celestin performed at the White House for President Eisenhower. His final recording, fittingly, was a song called "Marie LaVeau."

Papa Celestin bridged the gap between the earliest days of New Orleans jazz and the post-war revival that brought the music back to national attention. He played through Storyville, through the Depression, through two world wars, and he was still playing when Eisenhower invited him to Washington. Four thousand people in his funeral parade. That's a New Orleans life, lived to the fullest.