1873-1966 - (Papa) Jack Laine Jack Papa Laine is often credited with being the first White Jazz musician. All were part
of a broad pool of white ragtime musicians active in New Orleans before 1920; at its social and musical center was the drummer
and musical contractor Jack "Papa" Laine. A few among very many: cornetists Johnny Lala, Manuel Mello, Pete Dietrans, Gus
Zimmermann, Abbie Brunies, and Emile Christian (who later toured on trombone with the Original Dixieland Jazz Band); brothers
George and Henry Brunies on trombones, clarinetists Shields, Nunez, and Nunzio Scaglione, and the Brown brothers, Tom (trombone)
and Steve (tuba). His "Reliance" bands were particularly active in the seasonal social life of the Lake Pontchartrain south
shore. Laine claimed to have had one of the only two bands in New Orleans to play in the ragtimey, cusp-of-jazz style. Similarly,
he was loath to admit that black musicians had had any effect on his music--an attitude paralleling the claims of some black
musicians that whites had no influence on them. To suggest that either group worked in isolation from the other contravenes
an overwhelming body of scholarly and anecdotal documentation about New Orleans life, musical and social. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/sudhalter-chords.html
He was a drummer and saxophonist. He formed his first brass band in 1888. The band to performed Ragtime and marching music.
He went on to lead the Reliance Brass Band, which became popular enough for him to have several units playing under that name.
Many of the early New Orlean's White Jazz musicians such as, Tom Brown, Johnny Stein, Albert and George Brunies, Tony Parenti,
Nick La Rocca and all of the other members of the Original Dixleland Jass Band played in the Reliance Brass Band at one time
or the other. In 1917, Laine quit music and worked as a blacksmith, and later managed a garage. He never recorded. Source:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/laine.html
