The Ollie Powers Harmony Syncopators, playing at the Dreamland Café
around 1923.
Since the two sides Ollie Powers recorded for Paramount a month apart in
1923 had entirely different personnel (Brian Rust: Jazz Records 1897-1942,
4th ed., p.1245), it is not certain exactly who is present in this picture--with
the exception of Ollie Powers, behind the drums!
Possibilities: PIANO: Glover Compton or Cassino Simpson; BANJO: John Basley
or Mike McKendrick; CLARINET: Jimmie Noone or Stump Evans; TUBA: William
"Bass" Moore; SAXOPHONE: Horace Diemer; CORNET: Alex Calamese, Tommy Ladnier,
or Bernie Young; TROMBONE: Eddie Vincent or Preston Jackson. Or none of
the above!
Photo source: A Pictorial History of Jazz: People and Places from New Orleans
to Modern Jazz, by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer, Jr. (New York: Crown
Publishers, 1955), p. 37. I have taken the liberty of rotating the photo
so that the performers are level! |