Tom Albert

Tom Albert was born on a plantation field in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana on the 23rd of December in 1877. He later relocated to New Orleans sometime in his early childhood, settling in the Algiers neighborhood. Tom lived in a run-down shack on Saux Lane, an impoverished strip nearby the Naval station. He initially played the guitar before learning how to play the violin. He was taught basic methods for each instrument by Jimmy Palao. Soon after he mastered the cornet and the violin. The first band Albert was in was his own which included Papa Celestin and Manuel Manetta. In 1920, he founded the Eureka Brass Band.[2] During the earlier years, Albert's band played in Algiers with Henry Red Allen Sr. Band. In his late thirties, Albert moved across the river to the French Quarter and reformed his band, branding it ""Kid Albert Band." The band then began performing in several halls around the city, mostly in the Storyville and Treme sections. For a decade, kid Albert Band played alongside jazz pioneers Louis Armstrong, Kid Thomas Valentine and other small brass bands but never recorded. In 1949 Albert retired from the bands and died on December 12, 1969 at the age of 91.[3]