![Pianist Manuel Manetta (top) with Oscar Celestin (1925)](https://musicrising.tulane.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/383/2018/05/Manuel-Manetta-640x360.jpg)
Manuel Manetta
1889 – 1969
1889 – 1969
Manuel “Fess” Manetta (1889-1969), was an Afro-Sicilian pianist, multi-instrumentalist, and music educator from Algiers, Louisiana. In addition to working as a solo pianist in brothels and with the Original Tuxedo Orchestra in Storyville, he was affiliated from 1917-1929 with the bands of Kid Ory (as a violinist), Manuel Perez (various brass and reeds), and Oscar Celestin (piano). Among his students were trumpeters Henry “Red” Allen, Buddie Petit, and Emmett Hardy.
The piano is a musical instrument played using a keyboard. It is widely used in classical and jazz music for…