Joe Mares Jr
1908 – 1991
Joe Mares Jr (1908-1991) was the younger brother of Paul Mares (1900-1949), the trumpeter and leader of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. He studied clarinet as a youngster but gave it up after hearing Leon Roppolo play, convinced that he could never equal him. Around 1949 he established Southland Records in New Orleans, an independent label that documented numerous jazz artists in the 1950s, including Papa Jack Laine, who had never previously recorded.