Image Credit: Jim Robinson, tb, Sidney "Little Jim" Brown, bj, sous; Eugene Jones, d on Brown's front steps on the 1300 Block St. Phillip by Crawford, Ralston, 1906-1978, Courtesy Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University. Physical rights are retained by the Hogan Jazz Archive.
1894 – 1968
The nephew of Nathan “Jim” Robinson, Plaquemines-born bassist and violinist Sidney “Jim Little” Brown (1894-1968) developed a propulsive “slap-style” bass technique that animates the recordings made by Sam Morgan’s Jazz Band in New Orleans in 1927. Before Sam Morgan, Brown worked with the Golden Leaf Band in 1919 and the Young Morgan Band in 1922. In the 1930s he played tuba with the Tuxedo Brass Band and in the 1940s and 50s worked with Celestin’s Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra.
The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or “buzzing” the lips into a…