James Brown Humphrey

However, his involvement in the formal training of large numbers of musicians along the southern plantation belt of the Mississippi River delta during the immediate years following the reconstruction era resulted in many virtuoso performers who would go on to originate jazz as a distinct musical genre.

In adulthood, Humphrey would go on to find work as classical musician, playing cornet in the Bloom Philharmonic Orchestra in New Orleans.

From the 1880s to around 1915, many large slave-era plantations along the Mississippi River delta still existed; only now with African-American laborers as paid field hands.

[2] One such arrangement was with Henry C. Warmoth, a former reconstruction era carpetbagger governor of Louisiana and one of the foremost sugar planters and manufacturers of his day.

[3] At the close of reconstruction, Warmoth, who was an advocate for black rights and a former Union Army officer, remained in the south and acquired the Magnolia Plantation, a large sugar producing farm about thirty miles down the Mississippi River from New Orleans.

[1] Humphrey also taught at other plantations including Deer Range, St. Sophie, Ironton, Belair, Jesuits Bend, and Oakville, all within 25 miles of land along both banks of the Mississippi River.

[2] Humphrey was adept at playing all brass band and string instruments and initially taught classical music to his students.

Professor Humphrey is widely acclaimed to be instrumental in training the large field of skilled musicians that would fill the ensuing boom.

The nature of these rhythms became characteristic of early jazz phrasing, as his young students were fond of the rhythmic style they reflected.

[6][7] Willie Humphrey Jr. once recalled in an interview, "He had his system -- he branded us if we didn’t do right, he would put it, well, we could better understand on our backs," he chuckled fondly.

Despite his talent and high reputation, Humphrey, like most black musicians of his time, was unable to make a good living through music alone.