At the time of his death Noone was leading a quartet in Los Angeles and was part of an all-star band that was reviving interest in traditional New Orleans jazz in the 1940s.

In 1916, when Keppard went on tour, Noone and Buddie Petit formed the Young Olympia Band, and Noone led a small ensemble (clarinet, piano, drums) unusual for its time.

[4]: 352  He played for two years (1918–1920) at Chicago's Royal Garden Cafe with Paul Barbarin (drums), King Oliver, Bill Johnson (bass), Lottie Taylor (piano) and Eddie Vinson (trombone).

[6] Jimmie Noone's Apex Club Orchestra had an unusual instrumentation—a front line consisting of clarinet and alto saxophone (Joe Poston [de], who worked with Noone in Doc Cook's band),[2]: 146–147  with piano (Earl Hines), drums (Ollie Powers, succeeded by Johnny Wells in 1928) and guitar (Bud Scott).

"The quintet which Noone brought to Vocalion was unique in that it preserved New Orleans' musical concepts without using brass instruments," wrote jazz historian Richard Hadlock in his notes to Decca's 1994 remastered reissue of the 1928–1929 Apex Club Orchestra recordings.

"He absorbed in his own playing the beautiful tone and sparkling flow of Jimmie Noone", wrote John S. Wilson, music critic for The New York Times.

In 1931, Noone left Chicago for a month at the Savoy Ballroom, and in 1935 he briefly moved to New York City, to start a band and a (short-lived) club with Wellman Braud.

With swing music dominating jazz, Noone tried leading a big band—singer Joe Williams made his professional debut in 1937 with the group[11]—but he went back to his small-ensemble format.

He began to enjoy renewed popularity that year when the Brunswick Collectors Series reissued his 1928 Vocalion recordings in a Decca album set (B-1006) titled Jimmie Noone, Dean of Modern Hot Clarinetists – Apex Club, Chicago 1928, Volume 1.

On September 14, 1943, Ted LeBerthon of The Los Angeles Daily News wrote a column pleading for someone to rent or sell a home to Noone: I noted that Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw or Woody Herman, three outstanding white jazz clarinetists and band leaders, would have found a home because, being white, they did not have to confine their search to a limited restricted area.

For Hugues Panassié, the distinguished French music critic, in his book The Real Jazz, had acclaimed Jimmie Noone as the greatest clarinetist of all time, the possessor of a more beautiful, more poignant tone and a player able to summon more sensitive nuances than any other.

In addition to it being a burdensome expense for the musician, LeBurthon later reported that the stress on Noone aggravated a cardiac ailment that had emerged during the Depression years.

Within minutes she assembled Mutt Carey (trumpet), Ed Garland (bass), Kid Ory (trombone), Bud Scott (guitar), Zutty Singleton (drums), Buster Wilson (piano), and Jimmie Noone (clarinet).

"[21] On the program that evening, Welles spoke extemporaneously for three minutes about Noone while Buster Wilson and Bud Scott, a member of Jimmie Noone's Apex Club Orchestra, played "Sweet Lorraine" in the background.

Featured artists included the All Star Jazz Group, Calvin Jackson, Wingy Manone, Johnny Mercer, the Nicholas Brothers, Earl Robinson, Rex Stewart, Joe Sullivan and Dooley Wilson.

Personnel include Jimmie Noone (clarinet), Joe Poston (alto saxophone), Earl Hines (piano), Bud Scott (banjo and guitar) and Johnny Wells (drums).

Jimmie Noone and His Orchestra make a brief appearance in the East Side Kids feature film, Block Busters (1944),[30] released three months after Noone's death.

With the exception of Zutty Singleton, who had other commitments, the rest of the group stayed together and was renamed Kid Ory's Creole Jazz Band by Ertegun.

[34][35] His tune, "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans" (1936), is featured in the 2014 French film Une heure de tranquillité but attributed to a fictional clarinetist named Niel Youart on his 1958 album Me, Myself and I.