Danny Barker & Louise "Blue Lou" Barker
1909-1994 & 1913-1998
| | Jazz Walk of Fame | |
Panel 1
Danny Barker and Louise Dupont were married in 1930 and moved to New York. "Blue Lu" Barker spent a decade recording for Decca, Apollo and Capitol, specializing in the blues and saucy songs such as her husband's "Don't You Make Me High" and Here's a Little Girl."
Panel 3
Daniel Moses Barker grew up in the French Quarter as part of the
Barbarin clan one of the most illustrious Creole musical dynasties in
New Orleans. His maternal grandfather, Isidore Barbarin, was a
member of the Onward Brass Band, and his uncles Paul, Louis, and
Lucien were all drummers. While still a teenager he organized a
spasm band, the Boozan Kings, dropping clarinet lessons to take
up ukulele and banjo. As a banjo player he worked with
various New Orleans bands in the 1920s. In 1930 the couple
moved to New York, where Danny found work with Dave
Nelson and Harry White, then with Sidney Bechet, Fess
Williams, Albert Nicholas, Jelly Roll Morton, and Henry "Red" Allen. He picked
up guitar to attract more big band work, which led to associations with Lucky Millinder (1938),
Benny Carter ( 1938-39 ), and Cab Calloway (1939-46).
During the New Orleans revival of the 1940s
Danny Barker recorded Creole songs like "Eh, la Bas"
on Circle with James P, Johnson, Albert Nicholas, and
Pops Foster, and made the first recordings of Mardi
Gras Indian tunes such as "Indian Red " on his King
Zulu label. He continued to work in New York at
nightclubs both as a sideman and a leader
throughout the 1950s, but the lure of New
Orleans became too much to resist. In 1965 he
moved back home and took a job as Assistant
Curator at the New Orleans Jazz Museum, a
position that he held for ten years. The
author of two books on jazz, Danny Barker
became a spokesman not just for jazz but
for the city
of New Orleans itself.
Panel 4
After their return to New Orleans, Danny also stayed busy as a musician and Grand Marshall of the Onward Brass Band, which had been recently revived by his uncle Paul. Perhaps his most treasured contribution after returning to New Orleans, however, was his work with children in the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band during the 1960s and 1970's. Barker found a way to interest kids in the brass band tradition by combining an emphasis on discipline and self-respect with a sense of fun, and the results are evident in a brass band renaissance that is still going strong.
Photo Caption
Images courtesy Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University. Exhibit design and Production by Dale Anthony Smith
Erected by New
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Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Arts, Letters, Music • Entertainment.
Location. 29° 56.986′ N, 90° 3.304′ W. Marker is in New Orleans, Louisiana, in Orleans Parish. It is in Algiers. It can be reached from Bounty Street near Delaronde Street, on the left. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 430 Powder St, New Orleans LA 70114, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in Louisiana’s River Parishes. It is also in the American South, specifically in the Deep South, on the Gulf Coast, and in the Great River Road Region. Globally, it is in North America, a Gulf of Mexico state, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once New Spain, the Viceroyalty of New France, the territory of the Mississippian Culture, the Louisiana Purchase, one of the Confederate States of America, and the Antebellum South.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance
More about this marker. Part of the Robert Nims Jazz Walk of Fame. Markers are lamp post shades, located on the Mississippi River Trail, on top of Levee, at northern terminus of Delaronde Street.
Also see . . . Website for the Algiers Jazz Walk of Fame and. (Submitted on January 1, 2021, by Cajun Scrambler of Assumption, Louisiana.)
Credits. This page was last revised on February 12, 2023. It was originally submitted on January 1, 2021, by Cajun Scrambler of Assumption, Louisiana. This page has been viewed 424 times since then and 22 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. submitted on January 1, 2021, by Cajun Scrambler of Assumption, Louisiana.
