1. Milton Mesirow, better known as Mezz Mezzrow, was an American jazz clarinetist and saxophonist from Chicago, Illinois.
16 Facts About Mezz Mezzrow
1. 2.
Mezz Mezzrow is remembered for organizing and financing recording sessions with Tommy Ladnier and Sidney Bechet.
3.
Mezz Mezzrow recorded with Bechet as well and briefly acted as manager for Louis Armstrong.
4.
Mezz Mezzrow began to play the clarinet and decided to adopt the African American culture as his own.
5.
Mezz Mezzrow became a ubiquitous figure on the Chicago jazz scene of the 1920s and ran in the circles of musicians that included King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Jimmy Noone, Al Jolson, Baby Dodds, Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Bellson and many others.
6.
Mezz Mezzrow admired Armstrong so much that after the release of "Heebie Jeebies", he, along with Teschemacher, drove 53 miles to Indiana in order to play the song for Bix Beiderbecke.
7.
Mezz Mezzrow played on six recordings by Fats Waller in 1934.
8.
Mezz Mezzrow appeared at the 1948 Nice Jazz Festival, following which he made his home in France and organized many bands that included French musicians including Claude Luter and visiting Americans, such as Buck Clayton, Peanuts Holland, Jimmy Archey, Kansas Fields and Lionel Hampton.
9.
Mezz Mezzrow's total recorded output amounts to almost 150 sides, all of which were collected and re-released on various albums.
10.
The family lived in Harlem, New York City, where Mezzrow declared himself a "voluntary Negro" and was listed as Negro on his draft card in World War II.
11.
Mezz Mezzrow believed that "he had definitely 'crossed the line' that divided white and black identities".
12.
Mezz Mezzrow was known as the Muggles King, the word muggles being slang for marijuana at that time; the title of the 1928 Louis Armstrong recording "Muggles" refers to this.
13.
Mezz Mezzrow seemed a little relieved when he saw my nappy head.
14.
Mezz Mezzrow slipped me a card with 'Block Six' written on it.
15.
Mezz Mezzrow was preceded in death by his wife, Johnnie Mae Mezzrow, and was buried in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
16.
In 2015, a Greenwich Village jazz club called Mezzrow was named in his honor.