Jimmy Maxwell Orchestra Papers
Photographs, diaries, and promotional materials documenting a father and son’s 80 combined years in the music business
A donationOpens in new tab from bandleader Jimmy Maxwell provides a fascinating glimpse into the activities of working musicians in New Orleans over the past 70-plus years. Since the early 1980s the Jimmy Maxwell Orchestra has played steady gigs for Carnival balls and numerous other social events. Jimmy’s father, Eddie Maxwell, was a drummer in the René Louapre Society Orchestra, also a Carnival-ball headliner, for many years before he joined Jimmy’s band. The combined musical careers of Eddie and Jimmy span nearly eight decades. The donation, which includes photographs, diaries, and promotional materials documenting the Maxwells’ involvement in the music business, complements the oral history interviews of Eddie and Jimmy conducted by HNOC oral historian Mark Cave in April 2018.
Among the oldest materials in the collection are Eddie Maxwell’s 24 musical gig diaries covering every year from 1957 to 1982, except 1960 and 1981. Eddie Maxwell recorded information about performance dates, times, and venues; event types; and the amounts of money he was paid. The diaries, which detail the busy schedule of Carnival season and the various events that filled the rest of the year, shed light on the typical annual performance calendar of a big band orchestra member.
Other highlights of the collection include materials related to Maxwell’s Toulouse Cabaret, the jazz venue operated by Jimmy Maxwell and other family members at 615 Toulouse Street in the 1990s, and the Louis Armstrong Society Jazz Band, which was formed in 2001 with Eddie and Jimmy among its members.
By Michael M. Redmann, manuscripts cataloger
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