Danny and Blue Lu Barker Collection (Video)
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- Hi, I’m Melissa, curator of the Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans
- Jazz, and I’m thrilled to be here with you for this year’s Danny Barker Banjo & Guitar Festival.
- The Hogan Archive is a division of Tulane University Special Collections, and our holdings
- consist of primary source materials, such as personal correspondence, business papers,
- scrapbooks, and much more highlighting New Orleans culture and communities from a music-based
- perspective.
- We not only steward collections but, most importantly, we support the research and study
- of New Orleans music by making materials accessible.
- With that, I’d like to share with you the Danny and Blue Lu Barker Collection, which
- first came to the Hogan Archive after Hurricane Katrina.
- Most of the artifacts were flood damaged and waterlogged.
- However, daughter Sylvia Barker entrusted the Hogan Archive with the important job of
- restoring the massive collection.
- And now for a behind-the-scenes look at the unprocessed Danny and Blue Lu Barker Collection.
- Out of what could be salvaged, there are nearly 100 photographs from the personal archives
- of Danny and Blue Lu Barker from the 1920s up to Blue Lu Barker’s funeral in 1998.
- The oldest photos in the collection are circa 1928.
- This one features Danny Barker flanked by Arthur Derbigny and Lee Collins.
- And this one shows Danny in the center with Lee Collins on the right and an unidentified
- clarinetist on the left.
- Here’s a candid shot of Danny having breakfast with a friend in April 1956.
- And here he is performing, banjo in hand, with the Submarine 6 Band.
- The date and location are unidentified.
- This New Orleans picture shows Danny with renowned trumpeter Henry “Red” Allen and
- two identified men.
- The date is not identified.
- And here’s an amazing later photo of Danny with trumpeter Doc Cheatham, his 1930s bandmate
- in Cab Calloway’s orchestra.
- The photography collection also features Danny’s wife, vocalist Blue Lu Barker, shown here
- with the Louisiana State Club of New York circa 1940.
- That’s Blue Lu right underneath the word “York” on the sign.
- She’s in this later photo with Danny on the right.
- On the left is vocalist and musician Joseph Pleasant, also known as Smiling Joe, but better
- known as Cousin Joe, a name that Danny came up with for the renowned blues artist.
- Danny’s work with the Fairview Baptist Church Christian Band is also represented in this
- series of photos taken on the Cotton Blossom Steamboat Dock in April of 1975.
- Danny’s work with teenagers in this band in the early 1970s fostered a new movement
- of young musicians playing traditional New Orleans jazz, while giving them performance
- opportunities.
- Finally, Danny Barker was not only recognized for his influence as a musician, but also
- for his work as an educator.
- Here he is in a 1973 shot, performing for children at an unidentified location in New
- Orleans.
- The remaining materials of the Danny and Blue Lu Barker Collection, 77 boxes total, contain
- rich resources for researching the Barkers and the history of New Orleans jazz.
- The collection reveals the Barkers to be personal archivists at heart.
- They documented their lives by keeping everything, and we are luckier for it.
- For example, Danny’s handwritten early attempt to document a genealogy of, as he describes,
- his “relatives in jazz,” includes his grandfather, cornetist Isidore Barbarin; his
- uncle, drummer Paul Barbarin; and his cousin, vocalist Esther Bigeou.
- This issue of The Second Line, published by the New Orleans Jazz Club, features a Danny
- on the cover of its January-February 1967 edition.
- The caption reads, “Danny Barker, Assistant Curator of the New Orleans Jazz Museum, tries
- out primitive African banjo.”
- The corresponding cover story inside is titled “Danny Barker Comes Home,” and welcomes
- Danny back to New Orleans after spending 35 years in New York.
- He’s quoted as saying about New York, “The frantic pace, the maddening rush just ain’t
- worth the trouble.”
- The collection also include notes, drawings, and a treatment that were done for a proposed
- musical about Buddy Bolden, titled Bolden’s Big Brass Bed.
- One of Danny’s notes says, “Maybe contact Jerry Wexler for the Bolden musical.”
- Wexler was the influential producer and co-head of Atlantic Records who in 1949, prior to
- joining the label, coined the term Rhythm & Blues.
- Here’s a song list for the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band that suggests jazz numbers,
- such as “Paul Barbarin’s Second Line” and “Basin Street Blues,” as well as spiritual
- songs like “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” and “Amazing Grace.”
- There are also several flyers, including this one for Blue Lu Barker with Danny Barker and
- His Jazz Hounds performing live at Snug Harbor Club in New Orleans in June 1983.
- And this one, which advertises an “Old Jazzers Concert for Young Jazzers” at the
- Louisiana State Museum, in April 1983.
- There’s even a folder titled “Comedy, Jokes, and Patter,” filled with Danny’s
- handwritten jokes and monologues.
- This one reads, “I like to talk out in the public – because my wife don’t allow me
- to talk in the house.”
- An original advertising flyer from 1949 is shown here for Blue Lu Barker with the Danny
- Barker Sextette and their single for the New York-based Apollo Records, with “You Gotta
- Show it to Me, Baby” on the A side of the record and “Buy Me Some Juice” on the
- B side.
- And here are Danny’s notes for his plans to form a recording company and publishing
- company, titled Dynamic Records.
- Just a few of the New Orleans artists on his wish list: his wife Blue Lu, Cousin Joe, Germaine Bazzle,
- Irma Thomas, and George French.
- The Danny and Blue Lu Barker Collection, housed by the Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music
- and New Orleans Jazz, contains invaluable materials from the Barkers’ personal collection
- – event programs, research files and manuscripts, correspondence, scrapbooks, business papers
- and contracts, recordings, and so much more – 77 boxes more, to be exact.
- And all available to assist in your research or your personal interest in Danny Barker,
- Blue Lu Barker, or the history of New Orleans jazz, and New Orleans music and culture.
- I’m Melissa Weber, Hogan Archive curator with Tulane University Special Collections.
- Thank you for joining me here at the 2021 Danny Barker Banjo & Guitar Festival.
- And if you’d like to learn more about the Danny and Blue Lu Barker Collection, please
- email specialcollections@tulane.edu.
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