Clarinetist Leon Roppolo was born upriver from New Orleans on March 16, 1902. Of Italian descent, Roppolo’s family moved to the Uptown neighborhood of New Orleans when Leon was ten. He learned clarinet as a youth but was also able to play saxophone and guitar. At age fifteen he left home to go on tour with the band led by singer and “Shimmy Queen” Bee Palmer. The nucleus of her touring band broke off and became known as the New Orleans Rhythm Kings.

The New Orleans Rhythm Kings were one of the most influential of the early jazz groups. Reaching the peak of their popularity in the early to mid-1920s, NORK (as they were often known) was made up of white musicians from both New Orleans and Chicago. The band helped shape the burgeoning “Chicago Style” and was an important influence on many young musicians of the era. They composed and recorded many classic songs of the period including Tin Roof Blues, Milenburg Joys and Bugle Call Rag. NORK played in a more serious and smoother style than their main competitors among the white bands of the era, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, and it was said that Ropollo’s clarinet gave the band it’s “bluesy” feel. The group broke up in 1925.

Leon Roppolo had always suffered from some mental instability which increased in severity after the break-up of NORK, and he spent the last years of his life in and out of institutions until his early death in 1943, though he managed to keep playing music as often he could.

Here is a link to one of NORK’s best-known pieces:

"TIN ROOF BLUES"