While thinking of all the crazy fun things about my favorite city in the world, I remembered a New Orleans’ jazz great who was also one of the most influential innovators of modern jazz.

You could succeed in a debate that Jabbo Smith kept Louis Armstrong on his toes while the two competed for the best trumpeter of the Crescent City. But these musicians’ lives diverted after the late ’20s, with one derelegating himself to alcohol and decadence (one of our favorite past times) and the other was memorialized with an old slave hangout spot that was converted into a grandiose park, his name in large letters greeting tourists and residents to the verdant pasture.

Jabbo Smith eventually faded into obscurity in the ’30s and then worked his way to Milwaukee with occasional sojourns to New York City and settling down at an automobile company, becoming a working stiff. In the ’60s, Smith’s popularity recovered as old recordings were brought out of the archives. He continued playing through the ’70s and ’80s until he passed away on January 16, 1991 at the age of 82 but not before learning of his acceptance to the Coastal Jazz Hall of Fame.

Although the prime of his career was short, Smith managed an important catalogue of music that has influenced everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Don Cherry. Provided for you is a sample of his work. Enjoy and laissez les bon temps roulez. (by the way, this is our 100th posting!)