Joe Howard

Joe Howard's tuba contributions within the New Orleans jazz community received notable documentation through recordings, even if limited in scope. After beginning his career on trumpet, he later extended his range downward to the larger brass instrument, with the primary surviving evidence captured during an informal 1920s session inside a Big Easy garage. Howard counted among the alumni of famed trumpeter Buddy Bolden, yet he must be distinguished from both a trombonist and a vaudeville composer who shared the identical name and who generated extensive recording and copyright credits of their own. In the brass sections, Howard performed next to Bolden himself as an early member of Allen's Brass Band, an ensemble founded in 1907 that remained active into the early 1940s. Additional trumpet credits place him in the Tuxedo Orchestra, the Tuxedo Brass Band, and multiple dance ensembles led by Fate Marable.