Louis Nelson Delisle
{{Short description|American jazz musician (1885–1949)}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Louis Nelson Delisle
| image = SuperiorOch1910BigEye.jpg
| caption = Nelson Delisle in 1910
| background = non_vocal_instrumentalist
| birth_name = Louis Nelson Delisle
| alias = "Big Eye"
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1885|1|28}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|1949|7|20|1885|1|28}}
| origin = New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
| genre = Dixieland, jazz
| occupation = Musician
| instrument = Clarinet
| years_active = 1910s – 1940s
}}
"Big Eye" Louis Nelson Delisle (January 28, 1885 – August 20, 1949) was an American Dixieland jazz clarinetist in New Orleans, Louisiana. He also played double bass, banjo, and accordion.
Early life and education
Nelson Delisle was born into a Creole of color family and spent most of his life in New Orleans. He studied clarinet with the elder Lorenzo Tio.
Career
By the age of 15, Delisle worked professionally in the music venues of Storyville, an area of brothels and clubs in New Orleans. He developed a style of hot jazz, a.k.a. Dixieland, and was an influence on clarinetists Johnny Dodds and Jimmie Noone.
Early in his career Delisle often played a C clarinet, as opposed to the more common Bâ™; the C was used by other New Orleans clarinetists of the era, such as Alcide Nunez.
In 1917, Delisle joined the reconstituted Original Creole Orchestra that included Freddie Keppard and Bill Johnson. The band had disbanded in Boston in the spring of that year but was reassembled in New York City in the fall of the same year. Delisle replaced George Baquet, who had toured with the group in vaudeville. After a short while, Delisle was replaced by Jimmie Noone.Hazeldine, Mike. "Original Creole Band" in Kernfeld, Barry. ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd edition, Vol. 3. London: MacMillan, 2002. p. 200. He was the regular clarinetist with the Jones & Collins Astoria Hot Eight but did not play on their 1929 recording sessions.
He made his only recordings in his later years in the 1940s,{{cite book|title=The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-580-8|page=301}} by which time he was often in poor health.
References
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Category:American jazz banjoists
Category:American jazz double-bassists
Category:American male double-bassists
Category:Dixieland clarinetists
Category:Jazz musicians from New Orleans
Category:20th-century American accordionists
Category:20th-century American double-bassists
Category:20th-century American male musicians
Category:American male jazz musicians
Category:Jones & Collins Astoria Hot Eight members
Category:20th-century African-American musicians
Category:Imperial Orchestra members
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{{Clarinetist-stub}}