Wilbur De Paris

Born on January 11, 1900, in Crawfordsville, Indiana, Wilbur de Paris was a trombone player associated with Dixieland jazz and swing music. He and his brother Sidney de Paris, Jr. were taught to play music by their musician father Sidney de Paris, Sr. Wilbur de Paris began his professional career in 1919 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania playing saxophone in a small combo. While visiting New Orleans, Louisiana, he played with Louis Armstrong, but he spent most of the 1920s as a bandleader, performing in Philadelphia and New York. Moving from saxophone to trombone, he also performed with artists Stuff Smith, Noble Sissle, and others. In the 1930s, he worked with several artists including Teddy Hill’s orchestra and the Mills Blue Rhythm Band, reconnecting with Louis Armstrong, and playing with him from 1937 until 1939. In 1944, he formed the DeParis Brothers with his brother Sidney, who had achieved some fame as a trumpet soloist. After the duo toured with artists such as Ella Fitzgerald and Roy Eldridge before Wilbur de Paris return to leading his small combo. Within the year, he split up his band and joined Duke Ellington’s band from late 1945 until 1947. As a bandleader, he released a series of albums in the 1950s and 1960s including NEW New Orleans jazz (1953), Plays Cole Porter (1958), Wilbur de Paris Plays Something Old, New, Gay, Blue (1958), On the Riviera (1961), and Uproarious Twenties in Dixieland (1965). Wilbur de Paris died on January 3, 1973, at the age of 72.

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