Albany Leon “Barney” Bigard was born in New Orleans on March 3, 1906. Bigard began on the E-flat clarinet when he was seven. He took lessons from Lorenzo Tio, Jr., and he played both the clarinet and the tenor sax in New Orleans with a variety of bands. In 1924 he moved to Chicago where at first he was in greater demand on tenor than he was on clarinet. On a four-song record date with Luis Russell in 1926, Bigard showed that at the time he was second to Coleman Hawkins among tenor saxophonists.
Bigard played tenor sax with King Oliver’s Dixie Syncopators during 1924-27, making quite a few records with the cornetist. However Jelly Roll Morton was impressed by Bigard’s clarinet playing and featured him on that instrument on several recordings.
In December 1927, Barney Bigard joined the Duke Ellington Orchestra, replacing Rudy Jackson. Ellington loved Bigard’s New Orleans sound, took advantage of his impressive technical skills, and for over 14 years every clarinet solo on Ellington’s records was by Bigard, including his showcase “Clarinet Lament” (aka “Barney’s Concerto”).
In June 1942 Bigard left the Duke Ellington Orchestra to settle in Los Angeles. In L.A. he worked with the Freddie Slack Orchestra for a year. In 1944, he joined Kid Ory’s new band which also included trumpeter Mutt Carey.
Barney Bigard became a key member of the Louis Armstrong All-Stars in 1947. Bigard was with Armstrong during 1947-55, constantly traveling the world. The clarinetist was part of Armstrong’s tremendous success during this long period. After a five-year hiatus, in 1960 Bigard was back with Armstrong for a final year. A highlight was playing on the lone record that Armstrong and Duke Ellington, Bigard’s most important employers, made together.
Bigard was semi-retired for much of the 1960s. Bigard came back to record an excellent album with pianist Art Hodes in 1968 and participated in a Louis Armstrong 70th birthday tribute concert in 1970. His final recording was cut in April 1979, a septet date led by trombonist Trummy Young that included Dick Hyman and Milt Hinton.
Barney Bigard passed away on June 27, 1980, at the age of 74.
Since 1975 Scott Yanow has been a regular reviewer of albums in many jazz styles. He has written for many jazz and arts magazines, including JazzTimes, Jazziz, Down Beat, Cadence, CODA, and the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, and was the jazz editor for Record Review. He has written an in-depth biography on Dizzy Gillespie for AllMusic.com. He has authored 11 books on jazz, over 900 liner notes for CDs and over 20,000 reviews of jazz recordings.
Yanow was a contributor to and co-editor of the third edition of the All Music Guide to Jazz. He continues to write for Downbeat, Jazziz, the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, the Jazz Rag, the New York City Jazz Record and other publications.
