Living Legends of Jazz - Lionel Ferbos

Lionel Ferbos credit: Donn Young

The oldest active musician in New Orleans, Lionel Ferbos was born and spent all of his ninety-six years in the downtown Creole section of the city. He was first inspired to play music when he heard trumpeters in an all-girls band; then, at fifteen, he began private lessons. He started playing New Orleans-style jazz and popular dance music at house parties and restaurants, then he toured throughout the South on the famous Theater Owners’ Booking Association circuit.

Back in New Orleans by the early 1930s, he played in the Works Progress Administration Band and with local big bands. To raise his family, Ferbos settled in a longtime trade as a sheet metal worker, but except for a brief layoff due to medical problems, he continued to play music all of his life.

In the early 1970s his sweet trumpet tone and excellent reading ability led to his long-standing membership in the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra, with which he made several recordings and appeared in feature films such as Pretty Baby. Beginning in the late 1970s he was the original trumpeter and a featured vocalist in the hit musical One Mo’ Time.

Ferbos has remained self-conscious about his playing. He writes out his solos, and while he knows dozens of songs by memory, on jobs he reads many of the songs from sheet music. He takes a humorous view of his approach and trademark music stand: “Some guys wouldn’t hire me ’cause they said I read too much! I look at it this way: Al Hirt had his beard; Kermit Ruffins has his hat; I have my stand!”

Ferbos’ home flooded in Katrina and was severely damaged; most of his possessions were lost. In the meantime, he also lost his son. Now Ferbos lives with his ailing wife of seventy-three years and their daughter-in-law in an apartment, and doesn’t know if he will ever return to his home. Yet, he can still be found, one night a week, playing at the Palm Court Jazz Café, where he has played for the past fifteen years.