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Paul Ferrara

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Paul Ferrara was a descendent of the first wave of immigrants from Sicily who arrived in New Orleans before and after 1900.

His first drum was a barrel he found on the street in his neighborhood, the French Quarter, which in those days the 1940s was largely Sicilian.

By the time Ferrara was 18 years old, Louis Prima made a trip to Bourbon Street's Famous Door Night Club to hire him away for his band.

Here's a short list of some of the folks he played with: George Girod, Earl Williams, the Assunto Brothers, Sam Butara , Murphy Campo, Pee Wee Spitelera, Pete Fountain, Rene Netto, Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Holiday, and Johnny Cash.

Forgotten history - remembered

A little insight into jazz, New Orleans and American music history...

What's up with New Orleans and Sicilians? Answer: A lot!

First, huge numbers of Sicilians made their way to New Orleans from the island before and after 1900 when Sicily was one of the world's main sources of citrus fruit.

The poverty at that time in Sicily was crushing. How bad was it? When Booker T. Washington visited Sicily to get ideas on how to improve the plight of rural blacks in the South, here's what he found:

"The condition of the colored farmer in the most backward parts of the Southern States in America, even where he has the least education and the least encouragement, is incomparably better than the condition and opportunities of the agricultural population in Sicily." - Booker T. Washington, 1912

Things were so bad that many families has to resort to "pawning" their oldest boy children to sulphur mine operators to keep the rest of the children alive - and many boys never survived the experience.

Second, Sicilians received the same bad treatment blacks received in the South. In fact, the single largest lynching in American history took place in New Orleans and the victims were Sicilians.

Third, for their part the early waves of Sicilian immigrants were color blind. Unlike other merchants and shopkeepers Sicilian-owned stores served black customers.

All this adds up to an explanation of some "unsolved mysteries" which shouldn't be mysteries at all:

For example:

* Why do the Mardi Gras Indians hold the Sicilian Feast Day St. Joseph's Day as a key holiday, on par with Mardi Gras itself?

* Why were there so many Sicilian jazz bands early in jazz history?

* Why was the first man to welcome black musicians in New Orleans into a recording studio named Cosimo Matassa?

Friendship, respect and affection between New Orleans blacks and Sicilians, an unremembered and unheralded fact of American history that stimulated a creative explosion that literally formed America's culture.

That's how we grow.

Thanks!