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Ray Lopez with Abe Lyman Orch, 1922-1924
Aug. 14th, 2026 12:03 pmGreat compilation of 1922-1924 recordings by the Abe Lyman orchestra. Of particular interest is the work of New Orleans cornetist Ray Lopez (b 1889), one of the top white hot trumpeters in New Orleans in the early 1910s and a significant figure in the spread of the New Orleans style nationally in the later 1910s.
His style has many similarities to his contemporary Freddie Keppard, and superior in technique and invention to another contemporary Nick LaRocca.
The Lyman group is a dance band not a jazz band per se, but gives many opportunities for Lopez to shine. Like the more famous and dramatic younger Louis Armstrong with the Fletcher Henderson Orch a couple years later, the band orchestrates some of their New Orleans trumpeter's hot variations.
https://youtu.be/8fGC4X9hF-0
Novelty mute work was a key component in the early New Orleans style of Lopez - as it was of Armstrong's mentor, Joe Oliver. (I sometimes wonder if a large factor in this style becoming considered dated by the later 1920s was the fact that Louis Armstrong mostly abandoned it, as perhaps the one technique where he couldn't surpass Oliver.)
Short Ray Lopez bio from former Red Hot Archive: https://syncopatedtimes.com/ray-lopez-1889-1979/
1958 transcript of interview with Lopez:
https://musicrising.tulane.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/07/r.lopez-8-30-1958.pdf
His style has many similarities to his contemporary Freddie Keppard, and superior in technique and invention to another contemporary Nick LaRocca.
The Lyman group is a dance band not a jazz band per se, but gives many opportunities for Lopez to shine. Like the more famous and dramatic younger Louis Armstrong with the Fletcher Henderson Orch a couple years later, the band orchestrates some of their New Orleans trumpeter's hot variations.
https://youtu.be/8fGC4X9hF-0
Novelty mute work was a key component in the early New Orleans style of Lopez - as it was of Armstrong's mentor, Joe Oliver. (I sometimes wonder if a large factor in this style becoming considered dated by the later 1920s was the fact that Louis Armstrong mostly abandoned it, as perhaps the one technique where he couldn't surpass Oliver.)
Short Ray Lopez bio from former Red Hot Archive: https://syncopatedtimes.com/ray-lopez-1889-1979/
1958 transcript of interview with Lopez:
https://musicrising.tulane.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/07/r.lopez-8-30-1958.pdf
