King Oliver

Birth Name:
Joseph Nathan Oliver
Birth Date:
December 19, 1885
Birth Place:
Aben, Louisiana
Death Date:
April 10, 1938
Place of Death:
Savannah, Georgia
Age:
52
Cause of Death:
Arteriosclerosis
Cemetery Name:
Woodlawn Cemetery
Claim to Fame:
Music
Associates:
A pioneering jazz trumpet and cornet player, songwriter and bandleader Joseph “King” Oliver played an instrumental role in the popularization of jazz outside of New Orleans. Though born in Louisiana, Oliver spent much of his career in Chicago, where he established his legendary King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. Initially, the band included Louis Armstrong, formerly Oliver’s student in New Orleans. Ironically, Armstrong’s success ultimately overshadowed his mentor’s reputation as a jazz pioneer. As both a teacher and a musician, however, Oliver played an important role in the early history of jazz. Upon his death he was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City

A Very Sad Ending …

The end of Joe Oliver’s life was less than happy. His career-long dental problems, likely exacerbated by his habit of sipping sugar water “for energy” during performances, made it increasingly difficult to play the cornet. He lost his life savings in a bank collapse during the Great Depression, and spent the last years of his life touring with bands of increasing obscurity. Things only got worse when Oliver finally landed a long-term contract playing in New York’s Kentucky Club for pretty decent money, but made another bad decision when he passed up the chance to go to the newer Cotton Club because they paid less. Oliver unfortunately failed to take the powerful “Struggle Buggy Radio” broadcasts into account, something that Ellington, and his manager Irving Mills, did not overlook. The result was that Ellington’s fame grew while Oliver’s diminished. Later he was hired by the Savoy Ballroom before Chick Webb took up residence, but was unsatisfied with the pay. He tried to wangle more money out of management, but the end result was that he lost the job. Webb moved in as Oliver finally just gave up and moved back to Savannah, Georgia.

In Savannah Oliver was working in a pool hall trying to make enough money to buy an overcoat so he can get back to New York in the wintertime. But he never makes it. He dies, and there’s no money to bury him. Fortunately Louis Armstrong comes up with enough money to bury him at Woodlawn Cemetery in New York City, and he was pretty much forgotten until the hot jazz resurgence some 50 years after his passing.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Woodlawn Cemetery

4199 Webster Avenue

Bronx, New York, 10470

USA

North America

Map:

Map of Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx in New York City
Map of Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx in New York City

Grave Location:

Salvia Plot, Section 195, Range 16

Grave Location Description

Drive to the lower part of the cemetery (C-2 on the official cemetery map) and take Canna Avenue around until it turns into Heliotrope Avenue. Park and walk to the edge of the cemetery. King Oliver is buried in a shared grave and 2nd to the left of one of the large trees across from a red brick building on the other side of the fence.

Grave Location GPS

40.880349723923736, -73.87263773346578

Photos:

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FAQ's

King Oliver was born on December 19, 1885.

King Oliver was born in Aben, Louisiana.

King Oliver died on April 10, 1938.

King Oliver died in Savannah, Georgia.

King Oliver was 52.

The cause of death was Arteriosclerosis.

King Oliver's grave is in Woodlawn Cemetery

Read More About King Oliver:

Videos Featuring King Oliver:

Watch YouTube video titled Shake It And Break It - King Oliver & His Orchestra (1930)
Shake It And Break It - King Oliver & His Orchestra (1930)
Watch YouTube video titled King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band - Dipper Mouth Blues (1923)
King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band - Dipper Mouth Blues (1923)
Watch YouTube video titled Riverside Blues -- King Oliver 1923
Riverside Blues -- King Oliver 1923
Watch YouTube video titled Tin Roof Blues
Tin Roof Blues
Watch YouTube video titled King Oliver's Dixie Syncopators - Deep Henderson
King Oliver's Dixie Syncopators - Deep Henderson
Watch YouTube video titled St James Infirmary : King Oliver and His Orchestra
St James Infirmary : King Oliver and His Orchestra

See More:

Louis Armstrong

popular name: Louis Armstrong

date_of_death: July 6, 1971

age: 69

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: From a New Orleans boys’ home to Hollywood, Carnegie Hall, movies and television, the tale of Louis Armstrong’s life and triumphant six-decade career epitomizes the American success story. His trumpet playing revolutionized the world of music, and he became one of our century’s most recognized and best loved entertainers. With his instantly recognizable rich, gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer and skillful improviser. He was also skilled at scat singing. By the end of Armstrong's life, his influence had spread to popular music in general. Armstrong's best known songs include "What a Wonderful World", "La Vie en Rose", "Hello, Dolly!", "On the Sunny Side of the Street", "Dream a Little Dream of Me", "When You're Smiling" and "When the Saints Go Marching In". He collaborated with Ella Fitzgerald, producing three records together: Ella and Louis (1956), Ella and Louis Again (1957), and Porgy and Bess (1959). He also appeared in films such as A Rhapsody in Black and Blue (1932), Cabin in the Sky (1943), High Society (1956), Paris Blues (1961), A Man Called Adam (1966), and Hello, Dolly! (1969). Armstrong received numerous accolades including the Grammy Award for Best Male Vocal Performance for Hello, Dolly! in 1965, as well as a posthumous win for the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1972, and induction into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2017. Upon his death, he was laid to rest at Flushing Cemetery in Queens, New York.

Elvis Presley

popular name: Elvis Presley

date_of_death: August 16, 1977

age: 42

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Elvis Presley was an American singer, musician and actor. He is regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century and is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll". He is the best-selling solo music artist of all time, and was commercially successful in many genres, including pop, country, R&B, adult contemporary, and gospel. He won three Grammy Awards, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame. Presley made his film debut in "Love Me Tender". After touring and starring in films, by 1973 Elvis's health was in major and serious decline. Twice during that year, he overdosed on barbiturates, spending three days in a coma in his hotel suite after the first incident. On the evening of Tuesday, August 16, 1977, Presley was scheduled to fly out of Memphis to begin another tour. That afternoon, Ginger Alden discovered him in an unresponsive state on a bathroom floor. According to her eyewitness account, "Elvis looked as if his entire body had completely frozen in a seated position while using the toilet and then had fallen forward, in that fixed position, directly in front of it. ... It was clear that, from the time whatever hit him to the moment he had landed on the floor, Elvis hadn't moved."

Harry Nilsson

popular name: Harry Nilsson

date_of_death: January 15, 1994

age: 52

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: A leading pop songwriter first, and a performer a distant second Harry Nilsson was never able to fully develop his talent and instead was more widely regarded for his erratic rock 'n' roll lifestyle. Nilsson began writing songs in the early sixties while working the late shift in the computer department of a large California bank. After struggling for 5 years, he sold the songs "Paradise" and "Here I Sit" to producer and future murderer Phil Spector and the Ronettes. He signed a recording contract with RCA after he sold songs to The Monkees and the fledging Yardbirds. In 1967 he released the critically acclaimed album "The Pandemonium Shadow Show", showcasing his three-octave range while still working at the bank. The album did not go unnoticed by the Beatles and soon Nilsson became good friends with the Fab Four. Nilsson scored his first Top Ten hit with "Everybody's Talkin'", the theme song from the movie "Midnight Cowboy" (ironically written by someone else). In 1971 he scored big with his most commercially successful album "Nilsson Schmilsson," which included the emotive ballad "Without You." But Nilsson's problems began with the infamous year-long "lost weekend" with John Lennon during Lennon's split with Yoko Ono. The year long sessions of drinking and debauchery stayed with Nilsson the rest of his life. Another setback came when, after Lennon offered to produce Nilsson's next album, Nilsson lost the upper register of his voice for much of the recording sessions. Failing in health during the nineties, Nilsson passed away in his sleep from a massive heart attack just two days after putting the final vocal tracks down on his last album.

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