Oliver, King Joseph (1885–1938)

US jazz cornet player, bandleader, and composer. His work with Louis Armstrong 1922–24, on numbers such as ‘Canal Street Blues’, took jazz beyond the confines of early Dixieland. His other compositions include ‘Snake Rag’ (1923) and ‘Dr Jazz’ (1927).

Born in Louisiana, Oliver began his career with New Orleans brass bands but was based mainly in Chicago from 1919 and in New York from the mid-1920s. He led his own band (called first the Creole Jazz Band and later the Dixie Syncopators) 1918–27 and 1931–37. The two-part cornet improvisations he created with Armstrong are seen as the high point of 1920s jazz. Oliver later moved towards a swing style.