Kid Thomas Valentine Song Lyrics

Who is Kid Thomas Valentine?

Kid Thomas (1896–1987), born Thomas Valentine, was an American jazz trumpeter and bandleader. Kid Thomas was born in Reserve, Louisiana and came to New Orleans in his youth. In the early 1920s, he gained a reputation as a hot trumpet man. Starting in 1926 he led his own band, for decades based in the New Orleans suburb of Algiers, Louisiana. The band was long popular with local dancers. Kid Thomas had perhaps the city's longest lasting old-style traditional jazz dance band. Unlike many other musicians, Thomas was unaffected by the influence of Louis Armstrong and later developments of jazz, continuing to play in his distinctive hot, bluesy, sometimes percussive style. His style was that which is characterized often as, "New Orleans Jazz", in order to differentiate it from the influences that arose from other parts of the country through the years. He was always open to playing the popular tunes of the day (even into the rock & roll era) as he thought any good dance bandleader should ...