Tom Albert was born on a plantation field in
Plaquemines Parish,
Louisiana, on December 23, 1877. He later relocated to
New Orleans sometime in his early childhood, settling in the
Algiers neighborhood. Tom lived in a run-down shack on Saux Lane, an impoverished strip nearby the Naval station. He initially played the
guitar before learning how to play the violin. He was taught basic methods for each instrument by
Jimmy Palao. Soon after he mastered the
cornet and the
violin. The first band Albert was in was his own which included
Papa Celestin and
Manuel Manetta. In 1920, he founded the
Eureka Brass Band. During the earlier years, Albert's band played in
Algiers with Henry Red Allen Sr. Band. In his late thirties, Albert moved across the river to the
French Quarter and reformed his band, branding it ""Kid Albert Band." The band then began performing in several halls around the city, mostly in the
Storyville and
Treme sections. For a decade, kid Albert Band played alongside
jazz pioneers
Louis Armstrong,
Kid Thomas Valentine and other small brass bands but never recorded. In 1949 Albert retired from the bands and died on December 12, 1969, at the age of 91. ==References==