Larry Briers

Early jazz and dance band pianist born in Newport News, Virginia on December 25 of 1891. It's likely that Briers received his first piano lessons as a kid, and later studied at some conservatory. Briers married his sweetheart Evelyn Russell Groeble on September 6 of 1913 before the 2 newlyweds moved to New York, where Larry Briers obtained employment at the Rector Cafe from the 4th Street, place where he decided to use the artistic name of Larry Briers. It was there when he met clarinet player, violinist & future alto saxophonist Joseph Samuels, who hired him for his orchestra that also played in the Rector Café. Briers did his very first recordings with Samuels's Orchestra for the US branch of Pathé (which later became Pathé Actuelle) on January of 1919, and also recorded with Samuels for Okeh, Emerson, Lyric, the Plaza group (renamed ARC), Gennett, the NYRL group (including Paramount, Puritan, etc.), Arto, Bell, Grey Gull, Edison & Federal among other labels. In addition to recording with the above mentioned Joseph Samuels's Orchestra (& his subset Synco Jazz Band (aka the Tampa Blue Jazz Band, Porter's Blue Devils (Gennett sessions from August 31 of 1923, October 11 of 1923 & November 12 of 1923) & Joseph Samuels's Jazz Band), Briers also managed to record with the Rega Orchestra for Okeh, Nathan Glantz's Orchestra (both under Glantz's own name & several pseudonyms such as The Merry Sparklers, for example) for several labels, the Blue Ribbon Trio for Okeh, Harry Reser's orchestra & trio (1922 to March of 1923), the Green Brothers Novelty Band (for Edison, Gennett & Okeh among other labels), etc. Briers also accompanied the Harmonizers, Mamie Smith, Clarence Williams & many more vocalists & vocal groups, in addition to appearing on several of Joseph Samuels's violin recordings, some of Harry Reser's earliest banjo solos with piano accompaniment, etc. And if that's not enough, he composed several tunes such as "Just Suppose", "Dew Drop", "Satisfied", "Oh, Joe (Please Don't Go)", "Parson Jenks", "Page Paderewski" (co-written with his boss Joseph Samuels & legendary pianist Pete Wendling), "Fine Feathers" & of course, "Brother Low-Down", which can be considered Briers's greatest hit if we have in mind that it was recorded among others by Bert Williams for Columbia, Al Bernard for Victor, Edison & Brunswick, and of course, Joseph Samuels's (Synco) Jazz Band as the Tampa Blue Jazz Band for Okeh that also included Briers himself at the piano. By 1940, Briers was now living in Franklin, Ohio with his wife Evelyn Russell Groeble & their son James L. Briers (born on 1924). Briers is presumably dead in the period from 1960 or 1970 onwards.