PHOTOS FOR VOLUME TWO OF
"The Sons and Daughters of Jean Baptiste Jacquet"
A History of the Black Jacquets in Louisiana
by Russell Jacquet Acea


The Jacquet family, relatives and friends at a club where Illinois Jacquet
and Russell Jacquet are playing music with their band during a show.
The place is of unknown origin but theories are that is
could be a club in Oakland or Los Angeles California.
Gilbert Joseph Jacquet and his other two sons -
Johnny Linton Jacquet and Julius Jacquet
sit 5th, 4th and 3rd on the right side.
circa late 1940's - early 1950's
 
 


Big Band leader Robert Russell Jacquet and his band
"The California Playboys"
circa 1939
Brothers Illinois Jacquet on the alto sax (second from left),
Julius Jacquet on the tenor sax (fourth from left),
and Johnny Linton Jacquet on the drums.
 
 


The Jacque Rabbits

The second album within the “Complete Illinois Jacquet Sessions: 1945-50” contains songs recorded between August 1945 and January 1946 in Los Angeles and New York.  Two very special tunes recorded were “Illinois Stomp” and “Ladies Lullaby”  Illinois stomp was written by Illinois Jacquet and Ladies Lullaby was written by Sir Charles Thompson.  The two songs were released on ARA record label (ARA 144A, 144B) on a separate single 78-rpm.  ARA 144 was the original 78-rpm issue, and was the only record that identified the group as the “Jacque Rabbits".  The band members for the two records were Russell Jacquet on trumpet; Henry Coker on trombone; Jean Baptiste "Illinois" Jacquet on tenor sax; Tom Archia on tenor sax; Sir Charles Thompson on piano; Ulysses Livingston on guitar; John Simmons on bass; with both John Veliotes and Johnny Otis on drums.
 
 
Pierre Trahan, son of Evariste Trahan & Emerende Thierriot 
Pierre Trahan, was born circa 1854.  He married Marie John (or Johns) in 1879, and their daughter Marguerite Trahan married Gilbert Joseph Jacquet in the year 1903.
 


Pierre Trahan and three of his children:
Marguerite Trahan (b.2Nov1884);Pierre Ambroise "Dan" Trahan (b.4Apr1896)
and Marie Nolia Trahan (b.16Mar1889) with child.

Elizabeth Egas and her father Agustín Tiburcio Egas, ca.1955
Elizabeth Egas, the mother of Russell LaMar Jacquet Acea, with her father Agustín Egas, a native of Guayaquil, Ecuador, born there in 1898.  According to Elizabeth, Agustín's father Manuel Egas immigrated from Naples, Italy to Ecuador and married a woman of indigenous (Indian) Ecuadorian descent.  However, it is more likely that his Egas ancestors immigrated there from Germany via Holland.

The two fathers of Russell Jacquet Acea
Robert Russell Jacquet                                                                              Adriano Acea

The photos of both the biological father and the adopted father of the book's author Russell Jacquet Acea.  The two musicians played together on numerous occasions with Illinois Jacquet and many other musicians.  Robert Russell, as the lead trumpet player, gave birth to the big band group "The California Playboys" which included his three other brothers - Julius, Johnny Linton and Illinois Jacquet.  Adriano played cornet in the Army before playing drums, piano and saxophone for many musicians.  His father was an immigrant from CUBA and his mother was from Virginia.
 

Our connection to the country of FRANCE is the birthplace of Jean Baptiste Jacquet's father who was an "officier de la marine, ou service de la republique Français."

The Death Certificate of Hyacinthe Jacquet from the St. Martin de Tours Church in St. Martinville dated 1 October 1810.  The church is real strict about NOT letting the public view documents.  I was given a very rare and special dispensation from the chief archivist at the Lafayette Archdioses Archives which has all of the St. Martin church records on private microfilm collections.  They did not have a copy machine for the tape reels but I was allowed to take a photo of the document with my camera.

OUR LINK TO FRANCE!!!
Here is a close up of the part where an absentminded scribe of the past spilled some sort of liquid on the page corner right at the part describing Hyacinthe's place of birth... "...natif de la ville de Br _ _ _" ??? which translates from French to English as "native of the city of BR_ _"...  I do believe that the city or area was no more than five letters long judging from how far the scribe usually stopped writing near the end of the page.  Since the third letter looks like it could be an "i", I highly suspect the area of BRIE which appears to be an area in south-eastern Paris.  It may also be BREST, or a number of other cities from 1760's Rebulique de Français.
 

The wedding of Linda Delvitt. (daughter of Clement Delvitt and Rose Egas)
The wedding of Linda and Nikki David took place in New York City during the early 1960's.
 

Lisa Kemp, daughter of Elizabeth Egas and her Gospel singing Group.
ASAPH is: (Top) Lisa and David Kemp. (bottom) Dagmar G. Grimes, Ryan Corbin and Jermaine Lovelace.
For concert booking and CD purchases of ASAPH (As Soon As we Praise Him):
TruPraise Music LLC  -  P.O. box 9300685  -  Norcross, Georgia 30003  -  (678) 570 5079
 


LIONEL JACQUET (b. 18Apr1887)  and  FLORIDA REGIS JACQUET (b. ca.1871)
    (Pierre Jacquet & Aimée Gaspard)                            (Maturín Regis & Louisiana Rhodes)
50TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY - 29 January 1952
With six of their children:
(top) Joseph Lionel Jacquet Jr. (b. 1916); Melba (b. 1914); Lloyd (b. 6July1906);
Lilly Mae (b. 1912); Irene (b.1905) and Anthony Earl Jacquet (b. 27Aug1908)



RITA JACQUET FIGARO b. 1Jan1891
(daughter of Pierre Jacquet and Aimée Gaspard)
and two of her sons
ALLISON FIGARO & REVEREND MARK O. FIGARO
b. 4Jan1918                                                                  b. 25Apr1921
At Father Mark's Silver Jubilee Mass - 1974