c. 1910

C. Alvin “Zue” Robertson, a New Orleans native, tours with the band that accompanies the famous Kit Carson Wild West Show. He becomes a member of the well-known Olympia Brass Band by the mid-1910s, later joining the jazz migration to Chicago. He performs in Chicago with jazz legends Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, and W.C. Handy. One of the few fellow trombonists to draw praise from Kid Ory, Robertson is described by Ory as “a smooth trombone—he was good…He lived a block from me. We practiced together…He was a good piano player and a good bass, too, studied piano, read music” (Dietrich 16).

Kit Carson’s Buffalo Ranch-Wild West Show Band, with Zue Robertson standing second from left