Alcohol Abuse Advice

Albert Brunies, better known as Abbie Brunies, was an influential cornet player and also led Abbie Brunies’ Halfway House Orchestra, which despite the name did not consist of recovering alcoholics or felons on parole. The Halfway House was a club, so named because it happened to be located approximately half of the distance between New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain. Players in this group included Charlie Cordella, Mickey Marcour, Leon Rappolo, Bill Eastwood, Joe Loyacano, and Leo Adde. The original version of this group functioned for around eight years beginning in 1919. Abbie Brunies actively gigged in the New Orleans area until the mid-’40s, when he relocated around the bend in Biloxi, MS. He led a group there called the Brunies Brothers Dixieland Jazz Band. The fine cornetist “Papa Ray” Ronnei was considered to have been influenced greatly by Brunies’ playing style. Brunies himself seems to have undergone a stylistic transition in the late ’20s, showing an understanding of the Paul Whiteman concepts of orchestrating jazz, even going as far as to toss in a few Bix Beiderbecke licks. Much less is known about his playing style by the ’50s, as the Biloxi group did very little recording. The most famous members of the Brunies clan were trombonist and bandleader George Brunies, who later shaved his name down to Georg Brunis, and Merritt Brunies, proficient on both cornet and trombone and also a successful bandleader. There was also another trombonist, Henry “Henny” Brunies …