Waldren "Frog" Joseph was a jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 trombone

Trombone

The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...

 player from New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...

. He played in a variety of styles over his career but was best known as a performer of traditional New Orleans jazz in the style carried on today by the Preservation Hall

Preservation Hall

Preservation Hall is a noted jazz performance hall located at 726 St. Peter Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. It hosts nightly concerts featuring a rotating roster of bands. The bands of Preservation Hall typically perform jazz in the New Orleans style.Despite the fame of the...

 ensembles. His first job was as a teenager, playing piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

, double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

 and trombone on an excursion boat on Lake Ponchartrain, and he went on to tour with a range of musicians including Joe Robichaux

Joe Robichaux

Joe Robichaux was an American jazz pianist. He was the nephew of John Robichaux....

, Sidney Desvigne

Sidney Desvigne

Sidney Desvigne was an American jazz trumpeter.Desvigne played in a large number of noted 1910s and 1920s-era New Orleans Jazz ensembles, including Leonard Bechet's Silver Bell Band, the Maple Leaf Orchestra, the Excelsior Brass Band, and Ed Allen's Whispering Gold Band. He and Fate Marable often...

, and Lee Allen

Lee Allen (musician)

Lee Allen was an American tenor saxophone player born in Pittsburg, Kansas.A key figure in the New Orleans rock and roll scene of the 1950s, Allen recorded with many leading performers of the early rock and roll era...

. Joseph also recorded with R&B artists such as Big Joe Turner

Big Joe Turner

Big Joe Turner was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to the songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." Although he came to his greatest fame in the 1950s with his pioneering rock and roll recordings, particularly "Shake, Rattle and...

, Earl King

Earl King

This article is about the musical artist. For the Earl King convicted of murdering a ship's officer, see Earl King, Ernest Ramsay, and Frank Conner...

, Smiley Lewis

Smiley Lewis

Smiley Lewis was an American New Orleans rhythm and blues musician. The journalist, Tony Russell, in his book The Blues - From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray, stated "Lewis was the unluckiest man in New Orleans...

, and Dave Bartholomew

Dave Bartholomew

Dave Bartholomew is a musician, band leader, composer and arranger, prominent in the music of New Orleans throughout the second half of the 20th century...

. In the traditional vein, he recorded and toured with New Orleans bandleaders like Paul Barbarin

Paul Barbarin

Adolphe Paul Barbarin was a New Orleans jazz drummer, usually regarded as one of the very best of the pre-Big Band era jazz drummers...

, Louis Cottrell, Jr.

Louis Cottrell, Jr.

Louis Albert Cottrell, Jr. was a Louisiana Creole jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist. He was the son of the influential drummer Louis Cottrell, Sr., and grandfather of New Orleans jazz drummer Louis Cottrell...

, and Papa French

Papa French

Albert "Papa" French was a New Orleans Jazz musician, banjo player, and band leader. He died in 1977.He was a banjo player in the Original Tuxedo Brass Band of New Orleans. This band was founded in 1910 and led for 44 years by Papa Celestin. After the death of Papa Celestin in 1954, leadership...

. Late in his life he was a member of the Original Camelia Band led by trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

er Clive Wilson.

Joseph was the father of seven children, two of whom went on to become accomplished jazz musicians themselves: sousaphone

Sousaphone

The sousaphone is a type of tuba that is widely employed in marching bands. Designed so that it fits around the body of the musician and is supported by the left shoulder, the sousaphone may be readily played while being carried...

 player Kirk Joseph

Kirk Joseph

Kirk Joseph is a jazz sousaphone player from New Orleans, Louisiana. The son of trombonist Waldren "Frog" Joseph, Kirk Joseph began playing the sousaphone while a student at Andrew Bell Middle School, and took part in his first professional gig at the age of fifteen when his brother Charles...

 and trombonist Charles Joseph.