Who in the world can play trumpet and trombone at the same time and in harmony? In the 1900s, it was jazz musician Manuel “Fess” Manetta.
Manetta was born in Algiers in 1889 as a Creole with African and Sicilian roots. In addition to the trumpet and trombone, he proficiently played piano, violin, guitar, mandolin, string bass, clarinet and saxophone. Following in the footsteps of his uncles – Jules (cornet) and Duce (trombone), Manetta’s musical training was grounded in European classics, according to the Jazz Walk of Fame.
The Historic New Orleans Collection states that Manetta “auditioned for a piano gig in Storyville by playing the overture to an opera.”

He began his musical career as a teenager. By his 20s, he was playing with bands led by Tom Albert, Buddy Bolden, Frank Duson and Edward Clem. He also played piano solo on Basin Street and with Oscar “Papa” Celestin’s band. As a violinist with Kid Ory’s band, Manetta played in Los Angeles in 1919.
“Throughout the 1920s, Manetta was a highly sought-after musician playing saxophone with the Manuel Perez Orchestra and piano on a recording with Celestin’s Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra,” the Jazz Walk of Fame states.
Manetta spent the next four decades as a music teacher. He earned the nickname “Fess” – as in “Professor”– for teaching jazz greats Henry “Red” Allen (trumpet), Buddie Petit (trumpet), Emmett Hardy (cornet) and Freddie Kohlman (drums).
The Jazz Walk of Fame credits Manetta’s birthplace for enhancing his musical gifts. He lived in four Algiers homes and had a studio at 408-410 Leboeuf St.
“The multicultural demographics of the historic Algiers community,” it states, “served to nurture its musical families and provide opportunities for musical experimentation so crucial to the development of jazz.”
Manetta died in New Orleans on Oct. 10, 1969.
For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.