As a musician, Pete Briggs had a mission to provide the bottom end, but eventually left all that behind to plow the bottom 40. Before ditching the music business to become a farmer, Briggs was associated with the New Orleans jazz scene -- particularly Louis Armstrong, with whom he cut enough sides to partially obscure a view of the hayloft. There are plenty of reasons to listen to these wonderful records, one of which is to observe the changing role of the "bass line," provided by various combinations of tuba, string bass, baritone horn, baritone sax, and trombone as bandleader Armstrong experimented, sometimes just trying to get the best results from the recording technology of the era. On some sessions Briggs would play tuba rather than the bass, simply because the microphones couldn't deal with the sound vibrations put forth by the latter instrument.

A South Carolina native and relative of trumpeter and expatriate bandleader Arthur Briggs,

Pete Briggs' professional career began in the early '20s as a member of the jaunty Jim Jam Jazzers. From here he went on to join bands such as the Lucky Boy Minstrels, then relocated to Chicago in 1926, where he began performing with violinist and bandleader Carroll Dickerson. The following year, Armstrong rolled into town and Briggs wound up in the group known as Louis Armstrong His Stompers with a stint at the Sunset Cafe. Meanwhile, Briggs also held down the bottom end with the Jimmie Noone group at another Windy City hotspot. Satchmo's famous Hot Seven were also done this year, featuring Briggs alongside players such as Kid Ory and Johnny Dodds.

In 1929, Briggs gigged in New York City with both Armstrong and Dickerson. He became a member of the Edgar Hayes Orchestra, an Alhambra residency that stretched into the following decade. Briggs was also associated with Vernon Andrade's Orchestra in the '30s and in the '40s worked with trumpeter and vocalist Herman Autrey out of a Philadelphia base. By the mid-'40s Briggs had gone into farming. He is assumed to be deceased, but seems to have gone on to his reward without it being noticed by the jazz police. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi