City of Louisville, CO
Home MenuLouisville In Tune
Music has always been important to Louisville’s early residents who arrived with rich cultural and musical traditions from their home countries. Alongside the clamor of coal mines and train whistles, the streets and homes of Louisville were filled with the sounds of trumpets, drums, pianos, violins, accordions, songs in Welsh, Italian and Spanish, and even opera. Louisville was home to skilled musicians of all ages who shared their talents and nurtured others, ensuring that music accompanied every social occasion and family gathering.
These recordings accompany the Louisville in Tune front window exhibit at the Museum in 2023. They are examples of music that was played or listened to by Louisville residents from the first Louisville Band in the 1880s to award-winning piano students in the 1980s.
Eliseo Jacoe and his brother "Frank" Marcello Jacoe established the Louisville Concert Band in 1906. Band members were mostly Italian coal miners. The band often played classical Italian music and songs like "Le Streghe" that was listed in the Louisville Concert Band's Grand Concert in 1909.
"The Colorado Strike Song" is an example of songs that were played by the Louisville Concert Band under Eliseo Jacoe during rallies and parades supporting the coal strikes between 1910-1914. Lyrics written by Frank J. Hayes, UMWA President, in September 1913. Sung to Battle Cry of Freedom from the Civil War.
Louisville's many small dance bands such as the Harris Happy Eight, Knobby's Band, and the Romeo Royal Entertainers would have played music like this at dances held at Red Men's Hall in Louisville in the 1920s and 1930s.
Playing piano for silent movies at the Rex Theatre required improvisational skills, good timing, and consistency over multiple showings. Learn more about how piano accompanists match music to the action on the screen.
Violette McKenzie McCarthy taught music at Louisville High School from 1930-1935. An accomplished musician and opera singer, she sang the role of Acuzena in 1946 in Verdi's opera, Il Trovatore with the Denver Opera Company. This video is of contra alto Katerina Jalovcova as Acuzena.
Fred Nesbit was a student of Violette McCarthy and went on to pursue a career in opera. This video is of Pavlo Denysenko in the role of Mephistopheles, singing an aria from the opera Faust by Charles Gounod. Fred Nesbit also sang this role in 1949 with the Denver Opera Company.
Richard LaSalle
Richard LaSalle grew up in Louisville in the 1920s-1930s and was an accordion, piano, and voice student of Eliseo Jacoe and Violette McCarthy. As a high school student, he led his own orchestra, "Dick LaSalle and his Maytag Orchestra". He was featured regularly on Denver radio station KOA throughout the Big Band era. In 1958, LaSalle moved to Hollywood and began a career composing music for film and television.
As a young man, Richard LaSalle gained recognition for his rendition of this song on the accordion that aired on Denver radio station, KOA, in 1938. This version is played by Ebbe Jularbo.
Throughout the 1930s-1940s, Richard LaSalle traveled across the U.S. with his own band. This song, sung by the Andrew Sisters, is typical of the "society music" that was popular for an evening of dancing and dining out.
Dick LaSalle traveled from coast to coast with his orchestra playing at upscale hotels such as the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco and the Plaza Hotel in New York. This recording is of Dick LaSalle's Orchestra playing the Persian Room theme from the Plaza Hotel, an example of "society music" for dining and dancing.
From 1964-1976, Louisville had its own version of society music at the Three Coins Restaurant located at 595 Main St. The restaurant was famous for its Mighty Wurlitzer Organ that accompanied fine dining and silent movie nights. Organists Dick Hull and Ray Young both released records of their music from the Three Coins.
LaSalle composed soundtracks for over 400 movies and TV shows, including campy classics like Lost in Space.
LaSalle created iconic music filled with tension and drama for horror and sci fi movies of the 1960s-1970s.
Marion Thirlaway taught voice and piano in Louisville for 45 years from 1943-1988. This recording is of Polichinelle in f sharp minor Op 3 No 4 by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Trang Than, one of Thirlaway's students, played Polichinelle and won first place in the Baldwin Piano Competition in 1987.
Accordion Bands were very popular in the 1950s-1960s. Many Louisville children played in local and national competitions and accordion bands were regular features in Louisville parades. This video shows the Ray Littee Accordion Band as featured on the Mickey Mouse Club TV show in 1958.