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| The 2005 Atlanta JAZZ Party! |
Comments by Phil Carroll . . .
When folks reach their senior years, they often start to reminisce about earlier days. I guess I’m no exception since I often think about the great jazz music of my youth, but also recall the old cars that were so hard to start…that tended to boil over when they did run, and to spite me, they were prone to develop flat tires! You older folks remember that tires used to have inner tubes, so fixing flats was a major production, but back to the good.
As I’ve written before, Lee and I were raised in Maplewood, NJ, about a 45-50 minute train ride from New York City. As soon as I discovered jazz music at 8 years of age, I sought it on radio whenever I could. Then later, at 12, I got a copy of “Jazzmen” compiled by Frederick Ramsey and Charles Edward Smith. (It is still available) This filled my head with much of the early history of jazz and piqued my interest in hearing recorded jazz from the past, and live jazz from the present. I also learned that Bix and the Gang recorded At the Jazz Band Ball on the very day of my birth, October 5, 1927. Of course, I had never heard the record because it was not available until reissues began to come out in the 1940s.
Even though I was young, I began to save my very scarce funds to go into New York on an occasional Sunday afternoon and visit Nick’s at 7th Avenue and 10th Street in The Village. My first trip was to hear Muggsy Spanier’s Ragtimers with George Brunies, Rod Cless etc. just before they disbanded in December 1939. Later, I heard Muggsy many times when his band included Miff Mole, trombone; Pee Wee Russell, clarinet; Gene Schroeder, piano; Eddie Condon, guitar; Bob Casey, bass; and Joe Grauso, drums. Miff Mole was generally credited, along with Jack Teagarden and Jimmy Harrison, with modernizing the trombone, freeing it from the oompha style of earlier players. Along with Red Nichols, Miff was probably the most prolific recording artist of the 20s. Miff made so much money he once said, “I went out to buy a pack of cigarettes and came home with a Pierce Arrow.” However, when he died, his trombone had to be sold to pay for his funeral.
I was reluctantly welcomed at Nick’s but some other clubs didn’t want me until I got a little older. Nick’s had 3 upright pianos on the floor in front of the stage and a grand piano on the stage. Nick liked to play piano, but he had more enthusiasm than talent, so he wouldn’t interfere with the band! He regularly had intermission piano players that included at various times Willie “ The Lion” Smith, Mel Powell, Eddie Heywood, Hank Duncan, Cliff Jackson and others. Nick also offered more variety of Traditional Jazz than some of the other clubs. Besides Muggsy, he had bands led by Jimmy McParland, Sidney Bechet, Sharkey Bonano, Bobby Hackett, Pee Wee Russell, George Brunies, Phil Napoleon, Pee Wee Erwin and one of the best bands ever… But Freeman’s Summa Cum Laude Band with Max Kaminsky, trumpet; Pee Wee Russell, clarinet; Brad Gowans, trombone, Dave Bowman, piano; Eddie Condon, guitar; Clyde Newcome, bass; Stan King, drums and of course Bud on tenor sax.
Eddie Condon had been a regular at Nick’s, but Nick, for some reason, fired him in 1943. It took him almost two years, but Eddie opened his own club in December 1945 at 47 West 3rd Street, about a half mile south of Nick’s. It was a rousing success right from the start. Wild Bill Davison played opening night and stayed for 12 years! My favorite band at Condon’s was Wild Bill, cornet; Cutty Cutshall, trombone; Ed Hall, clarinet; Gene Schroeder, piano; Eddie Condon, guitar; Bob Casey, bass and George Wettling, drums. A little later, Johnny Varro was intermission piano player and still later took over piano in the house band when Gene Schroeder left to join the Dukes of Dixieland.
Back to cars for a moment. I worked on a farm in Michigan for five months in the summer of ’43. This was to help out with the shortage of manpower caused by the War. The money I saved went to the purchase of my first car in ’44. (Zero help from my parents) As you remember, we had gas rationing during WWWII, and I had a “A” card which allowed me 3 gallons a week. However, 50 cents per gallon would get a fellow all the gas he wanted from Black Charlie. I was mostly patriotic, but did buy some illegal fuel! So, now my money was split between my car, trips to New York City, my records and finally girls!
By now, I was venturing uptown to “Swing Street,” a two block section between 5th and 7th Avenues on West 52nd Street. There were close to 30 jazz clubs in those 2 blocks, and they were jumpin’ until about the early ‘50s. Most of the clubs featured small swing combos, but one, “Jimmy Ryan’s” favored traditional jazz and had regular Sunday afternoon jam sessions, as did the Village Vanguard downtown in Greenwich Village. In ’46 I saw the Scarsdale Wildcats one afternoon. The teenage band was led by Bob Wilber and had Johnny Glasel on cornet; Dick Wellstood, piano; Charlie Traeger, bass and Eddie Phyfe, drums. The band played so well, “ in the tradition,” that they startled and pleased many old time jazz fans. They recorded 2 sides for Commodore Records; “Willie and Weeper” and “Wild Cat Blues”, plus a number of sides for Rampart Records. Bob, whose name was often spelled Wilbur (possibly because Wilbur DeParis was a regular at Ryan’s) also recorded “Spreadin’ Joy” and “Polka Dot Stomp” with Sidney Bechet, his mentor, for the Columbia Label. They appeared together on the radio show, “This Is Jazz” hosted by Rudi Blesch. I also saw Art Tatum at the Downbeat Club, with Slam Stewart, bass and Tiny Grimes, guitar. Art was certainly a virtuoso piano player but he played too many notes for my taste.
Another club that we used to frequent was the Stuyvesant Casino at 140 2nd Avenue newr 9th Street. My first trip there was to hear Bunk Johnson, the legendary New Orleans trumpet player, who was in the band with Buddy Bolden who is generally considered to be the first jazzman. With Bunk was Jim Robinson, trombone; George Lewis, clarinet; Alton Purnell, piano; Lawrence Marrero, banjo; Slow Drag, bass; and Baby Dodds, drums. George Lewis played in a very lyrical sweeping style that became very popular and imitated by white “trad bands” clarinetists all over the world. Some were so close to George’s style, it was sometimes hard to tell it wasn’t George himself!
Over the years, I have seen and heard many great and well known jazzmen and also lots of lesser known and often forgotten good players, such as: Sterling Bose, trumpet; Freddie Ohms and Frank Orchard, trombone; Boojie Centobie, clarinet; Charlie Queener, piano; and Tony Spargo, drums (his real name was Sparbaro.) Tony played regularly at Nick’s, but in 1916 was a member of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band that is generally credited with starting “The Jazz Age.” Tony would take an occasional solo on his kazoo. Not your usual small kazoo that kids blew, but a much larger one that had more volume, on which he took interesting driving solos.
This is our 16th year for the Atlanta Jazz Party and to date, we have had 125 different jazzmen (and women) perform for us. Sadly, at least nine of these have passed away… Herman Foretich, Bob Haggart, Milt Hinton, Wally Rose, Bill Carroll, Bill Napier, Jim Snyder, Doc Cheatham and Ralph Sutton. On balance, our players today are every bit as good as the ones I grew up with, and probably are more versatile and have more formal training. All of you musicians have given us a great deal of pleasure and we applaud your enthusiasm and devotion to classic jazz.