The 1997 Atlanta JAZZ Party!

Comments by Phil Carroll

The 1920s were exciting years for Americans. People were blindly optimistic and looked forward to unlimited prosperity. It was called the "Jazz Age" because the popular music of the day was classic jazz and a high percentage of all historically important jazz recordings were cut in the '20s. In fact, two important events occurred on October5, 1927...I was born, and Bix and The Gang recorded "At the Jazz Band Ball." This probably accounts for my lifelong love of jazz! On October 29, 1929, the world turned upside down. The stock market crashed. Fortunes were lost, many rushed to raise more margin, and others committed suicide. The next ten years would see unemployment rise to 25%. Bread lines, soup kitchens and apple sellers sprung up all around the country, and we saw the tar paper shacks on the Newark meadows...called "Hooverville." Along the way many noteworthy events caught the attention of the nation: the Lindbergh baby kidnapped, Admiral Byrd reached the Antartic, dust storms devastated the Midwest, FDR beat Hoover in a landslide, the Dionne quintuplets were born, the New Deal and the N.R.A. were introduced, prohibition was repealed, the CCC, WPA, SS and minimum wage were started, the world saw the rise of Nazi Germany, Huey Long was assassinated, Jesse Owens won four Olympic medals, the Spanish civil war was fought, Jean Harlow died, Orson Welles scared the nation with "War of the Worlds," Louis K.O.'d Schmeling in the first round, Edward VIII abdicated, the Hindenburg burned, Lou Gehrig retired because of illness, FDR submitted a $9 billion budget, and Europe went to war.

The country also followed the exploits of "folk heroes" like Bonnie and Clyde , Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd and John Dillinger. We were fascinated by speed and admired record setting efforts of aviation pioneers such as Lindbergh, Coste, Earhart, Post and Hughes, and mourned the loss of Wiley Post and Will Rogers. We paid tribute to the speed crossings of the Atlantic by the Normandy and the Queen Mary.

On the lighter side, the entertainment world helped the country forget their troubles, if only for a short time. Hollywood produced many lavish musicals with such stars as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, comedies with Chaplin, the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, W. C. Fields and Mae West. And we were enthralled with "Snow White," "The Wizard of Oz," "It Happened One Night" and "Gone With the Wind." The radio offered Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Fanny Brice, Fred Allen, Burns and Allen, Easy Aces and Amos and Andy.

Meanwhile, the "Jazz Age" was over. Jazz music, as we had known it in the '20s was virtually gone. Folks didn't have money for records or to go to clubs, and movies were only 10 cents...radio was "free." Many jazzmen had to give up music altogether or turn to other types of music. In the '30s Baby Dodds helped his brother Bill run a taxi service, Jelly Roll Morton started an ill-fated cosmetic business, Tommy Ladnier and Sidney Bechet started a tailor shop, Kid Ory helped his brother run a chicked farm, George Mitchell became a bank messenger and King Oliver ran a fruit stall in Savannah, Georgia. In 1935 a W.P.A. band was formed in New Orleans to provide work for 183 musicians. There were no jazz recordings made in New Orleans during the '30s. Hugues Panassie from France came to New York in 1938 and recorded Tommy Ladnier, who was then giving trumpet lessons to kids, and Sidney Bechet on a few sides. And in 1940, Heywood Hale Broun went to New Orleans and recorded an album with Henry "Kid" Rena and a band that included Jim Robinson, "Big Eye" Louis Nelson and Alphonse Picou. This was the beginning of revewed interest in New Orleans jazz.

During the '30s, other jazzmen joined studio bands or dance bands to keep body and soul together. Eddie Condon commented, "We found out how 2 guys could survive on one transparent hamburger a day!" Muggsy Spanier and George Brunies put in time with Ted Lewis. Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang, Jack Teagraden, Bunny Berigan, Artie Shaw, Will Bradley, Harry James and others found work backing up singers like Chick Bullock and played in other recording bands. Often, the section work with tight arrangements was boring for a jazzman. It's probably a myth, but it is said that members of the Paul Whiteman band would say, "Somebody wake up Bix, he's got a solo on this tune." To be sure, some musicians were able to keep going during the '30s with groups like the Casa Loma orchestra, Dorsey Brothers, Joe Haymes, Fletcher Henderson, Claude Hopkins, Gene Kardos, Ben Pollack, Don Redman and Ben Selvin. A few even prospered, like Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Clarence Williams and Duke Ellington. Also, I remember listening to the Adrian Rollini Trio on WOR at 6:45 in the evening.

Then in the mid '30s, the swing bands began to prosper. These provided more work for jazz players. Often, the large band would offer solo opportunities for jazz players to "ride" for 8 or 16 bars, and some bands had small "bands within a band" that provided a format for the creativity of individual players. Bob Crosby had his "Bob Cats," Benny Goodman his trio, quartet and sextet, T.D. his "Clambake Seven," Woddy Herman his "Woodchoppers" and "Four Chips," Artie Shaw his "Gramercy Five," Ben Pollack his "Pick-A-Rib Boys" and Duke Ellington had numerous small groups under the direction of Barney Bigard, Johnny Hodges, Rex Stewart and Cootie Williams. Even Paul Whiteman, Isham Jones, Harry James and Gene Krupa had small combos with their big bands.

By the late '30s, in the middle of the swing era, some very fine small band recordings started to be made. Notable among these were Muggsy Spanier's Ragtimes and the "Great Sixteen," Eddie Condon on a series of Commodore sides, and Bud Freeman's Summa Cum Laude Orchestra. And, here we find ourselves in 1997, as jazz lives on.

Speaking of sick...last year as this time I was quite uncertain that there would be an AJPVIII. My doctor postponed treatment of the lymphoma so that I could come to No. 7. He commented later that he thought it might be my last.

But, he didn't reckon with the power of the prayers, well wishes and music of you super fans, friends, family and jazzmen. I left last year's Party with the biggest lift a fella can have, and the rest, as they say is history. I am grateful to you all.