The record changer (Feb-Dec 1943)

NEW ORLEANS NEWS LETTER FROM WILLIAM RUSSELL Leaving San Francisco, where Bunk, Kid Ory, and Mutt Carey had played unforgettable music, I approached New Orleans this year with some degree of apprehension knowing that Bunk, like Louie is worth a whole city-full of musicians, and this year Bunk was to be over a thousand miles away from my favorite city. But a few hours after arriving at the South Rampart St. depot, all doubts were removed and I realized that New Orleans music is far from dead. I had been told that many musicians were gone, or working in factories and shipyards, but it seems they just can't kill jazz and the joie de vivre down here. For one thing George Lewis got a great band together at the Gypsy Tea Room II the first Sundday I was here. A six piece affair, without piano, using Jim Robinson on trombone and Kid Howard on trumpet, this bunch could really stomp. Last year I got rather excited about George Lewis, perhaps prematurely, for then I'd never really heard him take off as he does this summer. Hearing this ork, composed mostly of unknowns, play .such pieces as Nilneburg Joys, Don't Go Way Nobody Let's Stay' and Save a Good Time (Bolden's old midnight tune). Climax Rag, and Just a Little While to Stay Sere (a terrific funeral march) should convince anyone that New Orleans jazz is in no more danger of extinction than the musty odor of the French Quarter. Lewis' brilliant clarinet work even in the trio with which he regularly plays should establish him as the world's hottest. Many old timers are also still playing fine jazz. Wooden Joe Nicholas has a four piece ork at Graffagnini 's Beer Parlor at Tulane and S. Claiborne where as a part of their regular musical fare they play such New Orleans classics as Panama, All the Whores Like the Way I Ride, Sigh Society, and Careless Love. Wooden Joe received his name because of his powerful cornet tone and endurance on parades. Judging from Jus playing today, even at the ageyof 60, it is no misnomer. Careless Love, one of the oldest New Orleans blues, dating from Bolden days, remains the most popular of all, and New Orleans. bands all seem to have a very special and wonderful way of playing it. They usually start out in a low down original blues. Then after about five minutes of the freest rhapsodizing you hear the subdued strains of the Careless Love theme worked in, much in GEORGE LEWIS the manner of the soft trio section of a march. Bunk says that when he was playing with the King, Frank Lewis and Brock told him they'd first heard Careless Love sung by a girl from Carleton "who had gone wrong"'. But down here some say that Edward Clem (cornetist and contemporary of Bolden) was the creator of the tune. Speaking of Bolden, after talking with his widow, I'd like to write something of the known facts of his life someday and correct some of the misconceptions for which I'm partly responsible. Big Eye Louis, in better health than last year, is still at Luthgens, down on the Gentilly car line, with something of an all-star lineup containing Louis Oumaine on trumpet, Walter Deoou, piano, and Ernest Rogers on drums. Most of these small neighborhood places employ an orchestra only on weekends, two to four nites a week. Big Eye's ork is almost the only one I've heard in New Orleans using a piano. Few halls or beer joints even own one. However there are a few solo pianists such as Walter Pichon and Joe Robecheaux Playi.ng at the tourist, — sailor joints along Bourbon Street. Charles Love, old time cornetist, has a band at Magnolia Room, another French Quarter tourist place, but one of the girl entertainers shot his pianist two weeks ago. Shots Madison plays his cornet principally for funerals and parades nowadays. Picou, busy at his tinsmith trade, still plays clarinet, but usually only in special parades, — a great rarity a,t present. Louis Keppard, brother of the great cornetist, is playing his guitar with a band at Frenchman and Villere and, as is the case with many musicians, has a daytime job too. Herb Morand, cornet pupil of Keppard, is still around town playing spot jobs. The week I arrived in New Orleans I heard Kid Rena play, rather listlessly, with his orchestra at the Cadillac Cafe. Then last week I heard that due to paralysis of the lip he is all through. Let's hope that Rena (whose lip once rivaled Armstrong's, according td those who knew both) has a speedy recovery. Fortunately one of the three week ends I've spent in New Orleans this trip was that of Decoration Day when there was more music than usual. On Saturday afternoon Ed Moseley invited me to ride around with his band in real tailgate style as they stopped at corners to advertise their dance that nite. We didn't run into King Oliver nor 01' Whalemouth, nor the Eagle Band, but had a lot of fun nevertheless. The next day I went down in the country to a little one lane village in St. Bernard Parish where Lawrence Marrero's band was playing at an all-day celebration. I never did learn how to spell or pronounce the French name of this levee town, — all colored except for a white sheriff, — but it was right close to Chalmette, where Buddy Bolden is buried. This appeared to be a special homecoming and they had two orchestras playing against one another within 50 yards. With Lawrence was a fine trumpeter called Sambo. No one (continued page 16) left to rioht! qeoroe lewis, clarinet; lawrence marrero, banjoj kld howard, trumpet; Chester Zardis, bass; Eo mosely, drums; Jim Robinson, trombone, "this bunch doesn't look so hot on paper, "bill russell say6,"but let me tell you they are equal to any band i ever heard |n person or on records. n 11