The record changer (Mar 1945-Feb 1946)

April 1, 1955, Extension of remarks of Hon. Ceo. M. Avakian, Senior Senator, State of New Dodds kicks in some gin mill. The South Side more than held its own, with -Jimmy and Mama Yancey plus Richard M. Jones' Jazz Wizards. Started on a shoe string at Franny Stanton's instigation, the band made a suceess of a new Apex Club, with Natty Dominique (trumpet), Preston Jackson (trombone), Albert Nicholas, who had given up music around 1941 to become a subway guard in New York, back on clarinet, Jones on piano, Lonnie Johnson playing guitarand taking an occasional vocal, John Lindsey on bass, and of course Baby Dodds rolling his tummy behind the drums. Punch Miller and Lee Collins often sat in with this band. Meanwhile, in New York, Nick's business grew so that he couldn't handle all his customers, and he had to open a new place on 50th Street called Rongett's, with the result that even the Broadway crowd got to like Nicksieland music. The new place, in fact, was more strictly on a modified New Orleans kick, for the band there was none other than the new version of Muggsy Spanier's Ragtlmers, with George Brunies, Raymond Burke, George Zack (Jess Stacy coming in between big bands at the times when Jack's wanderlust got the better of him) , Bob Casey, and Earl Wiley. After Wiley went back to Chicago, George Wettling was the most frequent drummer, but his heavy studio schedule frequently brought Dave Tough or Rollo Laylan on the scene. Back at the old Nick's, Wild Bill Davison's band featured Pee Wee Russell, Joe Sullivan, Joe Grauso, and Floyd O'Brien, who replaced Miff Mole when the latter went back to the studios. Eddie Condon was there now and then, too, but his radio success kept him pretty busy most of the time. The owners of the Pied Piper could have retired, but instead they improved their post-war air conditioning system and quietly bought out a couple of Joints next door to each other on 52nd Street, where the mortality rate increased from 69$ a month to 212% after the public realized that all is not Jazz that Jumps. They knocked down the intervening wall, the inside of which was rotting away and smelled pretty bad as a result of what had been soaking into it so long, and produced a respectable-sized night club which they named the Chez Maxie in honor of Mai Kaminsky, whose long run at the Piper had put them in the chips. The Times Square crowd, thinking it was by Max Baer or Maxie Rosenbloom or Maxie Greenblatt, the No. 3 salesman &% Barney's upstairs showroom (little fellow in a mustache who specializes in $16 suits), so they mobbed this place, too, and eventually the backers were able to vote Kaminsky and James P. Johnson a lifetime pension apiece any time they retired. Needless to say, both are still going strong. Sidney Bechet's New Orleans Feetwarmers were the big attraction at the Chez Maxie; Sidney de Paris, Sandy Willlams, Cliff Jackson, Pops Foster, and Manzie Johnson helped make this a bedrock combination. Jimmy Ryan's spot boomed when Santo Pecora, bored wlth.Hollywood studio work, came to New York and teamed with Sterling Hose, Mezz Mezzrow, Jaok Bland, Earl Murphy, and Danny Alvin in Art Hodes' great band. This put Pecora and Brunies, both veterans of the old New Orleans Rhythm Kings, practically side by side, and Ryan's and Rongetti's cagily arranged their sets so that fans could rush back and forth to hear both tailgate artists. As a matter of fact, Pecora and Brunies were the ones who started this movement. Theirs was a mutual admiration society broken up only when Kid Dry's band blew in from the coast for a six-month stay in the fall of 1953. There were a lot of other good bands around town, too, — Jim Moynahan's, with Johnny Windhurst on cornet and Fred Moynahan on drums; Brad Gowan's Original Dixieland Jazz Band, with Daddy Edwards and Tony Sbarbaro still going strong, Joe Marsala's band with Brother Marty on trumpet. The downtown Cafe Society continued with its excellent entertainment: 'Teddy Wilson's band (Benny Morton, Ed Hall, Bill Coleman, Billy Taylor, Sidney Catlett), with Zero Mostel or Jack Guilford as master of ceremonies, Mary Lou Williams featured pianist, Big Bill Broonzy and Ida Cox singing the blues, and of course Josh White and Pearl Primus were permanent fixtures. It was the Cafe, too, that reunited those five marvelous zanies, the Revuers, who are still the best night club act in town. New Orleans had a modest life, with Kid Rena, Kid Shots Madison, Johnny St; Cyr, Big Eye Louis Nelson, Sidney Arodin; Sharkey Bonano, Monk Hazel, Raymond Burke, and Julian Laine appearing frequently at various spots around town. The conversion of Lulu White's Mahogany Hall to a Jazz museum was unexpectedly successful, and contributed to a 'large extent to the possibility of this revival. Even staid old Beantown broke down and the stirring begun by the late Charlie Vinal bore fruit at last. Boston's Jazz fraternity finally got the backing and cooperation it needed, and inspired by the addition of a clarinetist who came close to filling the gaping void left by Charlie's sudden death in 1944, the remaining members of this fine band stomped off with such widespread success that eighteen statutes, all passed before 1682, were dug out of the musty Massachusetts Bay Colony lawbooks in an effort to put a stop to such violent activities as a Jazz band in Boston. Cotton and Increase Mather were invoked along with John Winthrop and Jonathan Edwards, so the boys went underground and you couldn't get in unless Boraschi sent you and your card was countersigned every monthby Ed Barnes, Stan Warren, George Frazier, and Charlie Miller. However, the conservatives were smashed when Beacon Hill was exposed in Bill Cunningham's column as secretly patronizing the Jam Cupboard during an unscheduled raid, pulled on the eve of Police Chief Tlmulty's eleventh indictment, which trapped Governor Saltonstall, President Conant of Harvard, Mayor Tobin, and several dowagers in high Victorian collars who had Just requested I AIN'T GONNA GIVE NOBODY NONE OF MY JELLY ROLL. When the boys came out In the Open, they took over the Copley Plaza Hotel. It was then discovered that they were Paul 'Watson ( oornet ) , Ralph Ferrlgno ( trombone, Evan sohwarz (piano), Inky Ingersoll (banjo), Johnny Field (bass), and George Soule (drums). The man who replaced Charlie was none other than his old friend, Ted Looke, already known as a versatile musician. After returning from the South Pacific, Ted finished hlfl tour of duty in the army at Fart Banning, where he added clarinet to his instrumental accomplishments for the express purpose of playing with this band. The boys still went under the old name: Charlie Vinal 's Rhythm Kings. Old Timers didn't need any explanation; they knew that the band's music would always be Charlie's, and that's what counted with them. There's one more thing that I think ought to be covered in this statement; one of my constituents has written me asking who was Leonard Feather, whom he'd seen mentioned in an old copy of some obscure trade, paper. Well, Feather was a press agent who devoted several years of his life to promoting a business which was supporting him fairly well and bolstering his personal morale. His chief aesthetic flaw was that he violated the gentleman's code of the early American Jazz critics by continuing to pose as an independent critic long after he had gone into business, and he had the bad taste to malign some musicians he didn't like, with disastrous results to himself. For quite a while Feather puffed and huffed until he finally blew down his own house of cards. The only publication which would print his alleged record reviews and slurs was the INFANT'S WEAR AND BOOTIES MANUFACTURERS' QUARTERLY CATALOGUE. When one of his super record dates featuring Coleman Hawkins, Art Tatum, Oscar Pettiford, Hugo Zacchlni, Roy El«dridge, seven electric guitar players, and vocals by Leo Watson, sold only fourteen copies of each disc, the bottom fell out of his radio quiz show and the royalties of his latest tunes (HIP HIP, HEP HEP, and INFANTS' WEAR AND BOOTIES MANUFACTURERS' QUARTERLY CATALOGUE JUMP) fell off so badly that Leonard had to live for awhile on his $60 as contractor for the session. Everyone agreed it was really a shame that the records didn't sell, for they had everything, including a last chorus with Lionel Hampton, beads of water from a nearby drinking fountain dripping from every pore, sawing a woman in half. When last heard of, Feather was a pitch man and advance agent for several traveling flea circuses, also writing up their reviews after every performance and trying, on the side, to breed bigger, better, newer, trickier, and necessarily improved fleas. Get Posted on the Value of Your Older Popular Records HOLLYWOOD PREMIUM RECORD GUIDE Gives the Approximate Worth of Over 4000 Rare Records Not Many Left — Gel Yours Now! Fits Your Pocket — 4 '4 by 6 inches Records are listed alphabetically and numerically so you may secure information on any given record in the list in a few seconds. Dealers will find our Price List a very profitable over-the-counter item. Price $1.50 per copy a* your Record Dealer or by mail. Dealers ordering 10 or more copies, $1.00 each. HOLLYWOOD PREMIUM RECORD GUIDE P. O. Box 2829R Hollywood 28, California 5