The record changer (Mar 1945-Feb 1946)

St. Loin's, and most of them had a tonph time getting in, — not that the local sought to keep them out, hnt they were so short in musical training that many of them had difficulty passing the entrance examinations. Understand, — I am as much a New Orleans music fan as anyone, hut I am saying that these men couldn't reach very far down in the hag for music. It was the same old tune, the same old number : Panama, High Society, etc., and that was the end of the line. St. Louis musicians, both white and colored, were used to carrying thp;r portfolios around. Could read music on' sight as well as give with the jazz hokum. It was about 1910 that Captain Joseph Streckfus of the Streckfus Steamship Lines said, to McKinney, Secretary of the colored local in St. Louis, — "I want a band that plays music that sounds like music. I want a band that can read music and play music, but I also want a band that has a lot of rhythm, because that is what the crowds like. What we'll do is go down to New Orleans where the bands have this kind of rhythm, hire some of those musicians, and in time we'll have the best band on the river." Fate Marable emerged as the man who was responsible for carrying out Streckfus' ideas. You had to read music in Marable's band and you had to play with rhythm. New Orleans men could swing it, and Fate Marable's men could play it any way it was written. Marable selected only from the top drawer of New Orleans jazz. He had what was probably the first mixed band in the history of jazz, using white men on violin, trumpet and drums, and played on the old J. S. Boat which burned in 1910. At this time Joseph Streckfus bought the Diamond Joe Packet Company which included the St. Paid, the Quincy, the Dubuque and the Sidney, and on the latter Fate Marable installed his band. Captain Streckfus noticed one evening, just before his boat the St. Paul started down the river on its nightly excursion, that the entire crowd was gathered at the rail and hanging over the side. Inquiries revealed it was Charlie Creath's band on the boat docked next to his that was responsible for his passengers', behavior. Streckfus said to the captain, "Have that man see me tomorrow." And the following season, 1920, Charlie Creath and his Orchestra were booked for the St. Paul. At that time the personnel of the band was approximately as illustrated above. Baby Dodds played with the Creath band previously and Cecil Scott from 1921 to 1924. Other musicians appearing in the band from time to time were Cy McField, tuba. Morris White and Pete Patterson, banjo, Dave Grant, trombone, Horace Fubanks, Hal Ester and Thornton Blue, saxophones, Ham Davis, Leonard Davis, trumpets, Charles Lawson, trombone, Zutty Singleton, drums, Davey Jones, mellophone, Cran Hamilton, piano, and Lonnie Johnson, banjo and vocal. Charles Creath's band of those days was probably the finest ever to play on the Streckfus Lines, and I heard them many times. You could be walking on those cobblestones from Third Street down to the wharf any evening and hear the strains of . Creath's band far off in the night. Or you could stand on the Fads Bridge and plainly hear Creath plaving when the boat was opposite the Cahokia plant some two miles downstream. They talk about amplification these days, but Charlie needed none of these electrical gadgets. He just pointed his old B-flat cornet skyward and anybody could hear him in a radius of two miles. ISWrecallJS bras\?ther; it was music. 1 recall the time Hetcher Henderson and his hign powered New York outfit c?me to tne Conseum tor a "battle of music'' with Mckmney's Cotton PicKers. Create and h,s band, just ott their boat job, dropped by^o see wnat was Happening and as rney we re leaning against tne rail during an "mermTs sion tney were persuaded by membe^ of tne crowd to taice the stand and may a r,UnmbHr 7hCy hnal1^ consented and ythe c owd would not let teem quit until thev had Played half an hour of Sister Hender son and the Cotton Pickers resumed but a tne end ot the next set the customers began more0ncgref?h" HCrlath's band to ^ ^ Tth M Cr,eat\broke UP the battle ot music with Market Street Stomp wastTraine'f budm around St Louis was Ld A len and his Whispering Gold band, so-called because the boys play?d . f£T^T"uiE?t\ Playi"§ : nver b* infiulnce on M ' the^had considerable mnuence on Negro musicians in St. Louis lfdne°ynneDe,WaS ^ f °l0WS : £d Allen and bidney Desvigne, trumpets, Harvey Lang Eu^'ene CeH°ne' {°hnnie St C^> ba^, tuS x?dnc' clannet and sax, Walte drumsSSA,f o/'^erson' piano; m°yd Casey< arums. All of these men have since become ampleTs/f ^ a ample of St. Louis and New Orleans musicians playing side by side Fate Marable, the first to import real talent from New Orleans, was thi first St Louis band to use Louis Armstrong (1921)' fn Me L°n 1 WCnt back t0 Tom Anderson's in New Orleans and then on to Chicago band^nHnl ^ mUSidanS playinS Marable's band during the next ten years were: Davey Jones (he taught Armstrong to read) sax and mellophone, Baby Doddf, Zutty Sing" e ■ ' £"„?«' ^ KAmba11' baSS' W>llie Foster, banjo, Sidney Desvigne, Amos White tX^Vm HarVCy Langford' tr°«bo£e! Jelly Roll Morton at one time played the extra piano in the band. Fate broke up his th. v"\1940 aAd is Since doin^a solo a M.rl1! nnn Qub> St: Louis 1 think Marable will organize another band somc ,7lu US, h0pe if wiI1 be haJf as good as^the one that played on the St. Paul in Dewey Jackson and his Peacock Orchestra played on the Capitol, a smaller boat (Continued on page 30. j NOVEMBER, 1945 5 THE RECORD CHANGER