patricia

Rare loss of composure. Sorry about that. Could have been that inadvisable third glass of wine. I'm as normal as I get, once again.

Our next honouree is the great PEANUTS [Michael Andrew] HUCKO. His nickname was a childhood one, acquired due to his uncommon love of the legume. Peanuts played smooth tenor saxophone, influenced by Bud Freeman and Eddie Miller. He played with trombonist, Jack Jenney and then later with Will Bradley, Joe Marsala Charlie Spivak and Bob Chester. When Peanuts joined the Air Force he played saxophone, although he also played clarinet. He switched to clarinet, because, as he said, "we did a lot of marching in sand which was awkward with the tenor." Peanuts joined Glenn Miller's Uptown Hall Gang and was featuring his new specialty, clarinet on "Stealin' Apples" at breakneck speed. He reverted to tenor, occasionally, with Benny Goodman's band, where his section mate was Stan Getz, as well as with Ray McKinley. Peanuts then played clarinet with Eddie Condon's band, when he filled in for Pee Wee Russell from 1947-1950. For the following five years he was a studo man for CBS and ABC and that was where he met Louis Armstrong and was with his All Stars for two years. Peanuts was with Dick Gibson's Colorado jazz parties, playing with the ten greats Of Jazz, which later came became The World's Greatest Jazz Band. When the 1970's came around he led the Glenn Miller Orchestra and played solos for Laurence Welk. At the same time, Peanuts opened a nightclub, Peanuts Hucko's Navarre which featured Ralph Sutten and his wife, the singer, Louise Tobin. In the 1980's Peanuts enjoyed renewed success with his Pied Piper quintet and with Syd Laurence's Miller-style orchestra. He also released several best-selling records. The 1990's were busy for Peanuts, touring and recording with his own Dixieland band, which had among it's personel, trumpeter, Randy Sandke. He continued to maintain a link between Benny Goodman and the post-war Bob Wilber. PEANUTS HUCKO died last year, at 85 years old.

I don't "keep" referring to Seinfeld. Read the whole thread, DOOFUS. Landsakes!!!. Give me strength.

OK "Eugene Chadbourne". Love it, especially the pictures. All I knew, previously, about Ish Kabibble was that it was a funny name, but none of the background. Disturbingly attractive haircut. A pox on Dizzy, for ripping off the horn idea. Thank you Berigan.

The line wasn't that funny on Seinfeld, much less so, regurgitated by you. You are as amusing as a baby's casket. As you said, life is too short........................

Thank you EKE BBB!!! Fabulous pictures. ..................................... Now we have a drummer, ALBERT "TOOTIE" HEATH, born in Philidelphia in 1935. Tootie is the younger brother of Jimmy and Percy Heath. He moved to New York in 1957 and made his debut with the great John Coltrane, who was a fellow Philidelphian. In the late fifties and early sixties he toured with J.J. Johnson. He then was in a trio, with Cedar Walton and Bobby Timmons. Then, in 1965, he moved to Europe to work with George Russell and the pianist, Friedrich Gulda. Heath accepted a residency in Copenhagen with Kenny Drew in the late sixties, and was there for two years. Tootie returned to the U.S. in 1968, joining Herbie Hancock's sextet. He then went to the Yusef Lateef quartet. He recorded with Kenny Drew and also with Anthony Braxton in Copenhagen in 1974. That was followed by his joining the Heath Brothers in 1975 and stayed with them for three years. He then left the group to freelance, although he did play with them occasionally. TOOTIE HEATH is known as a dynamic and driving drummer, often compared to Kenny Clarke. He is a team-player, never drawing attention to himself, but more of a supportive and versatile drummer, drawing the rest of the band into a cohesive unit.

ZIGGY ELMAN [Harry Finkleman] was not only a trumpet player, but a multi-instrumentalist, born in Philidelphia in 1914. Ziggy began his career with Alex Bartha's house band, playing trombone. Bartha's band played Atlantic City's Steel Pier ballroom. Benny Goodman replaced his lead trumpeter, Pee Wee Erwin with Ziggy in 1936 and Ziggy stayed with Goodman for four years. The triumvirate of Elman/James/Griffin was formed, in what many consider Goodman's greatest band. In 1938 Elman was featured soloist in Goodman's band and recorded sixteen very successful sides for Bluebird. Four songs, which became classics for Goodman's band were recorded during that period. They were, "Fraulich In Swing", "Bublitchki", "And The Angels Sing" with words by Johnny Mercer and "Who'll Buy My Bublitchki?" It's interesting that Elman apparently learned to play clarinet in one day, in order to perform a live version of "Bach Goes To Town" with Goodman's band in the late thirties. In 1940 Elman was with Tommy Dorsey's band, usually leading the trumpet section. He then moved to Los Angeles, trying, unsuccessfully, a couple of times to run his own big band. The timing was wrong in that the popularity of big bands was at a low period. Couple that with the second American Federation Of Musicians recording ban and it's not difficult to see his dilemma. That is not to say that Elman wasn't playing. He was doing good work for film studios, radio and TV. He did record one album, "Tribute To Benny Goodman" by Jess Stacy and the Famous Sideman. Elman also appeared in The Benny Goodman Story. Oddly, his playing was dubbed by Manny Klein. Unfortunately, Ziggy was downed by a series of nervous breakdowns, combined with his well-known drinking problems. ZIGGY ELMAN died at only forty-six years old in June of 1968.

Ah, don't be so quick to judge, patricia. I have said album on vinyl already. CD is just more convinient. My humblest apologies. You are absolved.

And now we have another New Orleans jazzer, "PAPA" [Oscar] CELESTIN, born in 1884 in La Fourche, Louisiana. Papa Celestin played trumpet and also sang. Papa Celestin had what is described as an off-centre embouchure and was with the Algiers Brass Band in the early 1900's. Soon after, he played with Henry Allen Sr.'s Olympia band and led that band from 1910-1913. It wasn't long before he led his Tuxedo Brass Band in becoming one of New Orleans' most popular bands in 1917. This band included the wonderful trombonist, William "Bebe" Ridgely, playing dances for the lucrative white society dance market. His band featured star names, like Zutty Singleton, Kid Shots Madison, Manuel Manetta and Paul Barnes. The OKeh label recorded Celestin in the 1920's as well as did Columbia and he remained a big New Orleans attraction. The Depression put a temperary halt to Celestin's musical endeavors and he worked in shipyards during the war. When the war was over, Dixieland enjoyed a revival and Celestin's band was at the forefront. His reorganized band had another burst of success and recorded again, this time for the De Luxe label in 1947. By 1949 the band was starring on Bourbon Street at the Paddock Lounge. They were also recording regularly, as well as appearing on TV and doing radio work. In 1953, Papa Celestin performed for Dwight Eisenhower and a bust of Papa was bought by the New Orleans Jazz Foundation. This bust stands today in the Delgado Museum in New Orleans. PAPA CELESTIN died in 1954 at seventy years old.

B-3r, I'm SHOCKED that you did not replace the Jimmy Smith CD. Put on your coat, go to a purveyer of items musical, and do so, even if you have to pay regular price.

Thank you EKE BBB. Great picture.

The name, BUDDY [boniface Ferdinand Leonardo] DEFRANCO comes up frequently, due to his associations with so many legendary musicians and bands throughout his long career. He plays clarinet, alto saxophone and bass clarinet. Buddy began his career in the early forties, with several name bands, including those of Gene Krupa, Charlie Barnet and Tommy Dorsey, with whom he served three stints, from 1944-1948. When he was with Dorsey he was featured on clarinet. Defranco, when he was not with name bands, did a lot of small group work in Chicago, New York and California. He was also with Count Basie's octet in 1950-1951. Interesting to me was that, while with Basie's organization, Defranco played in a film short, but was not allowed to be seen with the all-black group, being replaced on-screen by Marshall Royal. In 1951 he formed his own big band, then a quartet in 1952, for three years. The quartet included Art Blakey and Kenny Clark. Later Sonny Clark was part of his group. In 1966 Buddy Defranco became leader of the Glenn Miller ghost band for eight years. Then came the late seventies and, along with occasional solo work, Buddy became involved with jazz education. At the same time, he continued to accept work as a soloist and made several tours of Europe in the 1980's. In the early eighties, Defranco formed a partnership with Terry Gibbs, who is described as a consummate technician. Now, there has always been criticism of Buddy Defranco that he has technique with no taste, but this salvo has also been levelled at such giants as the great Oscar Peterson and Buddy Rich. The most frequent slam against Defranco has been that his technique is so perfect, that he lacks spontenaety. Those who love jazz because of it's improvisational aspect may have a point, but I don't think that a standard, beautiful approach to his instrument, compared to a more creative, spontaneous expression, used by other players is necessarily a bad thing. Buddy Defranco, IMO, simply appeals to an audience that likes familiarity, rather than constant change.

Kid looks great and, if I might dare to be irreverant, perhaps he was called "Kid" because he had to wear somebody else's pants. Holy moly!! Either he is shrinking, right before our eyes, or he had a really bad tailor. "Break at the shoelaces" means nothing to whoever sold him those pants. But, I digress. Great picture. .......................................... I know that you were wondering if there were very many musicians who played alto sax, clarinet, trombone, trumpet AND recorder. Well, the wait is over. The man is "LAZY ADE" MONSBOURGH [Adrian Herbert} who began his career with Graham Bell, in Australia, while he was still in his early teens. He became a major figure on the Australian jazz scene in the forties, right through the seventies. He worked with Roger Bell, Don Roberts and Dave Dallwitz. For over thirty years he led his own band, Lazy Ade's Late Hour Boys starting in 1944, near the end of the war. They played Eastern Europe in 1947, and Britain in 1951 and 1952. It was during his period in Britain that he met Humphrey Lyttleton and produced such classic recordings as "Don't Monkey With It" and "Hoppin' Mad" in 1951. After his success in Britain, Lazy Ade returned to Australia and gradually faded from the international scene. But, that doesn't mean that he quit playing. On the contrary. He continued to play in jazz clubs, conventions and making recordings. His best known recording was the Brighton Jazz Parade sessions in 1984. Have a look around for "Wild Life" [1971 Swaggie] which is a compilation of sessions from 1956-1970. Roger Bell describes it as "an object lesson in the performance of a small-group back-room musicians" type of jazz. Lazy Ade is on alto saxophone and clarinet . Worthwhile.

Good for you, Dan. I LOVE the yard!!!

Thank you so much, EKE BBB for the great pictures. I think that BABS is out of the frame, somehow though. ***later edit*** Babs is now back and he looks MAHVELOUS!!!! ................................. We now have the trumpet player, KID [Avery] HOWARD, born in New Orleans in 1908. Originally, Kid was a drummer in several bands, including those of Andrew Morgan and trumpeter, Chris Kelly. Kelly's playing blew Howard away and he took up the trumpet. He then became a regular player with the Young Tuxedo Brass Band, Allen's Brass Band, at the same time playing with small groups, as well as a brass band of his own. Kid continued his career in the thirties, playing regularly in clubs and in theatres. In 1943, he recorded with George Lewis, then worked regularly with Lewis later, in 1952 onward. By the time the 1960's came around, Kid Howard was a familiar figure at Preservation Hall. His style was described as hot and driving and he was held in very high regard by Dixieland aficianadoes. In 1966, KID HOWARD's funeral was held in his hometown and was attended by the Eureka, Olympia and also the Onward brass bands and was one of the biggest and best-attended funeral processions ever held, at least to that point in New Orleans.

And now, we have BABS GONZALES [Lee Brown] who was a singer, in various clubs on both the East and West coasts, before organizing his own group. His group was known as Three Bips And A Bop and was very popular from 1946-1948. I was interested to discover that this group included Tadd Dameron and Rudy Williams and that they were the first ones to record "Oop Pop A Da", which was covered, later, by Dizzy Gillespie. Babs was the vocalist and also road-managed the James Moody band brom 1951-1953. He also was involved in record sessions with Jimmy Smith, Bennie Green and Johnny Griffin. For the rest of his career Babs worked as a soloist and performed in Europe. He was one of the very first U.S. performers to appear at Ronnie Scott's in 1962. He published his own albums on a miriad of labels, as well as distributing a two volume set of his autobiography. Babs Gonzales is probably better known as a rabid promoter of JAZZ, in the most unlikely outlets. If he could get people to listen to jazz, he did. He continued to be involved in many activities on the fringes of jazz and show business. There was even a short period in which he worked as Errol Flynn's chauffeur!!! BABS GONZALES died in 1980 at sixty-one.

My diet approximates Scott's. (Just about! ) Well, don't take this the wrong way, but your caskets will, eventually, have to be loaded with a crane. POP TARTS ONCE A WEEK, MAXIMUM!!! I COMMAND IT AND I WILL BE MONITORING COMPLIANCE. I only say this because I care.

Just when you think it's safe to abandon all the voo-doo hocus-pocus of the un-enlightened past, this happens. I'm sure that thousands will see this as A SIGN.

I'm continually amazed that people who eat Pop Tarts for breakfast, every day aren't dead. They're SNACK FOOD, at best. Holy man you guys!!!! Read the labels. What happened to real food?? As a side-thought, isn't it amazing how much totally excessive sugar our bodies can take without blowing up like a balloon?? I beg of you, don't think these snacks are food!!!! Like Ding Dongs, they're fun-foods, in ADDITION to a sensible plan. If you're on the chubby side already, they'll increase the size of your casted shadow. ONCE a week, maximum, PLEASE!!!! Since we're on the subject of changes in familiar food, why are almost all packaged foods, including candy bars, substantually smaller?? There is a chocolate-cherry-nut beauty, called "Cherry Blossom" which used to be a collossal chocolate-box-shaped confection, in a little, square box, which was loaded with chocolate, nuts and liquid and cherry filling that leaked out on one's lap that is now HALF it's original size and more expensive!!!! SACRILEDGE!!!!

Hey Al!!! So, it's your birthday. Didn't you do this last year and I suppose you'll insist, next year that it's your birthday again. Makes one positively dizzy. In any case, all the best, kid. Watch the boozin', cake-scarfin' and general merry-making. Pace yourself. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG AL!!!!! :party:

I was going to profile the fabulous Jack Teagarden, who did have a nickname, "T", but Jack has reams of biographical material available already. I decided, instead to highlight his little brother, "CUB" [Cloris Lee] TEAGARDEN, the least known of the family. The Teagarden clan had FOUR siblings, Jack, Norma, Charlie and little brother, CUB. During the 1930's Cub was a drummer, who played all around the U.S. Midwest. He joined his brother, Jack's band in 1939 and was with that band until 1940. After his sojourn with Jack, he worked with the Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra and also had his own band. Cub, unlike the rest of the family, didn't stay with his musical career, but instead left music in 1948 and took a day job with General Telephones in Long Beach. Little CUB TEAGARDEN died in 1969.

Informally known as "The Last Chance Saloon" The new BNE board is, to be sure, slow to take off. There seems to be wild deletions and re-workings of the postings by the moderator and I suppose, to be fair, that it has yet to take shape. I'm not sure what the eventual goal as a board is, so I guess we'll have to wait and see what developes. In the meantime, here at Organissimo, we have a vibrant, varied gang o' posters, wrangled by people who seem willing to accept many different views on music and on other subjects, with minimal, judicious baby-sitting, so here we are.

The next musician to be honoured is EGGY [Derek] LEY, who played soprano and alto saxophones, sang and was also a leader. Germany was the starting point for Eggy, where he led a Dixieland band in the mid-fifties to the early sixties. He was born in London in 1928. Eggy returned to London in the early sixties where he joined Radio Luxembourg, playing resident at the Tatty Bogle Club. Freelancing followed, as well as producing for BFBS, from 1969-1983. He co-led Jazz Legend with Hugh Rainey. From 1983 Eggy fronted the Hot Shots, as well as running a jazz magazine called Jazzin' Around. In addition to those achievements, he also toured abroad and recorded. Eggy is recognized as one of the pioneers of the classic soprano saxophone in Britain. In the late 1980's Eggy moved to Canada, but unfortunately soon after, suffered a crippling stroke. EGGY LEY died in December of 1995. He was sixty-seven years old.

I didn't HATE Aunt Bea, but I thought she was a santimonious stereotype, but that could be said of just about the whole cast. In fact the entire show was a spoof about small-town life. Anyone who ever lived in a small town knows that. The one thing that is true about small towns is that everyone knows everyone. That's why people moved from them to cities, among other reasons.

Back in the 1930's RED NORVO [Kenneth Norville] played in Paul Whiteman's band and his instrument, the xylophone was considered a novelty instrument. Red also played the vibraharp and after a time with Whiteman's organization, he formed his own band. His band was popular during the mid-thirties, and into the early forties, with it's low-key approach engineered by his arranger, Eddie Sauter. The band was, some say, held back by Red's attempt to showcase the limited voice of his wife at the time, Mildred Bailey. When the band rolled into the mid to late forties, Norvo followed in the footsteps of Lionel Hampton and Adrian Rollini and ramped up his xylophone and while retaining the rhythmically choppy style he had developed combined with the terminal tremolos and many described him as the Jess Stacy of the vibes. Norvo's style evolved with jazz's development and Norvo, while with Benny Goodman's orchestra in the mid-forties, for an all-star session which introduced the work of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. In 1946, Norvo was with Woody Herman's band. Following that, he settled on the West Coast and formed a drummerless trio with Ted Farlow and Charles Mingus. This group was clearly influenced by BeBop, but was the first of the chamber music outfits, which sprang up in the 1950's. In 1959 the Red Norvo quintet backed a live performance, featuring Frank Sinatra in Australia. This collection has great versions of "Perdido" and "Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea", as well as wall-to-wall Sinatra. Norvo was still up and around in the 1980's, after he suffered a stroke and often played Las Vegas. He also toured Europe with Ted Farlow, several times during the same period. RED NORVO died in April of 1999 at eighty-one.