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Showing results for tags 'the greatest band youve never heard'.
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Someone mentioned this book online that concerned the Lexington KY prison for drug offenders nicknamed 'Narco', where most jazz junkies wound up if they got busted in the years 1935-1976. The very partial list of musicians that wound up in Narco mentioned in the book were: Tadd Dameron, Sonny Stitt, Joe Guy, Elvin Jones, Chet Baker, Stan Levey, Jackie McLean, Red Rodney and Sonny Rollins. In the short chapter on the prison band, it's mentioned that many of them wound up there because of fellow musician informants trying to avoid arrest by turning them in. The institution soon developed a reputation as a 'workshop' for jazz musicians. Young musicians were turning themselves into the notorious institution merely for the opportunity to sit in with the masters(!). This was shown on screen in the opening scene of 'The Man With the Golden Arm', where Frank Sinatra tells his friends how he got training as a jazz drummer there (unfortunately we learn later in the film that he was no Shelly Manne). The inmates were given sericeable instruments, practice rooms, and an audience of 1300 incarcerated addicts in the huge auditorium where they produced their own performances featuring combos and big bands. At one time there were six different combos performing at the institution. Even hip locals were let in to hear big-city jazz right at home in KY. Byron Romanowitz, a local Lexington musician recalled, "The first time I went there I heard Tadd dameron, Joe Guy and Sonny Stitt, and many others. Their big band was an all-star group, there's no question about it." Unfortunately, there were no recordings of the many bands that played at these shows, although an orchestra from Narco performed on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show in 1964. Sadly, the tapes from this broadcast were accidentally erased decades ago... I found a short silent film that features a few seconds of a show from Narco, but I don't know the rules for posting links on this forum. If the link doesn't post, you can find it on you tube under 'Narcotic Farm, part four: