by Rose, Al;
Came the time when National Geographic Magazine, to which I have often served as a consultant on themes relating to New Orleans and its music, decided to go into the phonograph record business. To this end they prepared an LP entitled “Dixieland,” as inept and unmusical an abortion as ever was pressed. Then they arrived at the point where it became necessary to produce album notes. They sent me a paste-up dummy that was one of the most ill-conceived, incompetently researched documents it had been my misfortune to deal with. Its four pages included over a hundred gross errors; one of the most minor was the misspelling of the name Duhé, which their researcher wrote as “Dewey.”
Now the lady who took my report over the phone seemed to have little patience with my nit-picking and challenged virtually every correction I offered. When we came to Duhé, she asked, “How can you really know how his name was spelled? At least we know we’ve got it phonetically correct. Do you have any genuine authority for how he spelled his name.” (She thought, I guess, that he’d died in the last century.)
“Yes, ma’am,” I told her. “I have genuine authority. That’s what it says on his doorbell.”
• • •
Little Gussie Mueller has been forgotten by all but the most scholarly of jazz followers, largely because his recorded output was negligible. He was a member of Tom Browns Band from Dixieland and was already playing jazz in Chicago in 1915. Later he worked in big bands led by Gus Arnheim, Irving Aaronson, and Abe Lyman. He was also a member of the early Paul Whiteman Orchestra and is the composer of record of “Wang Wang Blues.”
“That’s a strange title,” I commented. “How did you happen to decide on it?”
“Hawaiian was big in 1922,” he explained. “In fact anything oriental. Henry Busse the trumpet player suggested ‘Wang.’ He said that was oriental. Well, blues was hot at that time, too. My god, you could sell anything if you called it blues. So we decided, me and Buster [Johnson, a sax player] and Busse, that we’d call it ‘Wang Blues.’ Busse said he’d arrange it for the orchestra. Mr. Whiteman thought the name was too short, and he said, ‘How about “Wang Wang Blues”?’ That was okay with us, so we called it ‘Wang Wang Blues.’ It was really a big hit.”
• • •
Everybody thinks of the song “Up a Lazy River” as a Hoagy Carmichael composition, but that was a melody he wasn’t responsible for. Hoagy wrote the words, but the music came from the pen of one of New Orleans’ better clarinetists, Sidney Arodin. As Sidney explained the circumstances, Hoagy had come into the Famous Door on 52nd Street in New York to hear Wingy Mannone’s band in which Arodin occupied the clarinet chair. They played the tune, and Wingy sang it; but, of course, it wasn’t yet called “Up a Lazy River.” The title and words were Arodin’s, too. He called it “Just a Lazy Nigger.” Of course, in our time, such a title would be an atrocity. Even then it was in pretty bad taste—but Arodin didn’t have a scintilla of prejudice in him. He had, in fact, been a party to the first mixed record session in the South (The Jones-Collins Astoria Hot Eight). He had, moreover, been the only white musician in the ensemble. Later I asked Hoagy how much cleaning up he’d had to do with the piece, and he said other than the lyric he’d had to make only a minor change in the chording of the verse.
• • •
Santo Pecora was the composer of the jazz standard, “She’s Cryin’ for Me.” I asked him about the words, since I’d never heard it sung or seen printed lyrics.
“It’s got no words,” he assured me “I never wrote words to it.”
I said, “With that kind of a title you’d think it did have words. How come you gave it that title?”
He told me, “I was workin’ with Arodin on a job and I says, I got a new tune I want to try out. You wanna figure out some harmony?’ Then I played him the lead on my horn. He says, ‘That’s a nice tune. What’s the title?’ I said it didn’t have no title. Sidney said, ‘How about “She’s Cryin’ For Me”?’ I said that was okay, so that’s the name I gave it.”
Arodin’s been gone for thirty-five years now, so I can’t ask him what he had in mind. Pecora died in 1985. I’m sure he never thought about titles or lyrics, though, just where the tailgate licks come in.
Afterword
I knew from the very start that I’d never get it all into a single volume that would be small enough to handle. I never even mentioned some of my best friends—some of the people I was and am fondest of. Nothing about Edmond Hall, Isidore Barbarin, Don Albert, Ricard Alexis, Emile and Polo Barnes, Bob Lyons (who played bass for Bolden), Lester Bouchon, Louis Dumaine, Ed Garland, Happy Goldston, and Tony Fougerat. Every single one of them is gone now. Fats Houston, Dave Oxley—they were at my wedding reception, and I haven’t told about them, or about Cagnolatti, Albert Artigues. There seems to have been no end of people I could have talked about. I haven’t told about Lil Armstrong giving me her scrapbook, or about eighteen-year-old Howard Rumsey just learning what the musician’s life was like by playing bass for the touring Johnny “Scat” Davis band. In a little Philadelphia jazz joint called the Jam Session, operated by an outstanding clarinetist named Billy Kretchmer, Rumsey told me what it was like, and I heard his hopes and aspirations for the future. Not a word about Australia’s pride, Graeme Bell, trekking with us around Sedalia, Missouri, during a Joplin festival, wearing baggy Bermuda shorts of the down-under variety and that indescribable hat.
And, of course, my ragtime friends! Max Morath, Terry Waldo, Dick Zimmerman, Ian Whitcomb, Dave Jasen, Trebor Tichenor, or the young prodigy David Boeddinghaus. I guess I’ll leave them for another book.
Index
Aaronson, Irving, 243
ABC-Paramount, 239
Abraham, Martin, 81, 89, 91, 93, 97, 153, 170–72
Abraham, Martin, Jr., 14, 81, 181, 182
Adams, Dolly Douroux, 232
Adams, Gerald, 232
Adams, Justin, 232
Adams, Placide, 232
Adler, Larry, 208
Adrian’s Tap Room Gang, 55
“Ain’t Misbehavin’,” 158
“Air Conditioned Nightmare,” 11
Albert, Don, 244
Albright, William, 105
Alcorn, Alvin, 38, 52, 75, 76, 77, 177, 188, 191
Alexis, Ricard, 244
Algonquin Hotel (New York), 214
Allen, Henry “Red,” 124, 126, 189
Allen, Richard B., 125, 136
Allen, Woody, 140
“Alley Cat,” 234
“All You Need Is Love,” 170
Almcrico, Tony, 120, 121, 175, 181
Alter, Louis, 77, 194
Amackcr, Frank, 232
American Music Records, 16
Ammons, 5, 47
Amsterdam News, 47, 48, 158
Anderson, Eddie “Rochester,” 2
Anderson, Tom, 227
Andrus, Merwyn “Dutch,” 97
Apex Club Orchestra, The, 49
Archey, Jimmy, 40, 47, 61, 62, 92, 114
Arkansas Cultural Center, The, 233
Armstrong All-Stars, Louis, 127, 186
Armstrong, Lil Hardin, 179, 244
Armstrong, Louis, 86, 96, 99, 110, 114, 126, 127–30, 185, 194, 196, 202, 219, 222, 223, 228, 238, 240
Armstrong, Lucille, 129, 184
Armstrong Park, 162, 194, 221
Arnheim, Gus, 243
Arodin, Sidney, 243, 244
Arpin, John, 183
Artigues, Albert, 244
Associated Artists Gallery, 241
Assunto, Frank, 44, 45, 155
Atlan, Michele, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164
Atlan, Pierre, 138, 143, 159–62, 163, 164
“At the Jazz Band Ball” 178
Augustin, Billy Price, 112
“Aunt Hagar’s Blues,” 111
Austin, Gene, 224
“Austin High Gang, The,” 220
Averty, Jean Christophe, 76, 134, 150–52, 161, 162
Averty, Yvaline, 151
Avery, Joseph “Kid,” 97
Aznavour, Charles, 151, 152
“Baby Won’t You Please Come Home,” 158
Bachman, Jack, 83
Bagneris, Vernel, 236
Baker, Josephine, 152
Baquet, Achille, 15, 126
Baquet, George, 116, 126, 127, 177
Baquet, Theogene V., 126
Baquets, The, 221
Barbarin, Isidore, 244
Barbarin, Louis, 108, 153, 224
Barbarin, Paul, 14, 125, 126, 127, 218–20
Barker, Blue Lu, 89, 108, 124, 132
Barker, Danny, 47, 61, 77, 81, 92, 97, 108, 122–25, 132, 136, 148, 153, 229
Barkley, Alben W., 100
Barnes, Emile, 244
Barnes, Paul “Polo,” 38, 244
Barrett, “Sweet Emma,” 190, 239
Basie, Count, 41
“Basin Street Blues, The,” 158, 159, 176, 215, 219
Basin Street Six, The, 66
Bauduc, Jules, 221
Bauduc, Ray, 221, 226, 237
Bayersdorffer, Johnny, 221
Bayou Stampers, Johnny Hyman’s, 148
Beatles, The, 56
Bechet, Dr. Leonard V., 31, 114, 178
Bechet, Sidney, 17, 60–65, 94, 101, 114, 141, 163, 164, 166, 177, 221, 222, 232
Bcchets, The, 22
Beebe, Jim, 193
Beiderbecke, Bix, 55, 57, 147, 148, 151, 237
Belafield, Ted, 136, 214
Bell, Graeme, 194, 244, 245
Belmont Race Track, 42
Berigan, Bunny, 19, 20, 66, 73–75, 202, 203
Bernard, Al, 112
Bigard, Barney, 71, 86, 202
Big 25, The (New Orleans), 213
“Birth of the Blues,” 215
Blackburn, Dr. Henry, 140
Blair House (Washington, D.C.), 98
Blair, Lee, 61, 99
Blake, Avis, 103, 104
Blake, Eubie, 3, 17, 18, 29, 47, 68, 87, 103–106, 122, 147, 151, 165, 166, 167, 199, 202, 208, 210
Blake, Marion, 103, 104, 165
Blanchin, George, 67
Blesh, Rudi, 47, 105, 144
“Blue-Eyed Sally,” 112
Blue Room (New Orleans), 98, 181
Blue, Walter, 21
Blumberg, Jerry, 221
Boatner, Edward, 222
Bob Cats, Bob Crosby’s, 23, 96, 226
Bocage, Peter, 109, 110, 111
Boeddinghaus, David, 245
Bojangles (Bill Robinson), 50
Bolcom, Joanie Monis, 105
Bolcom, William, 105
Bolden, Buddy, 15, 126, 127, 221, 232, 238, 244
Boiling, Claude, 160
Bonano, Sharkey, 14, 66, 81, 96, 177, 181–83, 215, 218
Booker, Beryl, 27
“Borderline,” 226
Borcnstein, Larry, 51, 233, 237, 238, 241, 242
Bornemann, Charlie, 45
Bose, Sterling, 101, 237
Bouchon, Lester, 221, 244
Boudrier, Mme. Jacqueline, 76
“Bourbon Street Parade,” 215, 219
Bowe, Walter, 172–74
Bradford, Perry, 166
Brodsky, George, 25, 40
Brown, Hillard, 193
Brown, Steve, 95, 218, 221
Brown, Tom, 63–64, 65, 89, 97, 148, 152, 176, 246, 221
Brown’s Band From Dixieland, 64, 243
Brown’s Ice Cream Parlor (New Orleans), 112
Brunies, Abbie, 14, 216, 241
Brunies, “Li’l Abbie,” 14, 81, 98, 216, 217
Brunies, George, 14, 79, 94, 95, 143, 175, 216–18
Brunies, Henny, 216
Brunies, Jerri, 98, 217
Brunies, Merrit, 14, 30, 216, 217
Brunies, Richie, 14, 216
Brunies, The, 216–18, 221
Buck, Eleanor, 191
Buck, George, 45, 191
Budweiser, The (New Orleans), 184
Burke, Catherine, 154, 155, 157
Burke, Chris, 70, 71, 72, 192
Burke, Raymond, 37, 64, 81, 83, 91, 96, 97, 148, 154–57, 177, 193, 224
Burley, Dan, xiii, 27, 40, 46- 50, 92, 125, 158, 201
Busse, Henry, 243
Butera, Sam, 133
Butterfield, Billy, 237
Cagnolatti, Ernie, 244
Cahn, Jules, 202
California Ramblers, 55
Calloway, Cab, 47
Campbell, Pops, 45
“Canal Sheet March, The,” 148
“Candy and Coco,” 224
Capraro, Joe, 230–31
Carey, Mutt, 127
Carlisle, Una Mae, 49, 50, 83
Carmichael, Hoagy, 132, 243–44
Carrazo, Castro, 65
Carter, Jo Jo, 101
Casa Loma, 240
Casbarian, Archie, 77
Casimir, John, 6–10
Catlett, Sidney, 223–24
CBS, 117, 118, 155
Celestin, Oscar “Papa,” 7, 21, 77, 97, 215, 225
Centobie, Boogie, 64
Central Plaza, The (New York), 173
“Charleston Rag,” 122
Chase, Bill, 50
Chicago Civic Opera House, The, 185
Chicago Daily Defender, 47
“Chicken Reel,” 127
Childs Paramount Restaurant (New York), 219
Christian, Charlie, 221
Christian, Emile, 108, 109, 148, 221
Christian, Frank, 221
“Cincinnati Kid, The,” 239
Ciro’s (Philadelphia), 186
“Clarinet Marmalade,” 178
Clem, Edouard, 239
Clesi, Nick, 216
Click, The, 52, 54, 224
Clooney, Rosemary, 98
“Closer Walk With Thee, A,” 220
Coleman, Bill, 17
Collins, Lee, 66
Collins, Ralph, 22
Collins, Wallace, 221
“Come Back Sweet Papa,” 219
Commanders Palace (New Orleans), 13, 77, 118
Condon, Eddie, 72–73, 79, 118, 143, 208, 209, 217, 233
Condon, Phyllis, 73
Condon’s (New York), 237
Conger, Larry, 45
Connie’s Cafe, 12
Cordilla, Charlie, 216
Cotton Carnival (Memphis), 218
Cotton Club (Philadelphia), 25, 40
Cotton Pickers, The, 210
Cottrell, Louis, 188
Cornell, Louis, Sr., 109
Crawford-Ferguson Night Owls, 220
Crawford, Paul, 37, 83, 148, 235
Crosby, Bob, 23, 153, 237
Crosby, Octave, 14
Cvetkovich, George, 58, 59, 60
Dabney, Georgia, 129
Dan Burley’s Handbook of Harlem Jive, 47
Daniels, Billy, 48
Dan’s International (New Orleans), 215
Dauphine Theater (New Orleans), 170
“Davenport Blues,” 41
Davila, Sid, 14, 182
Davis, Eddie “Lockjaw,” 90, 207
Davis, Johnny “Scat,” 75, 244
Davison, “Wild Bill,” 83–95, 114, 116, 218, 221
Dedroit, Johnny, 239
Dekemel, “Buglin’ Sam,” 174- 76, 201
Delaney, Beauford, 11
Delaney, Jack, 81, 83, 120, 133, 148, 153, 181, 224
Delaney’s, Tom, 70, 166
Delauney, Charles, 57
Dengler, Johnny, 132
De Paris, Sidney, 101
Desvigne, Sidney, 238
Deville, George, 81
Diamond Horseshoe, Billy Rose’s, 167
Disneyland, 175
Dixieland Rhythm Kings, The, 136, 214–16
Dixon Hall (Tulane University), 125, 166
Dodds, Johnny, 222
Dodds, Warren “Baby,” 40, 49, 61, 93, 94, 99, 100, 101, 115, 116, 127, 173, 187, 222, 223, 238
Donnels, Johnny, 58, 85
Dorsey, Tommy, 73, 75, 111, 237
Dorsey
s, The, 101
Douglass Hotel (Philadelphia), 2
“Down Among the Sheltering Palms,” 187
Downbeat, The (Philadelphia), 206
Doyle, Bob, 32, 121
“Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans,” 77, 144
Dream Room (New Orleans), 102, 214, 215, 216
“Dreamy Blues, The,” 109
Duhé, Lawrence, 242
Dukes of Dixieland, The, 14, 45, 181
Dukes’ Place, The (New Orleans), 151
Dumaine, Louis, 244
Dunham, Sonny, 147
“Dupree Blues,” 2
Dupree, Reese, 2
Duson, Frankie, 238, 239
Dutreys, The, 221
Earle Theater (Philadelphia), 126
Eberle, Ray, 80
Edegran, Lars, 237
Edmiston, Kelly, 192
Edwards, Eddie, 106
Edwards, Ralph, 117
Ellington, Duke, 2, 228
Erwin, Pee Wee, 237
Esplanade Lounge (New Orleans), 148, 185
Esplanade Room (New Orleans), 38, 153
Eugene, Wendell, 38, 77
Eureka Brass Band, 9, 28
Eustis, Sister Elizabeth, 97
Evans, Doc, xiii, 235, 236
“Everybody Loves My Baby,” 73, 158
Ewell, Don, 116, 231
Fairview Brass Band, 124
Famous Door (New Orleans), 14, 45, 225
Fazola, Irving, 23–25, 96, 101, 121, 153, 237
Ferguson, Leonard, 83, 220
Fern Dance Hall No. 2 (New Orleans), 184
“Fingerbreaker” Concert, 169
Fink, Max, 241
Finola, George, 83
Fishbein Orchestra, Charlie, 241
Fisher, May, 197
Flick, Roland “Dutch,” 221
Foster, Abbey, 233
Foster, George “Pops,” 47, 48, 61, 92, 94, 99, 115, 173, 187, 223, 238
Fougerat, Tony, 244
Fountain, Pete, 25, 66, 97, 133, 142, 153, 178, 204–206, 220, 221
Francis, Albert, 227
Franklin, Joe, 34
Frazier, Josiah “Cié,” 77
Freeman, Bud, 137, 201, 220, 235
Friars Society Orchestra, 216
Gaillard, Slim, 206
Galloway, Charlie, 221
Gammon, Von, 148
Garland, Ed “Montudie,” 244
Garroway, Dave, 185, 218
Gazebo, The (New Orleans), 72
Gee, Lottie, 103
Gillespie, Dizzy, 137, 206–208
“Gimme a Pigfoot,” 10
Girard, George, 14, 29, 65–68, 96, 133
Girard, “Turk,” 222
“Glad Rag Doll,” 187
Glapion, Raymond, 7
Glasgow, Vaughn L., 76