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Editorial | The Rag Bag

 

ED. NOTE: The mystery of Photo #2 is solved, thanks to Jim Jones, president of the American Federation of Jazz Societies:

 

Mystery Photo #2 surely looks like a young Red Nichols. If so, his two careers as a bandleader were chronicled (somewhat accurately by Hollywood standards) in the film, The Five Pennies. The movie's song of that name was by Sylvia Fine, the wife of lead actor, Danny Kaye, and is well worth hearing. Red himself wrote the original 1927 song of the same name. Check it out at full length on www.RedHotJazz.com.

 

• • •

 

I am sending you a musical quiz I feel old-time big band lovers will enjoy. It may just bring back some fond moments for them.

1. What two whistlers performed with the Big Bands in the 1930s and '40s?
2. Who was the left-handed fiddler who led his own band?
3. Who was the well-known accordionist who performed with the Horace Heidt Orchestra and later struck out on his own?
4. Who was the famous blind pianist who was active during the Big Band era?
5. What band was associated with the Shuffle Rhythm style?
6. What band played "the sweetest music this side of heaven"?
7. Who was "Bon-Bon"?
8. There were at least four well-known orchestra leaders who had their wives as featured vocalists with their bands. Can you name these bandleaders and their wives?
9. Who was known as the "Pagliacci" of the piano?
10. Who was the well-known performer who first attended a religious seminary before leaving it and becoming an outstanding leader and drummer?
11. What piano player had a movie made about his life with his part being played by actor Tyrone Power?

 

ED. NOTE: This is a great idea from Mr. Cecchini. We'll run the answers to this quiz next month.

CORRECTIONS:

Although John Penney of the American Music Research Foundation provided the obituary on Charlie Booty that we published last month, he has informed us that the tribute was actually written by AMRF board member and line producer Keith Irtenkauf. Wrote Penney, "My contribution was to write the transitional sentence and paste in the excerpt from Charlie’s Christmas letter."

Also, according to jazz historian Mike Meddings, a correction is needed in the identification of one of the musicians shown in the Red Hot Peppers photo which accompanied Part I of "The Elusive Truth About Jelly Roll Morton," published in the March RAG. The trumpeter standing at the far right is Walter Briscoe, not David Richards. Meddings also states that the driver of the car in the photo of Morton in California is J. Chavez (also in Part I).

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