Viewpoints

On November 7, 2008 I received a letter from Jennie Wagner, telling me that her father, Bill Frederick Wagner, passed away on October 31, 2008. Born on September 13, 1916, he was the younger brother of Bill Russell (Wagner), the foremost authority on New Orleans jazz (February 26, 1905-August 9, 1992).

When Bill Russell did his famous American Music recordings of Bunk Johnson and George Lewis in New Orleans in 1944-45 Bill Wagner was involved in the project. In one of his letters to me, Bill Wagner pointed out that George Lewis made a mistake when he stopped playing his Harry Pedler metal Albert clarinet in 1945 as he sounded much better on the metal horn.

In 1987 both Bills visited Ascona, Switzerland, where Bill Russell played the violin in the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra at Hannes Anrig’s Festa New Orleans Music. This was the first time I met Bill Wagner personally. (I had already met Bill Russell in 1982 at his apartment in New Orleans.)

On Easter 1996 Bill Wagner visited me and my wife, Christel, in Leonberg. He was in Berlin at the time for a couple of days with his daughter, Jennie, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in which she played the violin. He used the opportunity to take the plane to Stuttgart to see us and to have a look at my metal clarinet collection. He was so amazed that he called me “the foremost authority on metal clarinets.”

After the death of Bill Russell in 1992, he saw to it that his brother’s jazz archive went to the Historic New Orleans Collection, which was in Bill Russell’s last will. As a sign of friendship, Bill Wagner sent me, to my surprise, a French wooden Albert C-clarinet he had found in Bill Russell’s apartment.

Till his death I was in contact with him (as I had been with his brother), and his letters told me that he was in good shape until old age -- physically and mentally. I’m sad that both Bills are gone now. They were outstanding personalities!

Eberhard Kraut

Leonberg/Stuttgart, Germany

• • •

Thanks for sending this month's issue!

A question: In your review of the King Oliver CD, William J. Schafer writes, "Someone once asked Armstrong what jazz was, and he famously replied, 'If you don't know, I can't tell you.'"

I always heard the quote as, "If you don't know, don't mess with it!" And, it was understood that "mess with" may have been a paraphrase. What's your recollection?

I enjoy your publication very much, especially the CD reviews.

Fred Brodie

Cranford, N.J.

• • •

ED. NOTE: The following e-mail was received just as the November RAG was released with the Neal Hefti obituary. We're very happy that Mr. Busching has shared what he describes as "a relatively short gap in [Hefti's] life and a reflection on the state of small group jazz in the L.A. area, at the time."

I am looking forward to reading what is written in the RAG about composer and arranger Neal Hefti due to a chance meeting with him several years ago. Shortly after his wife died and his "children" brought him into L.A. from Santa Barbara, they brought him to a small "Country" bar on Magnolia Avenue in the San Fernando Valley, named at that time Crazy Jack's.

On Tuesday and Thursday at noon, there was a trad band playing there for their lunch. It included Don Nelson on soprano sax (younger brother of Ozzie and formerly in Bob Ringwald's Great Pacific Jazz Band) and Bob Higgins (from the Rosy McHargue recordings and the old big bands) on trumpet. Neal was brought there as it was one of the rare places to hear live jazz, especially in the daytime. Neal eventually picked up his own trumpet -- for the first time in 40 years he said, although obviously he had kept his chops up. He just needed to relearn the old songs. He played beautifully -- instant arrangements. without waiting.

He played with Higgins, who was ill, and spelled him off until Bob died. Neal took over the trumpet chair for awhile until he was moved again by his family.. He was a very friendly person, and we had a couple of nice conversations which I will always remember. I saw him once again about a year later by chance when I brought Bob Ringwald in to hear the band the same day Neal stopped to evaluate the new band by request. I had the pleasure of introducing him to Bob. This was somewhere around 2000.

The interesting story, however, is what happened at the Money Tree in Tuluca Lake, Calif., also in the San Fernando Valley where Jack Sheldon and Ross Tompkins had held forth on weekends for some time. It had already long been taken over by a new manager with apparently NO interest in jazz of any kind. He removed the nice restaurant booths and piano bar and installed a pay pool table in that back area. The piano was moved toward the front door, and Ross and Jack were allowed to continue -- more like a rehearsal place then anything. Only those at the bar were generally in attendance or a very few of us were left listening to the musicians at small tables in the former restaurant area.

Jack went to work on a movie for a few weeks, and Neal came in to play with Ross. Between them they probably knew every pop, swing, or traditional song ever written, or so it seemed. It was great for me. The manager continued to show a total lack of interest and probably had no idea who Neal was, or, if he did, didn't care.

End of story, finally. The youngish bartender WAS a jazz fan, as he had worked for years at Chadney's Restaurant/Bar near the NBC studios, a long-time small jazz venue. Since the pool players were making considerable noise while this "Dynamic Duo" (Neal confirmed to me that the "Batman Theme" was indeed his biggest money maker) was playing, the bartender told the manager that he needed to decide to either get rid of the pool table or the piano. The next week the piano was gone. The night the music died.

Not long after that I decided to move back to my hometown of Valley City in N.D. Small jazz venues in L.A. are still at a minimum I have heard, at least for our kind of music. That incident was a factor in my moving back here.

Thanks for your service in keeping us informed of what is left, especially about Mat Domber, a true jazz "saint."

Lowell Busching

Valley City, N.D.