Viewpoints

I'd like to inform you that our book on Louis Armstrong and New Orleans is coming out in July. It's our third book since 1982 -- our 4th book [if you include] a translation of Music: Black, White & Blue by Ortiz M Walton in 1975. The title of our new book is The Holy Land: New Orleans, The Saint: Louis Armstrong -- Our memories of the Birthplace of Jazz and Satchmo, 1968-1973, by Yoshio and Keiko Toyama.

This year is very special for us. We visited New Orleans for the first time in January of 1968, so now in 2008 it's 40 years since that visit. In 1968, we got on an immigrants' boat, Brazil Maru, and got off at Los Angeles, then went to New Orleans. (We stopped by at Honolulu first and went to see Kid Ory.)

When we lived in New Orleans 1968-73, we took many photos of jazz scenes, and a Japanese publisher is publishing our photos and essay (by both of us) in July. It's in Japanese, and we are hoping this book with lots of jazz scenes from Pop's neighborhood reminds the Japanese readers how important New Orleans is to the world, what a fun loving town the City is, and how the general public --the people and society of New Orleans and its tradition -- created the great Satchmo. (I am preparing a translation of the text for those who do not read Japanese.) There will be lots of photos -- nine Satchmo photos by a Japanese photographer and over 220 New Orleans photos of ours.

We will be at Satchmo SummerFest 2008 with our band. (It's the sixth time since 2003!) This year, during our stay in New Orleans, we plan to donate about 40 instruments to the school band of G.W. Carver in the Ninth Ward. The school had been closed since the hurricane but recently reopened. We've been helping the Carver Band since 2003 and also the To Be Continued Band (graduates of Carver). Unfortunately, they lost everything in hurricane. The donation of the instruments will be on the 31st of July.

I am also glad to inform you that Jazzology has our new CD in their latest catalogue. It's Wild Bill Davison In Japan with Yoshio Toyama's Dixieland Saints! We recorded it in 1981 when we invited Wild Bill to Japan to play with us. Also coming out in Jazzolgy's next catalogue will be my duet recording with Don Ewell, whom we invited to Japan in 1975!

Best wishes,

Yoshio and Keiko Toyama

Tokyo, Japan

ED. NOTE: Any day we hear from the Toyamas is a good day. These delightful people are two of the best friends New Orleans ever had. Talented musicians dedicated to the New Orleans tradition, they have donated hundreds of instruments to New Orleans schools over the past several years.

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I regretfully must report to you the passing this afternoon (May 21, 2008) of legendary jazz pianist, John Jacob Ulrich, at the age of 86. Veteran of many of the greatest jazz bands of his era, John had been living in a retirement center in Dublin, Ohio, for the past few years. Dispite his deteriorating health, he managed to entertain his fellow rest home residents and those members of the general public who had the good luck to be in the vicinity by giving weekly concerts on the meeting room piano. And, most fortunately, we were honored to have had John with us at last Sunday's COHJS Byron Stripling concert where he again demonstrated his immense talent and energy at the keyboard by expertly playing an entire set with Byron and the COHJS backup band. A true "swan song" by a great artist indeed.

Bob Butters

for the Central Ohio Hot Jazz Society

Columbus, Oh.

ED. NOTE: It's sad to hear of the death of yet another jazz/ragtime great. John Ulrich was already a legend when the RAG began publishing in 1973. I heard him play only once, at a Midwestern festival, but I was duly impressed with his prowess and with his connection with the audience, who obviously adored him.

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It's difficult to scan The Mississippi Rag each month without reading an item or two relating to the world of jazz that doesn't bring back fond memories. The May issue is no exception. The obituary about Humphrey Lyttelton, the prominent figure in the history of British jazz who died April 25, reminds me of when I was visiting a recognized jazz buff in the UK, Gordon Harradine, a decade ago. He took my wife and me to a club one Sunday afternoon to hear "some of the best jazz in London." Gordon told me all about Humphrey and the Lyttelton band. I note in the piece that "Humph" had close associations with Jimmy Rushing and Buck Clayton.

My memories of "Mr. Five by Five" go back to the early 1940s as well as the '60s. First, Kansas City, when bars couldn't open on Sundays. One evening, after I sat outside the Horseshoe Lounge on 32nd and Troost waiting until midnight, I entered and found that I was the only one there, except for several KC legends sitting at a table, chatting. I was thrilled to be invited to sit down and to join famed bassist Milt Abel and his wife, pianist Bettye Miller; Jimmy Rushing and Julia Lee, bandleader George E. Lee's sister who would have gained more fame had she left Kansas City. I'll always regret that I didn't have a recorder to save their anecdotes about early days when the Kansas City sound reigned supreme.

This was during the Depression, when Boss Pendergast kept the bars and clubs open 24/7, a magnet for musicians from around the country to "go to Kansas City." Fast forward to 1967. When living in Denver, I heard Jimmy Rushing one night at a club just across from the State House. I reminded Rushing of that memorable night (for me at least) as we chatted during intermissions. When I was about to take the bar tab, Jimmy jumped down off the stand, grabbed it from the waitress, and in his sonorous voice told her that "I'm not letting a friend of mine from Kansas City pay for that." Jimmy Rushing was noted for his generosity.

I met Buck Clayton when I inadvertently walked into the Casino Vail tavern in 1967 and found one of the early Gibson Colorado Jazz parties in full swing, but I didn't have a badge to enter the room where Zoot Sims, Bud Freeman, Johnny Smith, and Mousie Alexander were on the stand playing. With a nearby bar on the same floor, I sat down on a stool, finding myself next to Mobile's famed trombonist, Urbie Green, on one side and Buck Clayton on the other! As we two Kansans visited, Buck told me the story about how the Basie band used an X-rated name for their signoff number -- that is until the night that the remote radio announcer asked Count, just as the band was signing off, its name. Basie glanced up at the clock above the stand and, without hesitation, announced, "One O'Clock Jump." It stuck.

The always well groomed trumpeter Buck Clayton sadly confessed to me that he was about at the end of his career because of a lip problem. Before I left, however, Buck brightened and said, "No, if Piggy can keep playing with all of his missing teeth, I sure can play for a few more years." Piggy Minor was also an alumnus of the Count Basie band which gained immortality after a broadcast aired from the Reno Club was heard by jazz promoter John Hammond. Thanks to Hammond, the Basie band soon headed for Manhattan. The rest is history.

Bill Smith

Palm Desert, Calif.