November Features
Continued: Domber
"7. Another of my heroes is Jackie Coon, the supremely talented and creative trumpet and flugelhorn player. He and Rick Fay were inseparable friends from their late `teens through life. Jackie chose not to travel, so his reputation was mainly on the West Coast. I don't think we did him justice on records, but Jazzin' with Jackie and Softly come close. Also of note was his stint with Jack Teagarden, captured on The Club Hangover Broadcasts.
"8. Although not recorded by Arbors, the Columbia classics by Wild Bill Davison, Pretty Wild and With Strings Attached, were reissued by us, thanks to his widow, Anne. She tried for 20 years to have them reissued by Sony and finally persuaded them to license the recordings to us. She maintained that they were Bill's finest work, and I agree. Unfortunately, our license has expired and they are available only on digital download.
"9. Another hero and a good friend was Ralph Sutton, the eminent successor to Harlem stridemasters James P. Johnson and Fats Waller and an inspiration to a new generation of pianists. He is on nine Arbors recordings as soloist or with bands. My favorite, recorded by the BBC at a church and licensed to us, presents a choice sample of his repertoire and an opportunity to hear him talk about his life and music. His widow, Sunnie, encouraged me to release this program which she thought was one of his best.
"10. No list of mine could be complete without the Pizzarellis, Bucky and John. They are not only exceptional players but outstanding human beings and part of a wonderful family. Their duet record, Contrasts, is our all-time best seller. And mention must be made of Bucky's three solo guitar masterpieces, April Kisses, One Morning in May and Flashes.
"11. I could not leave it at a top 10 and overlook such favorites as Carol Sloane's Dearest Duke; Warren Vaché's virtuoso performances with strings with the Scottish Ensemble in Don't Look Back and with John Allred in Bern, Switzerland in Jubilation; the beautifully-arranged performances by Johnny Varro's Swing 7 or John Sheridan's Dream Bands; Bobby Gordon, Evan Christopher and Buddy DeFranco displaying totally different styles of clarinet playing; young and talented Aaron Weinstein's bravura performance with John Pizzarelli on Blue Too; and the charming duo of Rosanno Sportiello and Nicki Parrott in People Will Say We're in Love.
Many of Domber's parties were videotaped by Don Wolff of St. Louis, the nation's premier collector of jazz video. A classic VHS shows Flip Phillips at his 80th birthday party in 1995. Ruby Braff and Ralph Sutton were videotaped by Wolff at a 1988 Mid America festival and 2001 March of Jazz party, the only commercially-sold video of them together. Videos now sold out are of Rick Fay and Bob Haggart at a concert and Bob Wilber's big band at the 1996 March of Jazz.
"Part of the fun for me is socializing with musicians after recording sessions, and many have become special friends," said Domber. "I've been able to videotape around 90 percent of our recording dates. It is a visual archive that I hope to present to an institution for educational purposes. It would be exciting and an important historical document if Milt Gabler had been able to make movies of his wonderful Commodore sessions."
The March of Jazz Parties
"Bob Haggart loved opportunities to play with other good musicians," Domber recalled. In 1992 a scheduled bass player for a Rick Fay concert in St. Petersburg couldn't make it, and someone suggested I call Bob. Necessity overcame my reluctance, and I called him, and he said, `Sure.' That evening I met him for the first time, and our friendship lasted the rest of his life."
The next year Haggart and his wife, Windy, were in Orlando for a Chuck Hedges recording session. At breakfast, Domber mentioned that someday he would like to put on a weekend jazz party. Windy said, "Next year in March, my husband will celebrate his 80th birthday." That was the catalyst for the first March of Jazz event, and, though Windy died later that year, Haggart agreed to proceed with plans for the party.
"Since it was a birthday party, I asked him to invite musicians who had worked with him over the years and with whom he felt a kinship," said Domber. "That's how I first met Davern, Wilber, Yank Lawson, Joe Wilder, Bob Rosengarden, Jack Lesberg, Derek Smith, Bucky Pizzarelli, George Van Eps, Milt Hinton, Sutton and others."
He added, "I didn't really plan to have another party, but at Haggart's event I met Flip Phillips, and his wife, Miki, said Flip would be 80 the following March. That spawned the idea for an annual event in March to celebrate birthdays of famous musicians born in that month. Eventually we ran out of musicians with March birthdays and honored other milestone birthdays."
The parties went on for 10 years until 2004, missing only 1999 when all hotels in the Tampa Bay area were booked for an NCAA basketball tournament.
Honorees were celebrated in souvenir programs with extensive biographies by skilled jazz writers and dozens of pages of photos from their entire lifetimes. "We went to some of the musicians' homes and literally took photos from their walls and scrapbooks to use in the programs," said Domber.
The honorees, year by year, were:
1994: Bob Haggart; 1995: Flip Phillips; 1996: Haggart, Dick Hyman, Red Norvo, Bob Wilber and Joe Bushkin; 1997: Bushkin, Haggart, Hyman, Phillips, Norvo, Wilber and Jerry Jerome; 1998: Benny Waters at age 96, Peanuts Hucko, Jerome, Haggart, Hyman, Phillips and Wilber; 2000: Phillips at age 85, Milt Hinton at age 90; 2001: Ruby Braff and Jane Jarvis; 2002: Ralph Sutton, who died a month before the party, was memorialized with a wonderful video presentation by Don Wolff. Others were John Bunch, Wilder and Jerome, who also died before the event; 2003: Bucky Pizzarelli and Jack Lesberg; 2004: Kenny Davern, Skitch Henderson and Stanley Kay.
Many fans felt that honorees played exceptionally great jazz at the parties celebrating their achievements. Players were mostly organized in groups that had never existed before. Sets were shorter than at most jazz festivals, so all got on stage often. The 20-minute Sunday sets allowed for three tunes by each new group.
At the 1995 party Domber noticed that many patrons arrived from great distances on Thursday night and sat around in the lobby with nothing to do. So, the next year, he started informal jam sessions in the hotel bar on Thursday evenings. Badges for the parties were $295, no single admissions, and fans from all over consistently filled the 550-seat Sheraton Hotel ballroom.
Besides all-star groups, the parties had established bands such as the Yo Kimura Trio from Japan several years, Flat Foot Stompers from Germany, Sherrie Maricle's Diva big band and Five Play combo, Sonny LaRosa's America's Youngest Jazz Band and the Tuxedo big band from France.
March of Jazz parties showcased many Arbors artists. If there were profits they were donated to scholarship funds in the names of Windy and Bob Haggart, Flip Phillips and Ruby Braff at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music. More than $50,000 has been contributed for annual scholarships awarded since 1996.
Once he had invited a musician, Domber was reluctant to uninvite him or her for the next year. In 2004 the party grew to 88 musicians and a 119-page glossy program. The music went from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m., and for those retiring early, a video feed from the party was piped into hotel rooms.
Cruising in New Directions
After his last party, Domber decided to try a new and somewhat more manageable venture. In November 2004, he and Don Wolff helped sponsor a successful jazz cruise with 20 all-stars on the Radisson Seven Seas in the Caribbean.
November 2008 issue | © 2008 The Mississippi Rag
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