Viewpoints

"Guardian of the Albert system" Dick Bell is shown with Jack McLaughlin (left) and Kjeld Brandt (right) in New Orleans in April 2004.

Dick Bell, a great jazz friend and clarinet player, died on September 25 at the age of 87. Dick was called the "Guardian of the Albert system," and he supplied jazz clarinetists who played in the old New Orleans style with vintage Albert system clarinets of his collection which also includes Harry Shield's clarinet.

Dick was well known in the New Orleans arena for his annual birthday party given in New Orleans every year on Easter where he invited jazz musicians, friends and members of the Ken Colyer Trust. Last year, Dick donated 2,500 Pounds Sterling to the KCT to support their "music-to-school" project. After the death of his wife, Carol, in May 2007 "Just A Little While To Stay Here" became "his" song until his death 17 months later. We'll miss him.

RIP Dick (May 13, 1921-Sept. 25, 2008): "Till We Meet Again"!

Eberhard Kraut

Leonberg/Stuttgart, Germany

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Not enough credit can go to Gary Raddysh and his Chilliwack colleagues (Canada column, October RAG) for the work they are doing to perpetuate our kind of music. I recently attended the Vancouver festival in Surrey, B.C., and was astounded at the number and quality of young musicians that have come out of the Chilliwack Secondary School jazz program.

The Big Bang group gets most of the notoriety because of the appearances of the band's attractive leader, trumpeter Bria Skonberg. But there were two other bands from the Chilliwack program at the festival, the Back Alley Strutters and the Dixie 9. I was especially impressed with the Dixie 9 trumpeter Bonnie Northgraves, whose talent warrants a great deal more exposure to jazz fans everywhere. In addition, the New Orleans Ale Stars of Simon Stribling and Gerry Green contain Chilliwack grads, including super bassist Georgia Korba.

Ed Salzman

Mountain View, Calif.

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It was good to see Ruth and Mike Hazeldine enjoying the sounds of Syncopated Paraphernalia in one of the photographs from the Whitley Bay Festival, reproduced in the October issue of the RAG.

Mike was for many years the editor of New Orleans Music, as well as co-author with Barry Martyn of Bunk Johnson: Song of the Wanderer and editor of Bill Russell's American Music and, again with Barry Martyn, New Orleans Style, by Bill Russell.

I don't know how you do it, but the RAG keeps rolling on. The color photographs are very good indeed.

Derek Coller

Wokingham, Berkshire, England.

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ED. NOTE: Wow! Am I glad Derek Coller identified Mike and Ruth Hazeldine and reminded us of Mike's many contributions to jazz publishing! Though Mike and I have corresponded with one another over the years, we've never met, so it's nice to see him in print!