Viewpoints

ED. NOTE: Whenever a new RAG comes out, we can count on hearing from Bill Smith, who's generous in sharing his happy memories of jazz from the past. Here's his latest installment:

I feel lucky that I was around when it was happening -- the big band era -- during the late 1930s and early 1940s. A friend asked me what I remembered. Here are some of my memories.

My first big band was Bennie Moten, who took his Victor Recording Artists from Kansas City by bus to play the Old Mill Ballroom, Topeka, Kansas, my home town. The Basie band sprang from Moten's, after Bennie died on an operating table two months after I heard his band. That same summer, 1935, Earl "Fatha" Hines played the Old Mill. I've loved his "Rosetta" ever since. Earl had recently insured his hands with Lloyds of London for $100,000 and even had surgery on the web of his fingers to help him reach an extra ivory.

It was a 75-mile drive to Kansas City where my high school friends and I heard Chick Webb at the Pla-mor Ballroom. Chick introduced his new vocalist, the teenager, Ella Fitzgerald. At Fairyland Park, it was Andy Kirk and The Twelve Clouds of Joy, with Mary Lou Williams playing piano and arranging and Pha Terrell singing the hit of the year, "Until The Real Thing Comes Along." We heard Cab Calloway "hi-de-ho" at the Mainstreet Theater, with "Big" Sid Catlett on drums and Chu Berry on tenor sax. Cab was so active performing he had to change his damp white tuxedo tails three times.

The Terrace Grill of the Hotel Muehlebach was the venue of many big bands: Red Norvo, featuring his wife Mildred Bailey, singing "Old Rockin' Chair's Got Me," Ben Pollack, Gus Arnheim, Red Nichols, Buddy Rogers, Henry Busse and a plethora of hotel bands, including Bobby Pope, Art Kassel, and two from California, Paul Pendarvis and Henry Halstead.

Fast forward to the 1940s: it was Tootie's Mayfair Club, in Jackson County, beyond the city limits and closing laws of Kansas City, where we listened until dawn to the likes of Walter Page and Jay McShann. When I wanted to know more about the happenings on Vine Street scene, I asked Jay, and he sent me to the Musicians Union on Highland Avenue where it was posted upon entering: CHECK YOUR WEAPON.

I was told by an old timer that Eddie Durham's intro to his arrangement of "You're Driving Me Crazy," was used by Bennie and Bus Moten composing their "Moten Swing." I spent nights at the Chestnut Inn, listening to a great local guitarist, Jimmy Hill. Once a friend and I dared to visit Lucille's Paradise Inn, a legendary club on the legendary Vine Street, We didn't feel that we were welcome -- just as blacks weren't welcome at such venues as the Pla-mor Ballroom and Fairyland.

We also frequented a club on Troost Street with Bus Moten playing. I recall feeding the "kitty" on his piano. The Four Tons of Rhythm, with guitarist "Jim Daddy" Walker, had a big hit... "Poor butterfly, flap your wings and fly away." Jeannie Light and Julia Lee sang risque songs at clubs around town. I heard Buddy Rich with his combo one night at a club on Prospect. Kansas City legend Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson stood by the door with sax in hand -- waiting to sit in for a set. But Buddy never asked him.

A popular KC club was Ralph Gaine's Steakhouse on South Broadway, with Marilyn Maye and her husband, pianist Sammy Tucker. Marilyn's still performing at venues around the country and is an especially "hot ticket" when she makes her annual appearances in New York.

Bill Smith

Highlands Ranch, Colo.

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ED. NOTE: Judi K posted the following on the RAG's bulletin board and we thought it was worth sharing with readers who perhaps don't check the bulletin board daily.

A Creative Way to Involve the Young People: The Pecos Valley Jazz and Arts Festival is held in Roswell, N. M., a lovely, small, but upscale town that gets entirely involved in the jazz festival, and some of their ideas could certainly be modified to fit any jazz festival, giving incentive for all ages to come to enjoy the events.

I got to be a part of the 2007 festival, and while the workshops were going on, someone asked me to come over to the children's school to do some live music. Eddie Erickson, Curt Warren and I went, as our workshops were empty by then. There was a big room where teachers had their little ones with paint brushes and one huge.... I mean huge piece of paper... or canvas....all laid out, and the children painted jazz!

They stroked the brushes along with the music and used colors that the music brought out in their heads. It was so much fun to see and be a part of. I then was told that a different group of little ones had done the same thing the year before, and this is how they involve the younger generations without them having to be musicians. They had taken last year's painting and produced a backdrop from it for the Performing Arts Center evening of the festival. That was the evening I was part of -- a concert at the PAC, and when I saw the backdrop, I would have thought they spent a fortune on three sections of colorful, professional abstract art. A second later, I thought that maybe three rectangles were acoustical. Then I was told that it was the result of the kids' input from last year. The design was also used on T-shirts and the program. Even though I am not returning to Pecos Valley this year, I know what this year's program cover and stage backdrop will look like, as last year's children's artwork becomes this year's ad, T-shirt art and backdrop. Can you imagine the delight of the youngsters who see their work as part of the festival? And they will always have "our" music in their heads, thinking about being a part of the artwork. Thanks to the little ones and the teachers in and around Roswell, their festival has a different background and program cover every year, and collectible T-shirts!

I think it is a wonderful, creative way to involve kids and their parents. This endeavor makes them a part of the history of the festival and opens up the wonderment of jazz to them. Every festival needs an audience and interested people of all ages (besides performers)!

Judi K

Onalaska, Wisc.