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24. Preserving the Legacy

levelanders have also been in the forefront of 'Daybreak efforts to preserve and chronicle the legacy of Express' by the Cjazz. In fact, it might be argued that Cleveland's Ellington band greatest contribution has been its unusual and almost or some continuous effort to spotlight and preserve . Goodman piece, or whatever. The Ellington Archives "If the music Cleveland Representative Louis Stokes spearheaded isn't played and the effort in Congress in the 1980s to appropriate funds played well," for the Smithsonian Institution to purchase the personal said Starr, "it archives ofDuke Ellington. Included were manuscripts, dies. There is arrangements, recordings and photographs from no way that a Ellington's personal collection. music that is not Stokes said at the time, "Duke Ellington is a unique performed can figure in American culture. As one of our greatest be called composers, he deserves to be well represented in 'living.", America's national museum, the Smithsonian." Frederick Starr Starr and Stokes' efforts came following a chance meeting Schuller began by joining forces with the Smithsonian between Ellington's son, Mercer, and the director ofthe Institution to transcribe classic jazz performances Smithsonian museum, John Kinard. Kinard told Mercer recorded by Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, , he had heard about an unsuccessful attempt by Yale , Artie Shaw, , Jimmie University to acquire a large collection of Ellington's Lunceford, Dizzy Gillespie and others. Starr and the papers. After learning from Mercer that his late father's Smithsonian secured fmancing to transcribe and publish collection was available, Kinard contacted Roger 40 to 50 volumes of what they called The Jazz Kennedy, the director of the Smithsonian's National Masterworks Editions over a period of about 20 years. Museum of American History. They worked with an Starr said the transcriptions "will enable professional attorney to negotiate with the Ellington estate for the repertory orchestras and college ensembles to recreate personal archives. The negotiations took two and a half the great classics of recorded repertory and encourage years. Eventually, through the prodding of Stokes, the growth of jazz repertory ensembles." He said, Congress in 1988 appropriated the funds for the "audiences will be stunned by the difference between acquisition of the priceless collection of manuscripts, the slapdash published parts available since the 1930s, photographs, recordings, clippings and personal items generally simplified versions done quickly, and the documenting Ellington's legacy as a performer and music the great bands were actually playing." composer. The first Jazz Masterworks Edition was The Duke Three years later, Ellington's sister, Ruth Ellington Ellington Orchestra: The Extended Worksfrom 1929 to Boatwright, sold 2,000 additional manuscripts, 1937. edited by Schuller and including "Symphony in photographs and memorabilia to the Smithsonian. They Black," "Reminiscing in Tempo" and "Creole had been kept in filing cabinets in her one-room Park Rhapsody. " Avenue apartment in . Within several years, the Smithsonian project A portion ofthe Ellington archives was displayed at produced a number of excellent live of the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art for a month Ellington music including concerts by various repertory beginning October 7, 1995. big bands such as the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the Smithsonian Jazz Orchestra. Transcribing jazz masterpieces Starr was also a founder and leader of a group called Dr. Frederick Starr, president of Oberlin College in The Louisiana Repertory Jazz Ensemble which gained an the 1980s, was a major force in another effort to international reputation by playing authentic recreations preserve the legacy ofjazz. of the music being played in New Orleans between the Starr told me, "Gunther Schuller and I decided (in years of 1890 and 1930. Starr said he wanted to "peel 1988) that what we needed to do was take the real away the layers of paint [various mterpretations of early masterpiece recorded performances and carefully New Orleans music] and restore the original features" of transcribe them, get the notes on paper so accurately that what he called ''this old house ofjazz." The members of you could take a high school band in Elyria and they the group found old manuscripts ofmany songs that were could sit down with a good conductor and actually play played before records were made. 230 Cleveland Jazz History

Telarc International ofjazz and amassed an impressive stable ofjazz artists. In March of 1990, two By 2000, Telarc had more than 600 recordings in its Clevelanders - record catalog, ranging from classical to jazz and , and producer Robert Woods was releasing more than 50 recordings each year. From and recording engineer its headquarters in Beachwood' s Commerce Park off Jack Renner - took their Chagrin Boulevard, the firm's approximately 50 sophisticated digital employees were setting new standards in both the recording equipmentto the quality and the quantity of jazz recordings from famed Blue Note nightclub Cleveland. in New York City to record a live performance Discovering a jazz masterpiece Jack Renner and Bob by a jazz trio. It was a Woods of Telarc An educator from revolutionary move for International Cleveland won the Clevelanders who had international acclaim won world-wide praise for their natural, simple and for his work. realistic recordings ofsymphony orchestras. Woods and Andrew Homzy, Renner, the co-founders of Telarc International of who had played tuba Cleveland, were not sure they could transfer their with Ralph Grugel' s classical music recording magic to jazz. dixieland band in the After listening to the recording, the jazz artists ­ Cleveland Flats in the pianist Oscar Peterson, bassist and guitarist 1960s, discovered Herb Ellis - said, "Beautiful!" Renner knew at that almost by accident Andrew Homzy moment they had passed the test. "We achieved," he what Whitney Balliet said, "what we thought was the.best possible sense of of The New Yorker magazine called "The most the excitement of being in the club." important composition to emerge in jazz since Duke When the recording was released a few months later Ellington' s 'Black, Brown and Beige' in 1943 ." Hornzy on a compact disc entitled The Legendary Oscar found, hidden away in the apartment ofCharles Mingus' Peterson Trio Live at the Blue Note, it won two Grammy widow, the score for a monumental two-hour orchestral Awards. The Cleveland company was off and running work called Epitaph which Mingus had composed as a major player in the jazz recording industry. before his death in 1979. Telarc was founded in 1977 by Renner and Woods, Homzy, who grew up in Cleveland and went to two classically trained musicians and teachers, who Brooklyn High School in suburban Cleveland, became pioneered a "minimal miking" technique in their a music teacher at Concordia University in Montreal. recordings and made the first commercial classical He wanted to catalog Mingus' compositions. He called recordings in the U.S. in the digital format. "We're not Sue Mingus and discovered the unknown work in an old out to make hyped-up recordings," said Woods. chest in her apartment. Homzy took a year off from the After the success of that first jazz recording with university to go through all the scores he found. Oscar Peterson, Telarc moved quickly into the recording "Eventually," he said, "I began to see a pattern. There were 18 different sections with numbered measures." Telarc Jazz Artists Homzy slowly pieced them together. The score for a 30­ piece orchestra ran 500 pages and included 4,000 Count Basie Orchestra Jon Hendricks measures. Louie Bellson Ahmad Jamal Ray Brown Jimmy McGriff Mingus' Epitaph was first performed June 3, 1989 at Dave Brubeck James Moody Lincoln Center in New York City with Gunther Schuller Jeanie Bryson Frank Morgan directing an all-star orchestra. Jon Pareles of the New Freddy Cole George Coleman Joe Pass York Times wrote, "It ranked with the most memorable Oscar Peterson jazz events ofthe decade." Two days later, there was a AI Di Meola John Pizzarelli Erroll Gamer Andre Previn second performance at Wolf Trap near Washington. Dizzy Gillespie Vanessa Rubin The third performance, April 22, 1990 - the 68th Stephane Grappelli Hilton Ruiz anniversary ofMingus ' birth - was at Severance Hall in Benny Green George Shearing AI Grey Bobby Short Cleveland with a proud Hornzy and his family in Jim Hall Mel Torme attendance. The Severance Hall audience applauded Steve Turre Slide Hampton McCoy Tyner loudly when from the stage I introduced Homzy and explained how the Clevelander had made jazz history. Preserving the legacy 231

Hornzy is also a recognized authority on Duke used in conjunction with his book. Ellington and contributed to the first biography of He also wrote a Concise Guide to Jazz for high Cleveland native Tadd Dameron. He wrote two chapters school and college students to use in a ten-week oflan MacDonald's Tadd, the Life and Legacy ofTadley program. The smaller book also included tape or CD Ewing Dameron - one on the importance of Tadd and recordings. the other analyzing Dameron's music. 1 contributed to A resident of Shaker Heights, Gridley played flute MacDonald much of the information on Dameron's with his own group and taught psychology at Heidelberg early life in Cleveland. College.

Textbook author Mark Gridley Drum book author Chuck Braman Jazz Styles - History and "When 1 was learning to play drums," said native Analysis by Cleveland educator Clevelander Chuck Braman, "I was very frustrated with and musician Mark Gridley the standard material that I was being taught from. 1 became the most popular jazz thought it was not complete and not logical. Although textbook in the country. the books were regarded as classic and had been used for Gridley's book was a required years, 1 couldn't understand why they did it this way as textbook in introduction-to-jazz opposed to that. Why didn't they think of this? courses at more than 400 Basically, what bugged me was, 1 thought, 'Why isn't colleges and universities this more systematic and logical?" throughout the . So Braman sat down and wrote his own book about The book was also published in drumming. Drumming Patterns is a systematic several foreign languages. presentation of the components of rhythm and drum In 2002, Gridley estimated technique. Louie Bellson said, "This creative, valuable that about a quarter of a million Nancy Ann Lee book is for every drummer's library." DownBeat copies ofhis book had been sold. Mark Gridley magazine called it "An outstanding book." Gridley told me it began "I spent three years alone at a computer," recalled almost by accident when he was a graduate student at Braman, "working out all the different possibilities and Case Western Reserve University. He asked the trying to put something together. 1 finally did. I wrote chairman ofthe music department why there was no jazz the book." course at the school. "It turned out he had been looking Braman didn't begin playing drums seriously until for someone to teach a jazz course. 1 threw together a after he graduated from Bere'a High School in 1977. "I syllabus and designed the course," said Gridley. "I was lucky," he recalled. "My dad got me started in recorded my lectures and gave them to a girl to music around the time 1 was II or 12 years old. A local transcribe. Over two or three semesters 1 had a bunch of disc jockey named Ronnie Barrett, got a Freddie classroom handouts." He copyrighted his material and Hubbard album called First Light and gave it to my dad contacted an editor. "He was also looking for someone and my dad gave it to me." The Hubbard album sparked to write a jazz textbook," said Gridley. Braman' s interest in jazz and his father nurtured that The first edition was published by Prentice Hall in interest. "My dad took me to the Theatrical where the 1978. A second edition came out in 1985. The third house band was Bob McKee, Bill Dobbins and Lamar edition III 1988 Gaines. 1 was really knocked out by them." included a cassette Soon the teenager was taking drum lessons from recording illustrating McKee and going to jazz concerts. At a Duke Ellington many of the points , he met a young teacher named Mark Gridley who Gridley made in his was about to begin teaching a course in jazz history. manuscript. A number "I took Mark' s course the next summer. That was of Cleveland jazz when 1 was 13. 1 sat in on the course he was teaching at musicians performed Case Western Reserve while he was in the process of on the cassette. A researching his book. He was an incredible source, fourth edition was teaching me who was who and what the good music published in late 1990. was." According to Braman, Gridley, was the best In 1992 Gridley also teacher he ever had. compiled compact "Since 1 got a late start playing drums," recalled discs of classic jazz Braman, "the first thing 1 wanted to do when I got out of performances to be high school was put in some heavy practicing. Instead 232 Cleveland Jazz History of going to college, 1 practiced a lot, maybe six, eight, Hound Jazz Album Guide, in addition to Lee, were ten hours a day for a year or two." seven others from Cleveland - John Bitter, George By the late 1970s, he was playing at a variety of Foley, Chris Hovan, Dan Polletta, Jim Prohaska, John clubs in Cleveland. "I started doing what I've done ever Richmond and Bill Wahl. "I was very lucky to have so since, basically hustle gigs in places that had never had many good writers," says Lee. "They are all jazz before, talk them into trying it. At some places it knowledgeable people who knew their history and the would work out and I'd have a place to play and 1 would artists they were writing about." call my favorite players and go out and play." The Music Hound Jazz Album Guide includes After playing and writing in Cleveland, Braman biographies and compact disc listings for 13 jazz artists moved to New York in 1989 and soaked up the playing from Cleveland: Albert Ayler, Benny Bailey, Tadd of his drumming heroes, Paul Motian and Roy Haynes. Dameron, John Fedchock, Jim Hall, Chucklsraels, Ernie "I really loved their playing," said Braman. "I also Krivda, Joe Lovano, Ken Peplowski, Vanessa Rubin, loved the playing ofElvin Jones, Tony Williams, Philly Jimmy Scott, Pete Selvaggio and Dan Wall. Lee said, "I Joe Jones, Max Roach, and AI Foster." tried to include as many as 1 could and 1 apologize to For Braman,jazz reached an artistic peak with Miles those jazz artists from Cleveland that 1 didn't get into the Davis, Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter and Herbie book." Hancock. "To me, that's the ultimate in jazz. That was The Music Hound Guide included a compact disc of the era when it really reached the zenith ofits evolution. perfonnances by ten of the artists and photographs of To me, the '60s,just before fusion, was my favorite era many more, plus listings of jazz publications, jazz in jazz." internet 'sites, record labels, radio stations, festivals and producers. A jazz record guide Lee said she received notes from some ofthe artists Another important that she wrote about in the book. "And they were very written contribution to pleased about their entries and the overall presentation jazz, Music Hound ofthe book." Jazz: The Essential For co-editor Lee, whose other written work appeared Album Guide, was co­ in DownBeat., JazzTimes, Cleveland's Plain Dealer and edited by magazine Free Times, there was a huge sense ofaccomplishment in writer Steve Holtje being a major contributor to the literature ofjazz. "It's a and Cleveland Heights tremendous letdown after a very, very intense period of free lance jazz writer time." she said. "I feel like you would with a new baby, and photographer kind of, 'Look, what 1 made!" Nancy Ann Lee. She said the book, Jazz author at Kent State published in 1998, is William Howland Kenney, "really for people who an historian at Kent State are new to jazz, recommending what albums to University and a traditional purchase. It's a buying guide of jazz compact discs jazz clarinetist who played currently in print." frequently in the Greater The guide is a huge paperback book, about 1,400 Cleveland area, wrote two pages, two inches thick, and weighs almost five pounds. books that have been Included are entries for 1,260 jazz artists, living and recognized as important dead, with brief biographies of each and suggestions contributions to Jazz regarding their most important compact discs. Lee literature. admitted compiling all the infonnation was a massive Kenney's Jazz: A undertaking. Cultural History 1904-1930 "It took a year from the time 1 signed on," she said. was published in 1993. The Bill Kenney Lee and Holtje assigned articles on individual artists to focus of his scholarly work a virtual army ofjazz writers across the country. "We was on jazz in Chicago in the had 90 writers on the project," she said, "and edited 1920s. Unlike most other books on the subject, it placed entries from our writers. 1 edited about half ofthe book, the music in the social and economic setting ofthe period. about 600 entries, and ofthose 600, 1 wrote or co-wrote According to Kenney, the craze for popular dance about 200." music began in Chicago before World War I and Among the 90 writers who contributed to the Music exploded in the teens when more than 65,000 blacks Preserving the Legacy 233 from the South migrated to Chicago. This migration, Euclid Avenue since 1988. Reese told me, "I thought wrote Kenney, "triggered Chicago's jazz age." Just after that some ofthe stuff should be documented. We have World War I, workers with money to spend on some great local musicians and performers in the city entertainment flocked to night clubs on Chicago's South and we really don't pay tribute to them as we should." Side, particularly an area called "The Stroll," a bright­ Reese got photographer Roger Brown to go with him light district on South State Street. Kenney quoted to various clubs in Cleveland and begin taking action Cleveland writer saying that "Midnight shots ofCleveland jazz performers. was like day" on The Stroll even without street lights. Consisting mostly of photos, the 176-page book According to Kenney's book, the word ''jass'' first includes virtually full-page original pictures of 101 appeared in Chicago's black press in 1916. Others have Cleveland jazz artists and 14 Cleveland jazz clubs and claimed the word was used earlier. venues. Reese also interviewed some of the artists. In addition to the musicians who shaped jazz in Included is Weldon "Schoolboy" Haggins who told Chicago, Kenney examined the politicians, businessmen Reese that he once performed with boxing great Ezzard and even gangsters who contributed to jazz in Chicago as Charles playing bass. well as the social and economic forces (prohibition, the Reese said he learned that many of the Cleveland Depression, race relations, and technological advances in jazz musicians "aren't concerned about making it big. recording and film) that contributed to it. They enjoy what they are doing here locally. They have In a review published in the Arts MidwestJazzLetter, full-time jobs but they love the music." Tom Jacobsen wrote, "Kenney has clearly shown that a proper understanding of Chicago jazz in the '20s goes Collecting Django Reinhardt records well beyond an account ofthe musicians and their music." The guitar that In his book, Kenney acknowledged the assistance of Django Reinhardt Clevelanders Joel O'Sickey, Jim Stincic, John bought in the Richmond, Larry Booty and Brad Bolton. United States and Kenney's second book,Recorded Music in American played in Life: The Phonograph andPopular Memory, J890-J945, Cleveland when was published in 1999. The 288-page book examined he made his the interplay between recorded music and social, American debut political and economic forces during the phonograph's here was later rise as a popular form ofentertainment. Victor Greene presented to a of the University of Wisconsin said, "At last someone Clevelander who has attempted to place the phonograph industry in the had amassed the context of America' s cultural life." world's largest collection of A pictorial salute to Cleveland artists Reinhardt records. Until I began doing Fred Sharp weekly Cleveland Jazz began his life-long History radio features fascination with for Radio Station the French jazz Fred Sharp and his wife Iris with WCPN in 1988 and the guitarist in the a small portion of their Django first edition of the 1930s when Sharp Reinhardt record collection and Cleveland Jazz History was still a teenager the guitar Reinhardt played in Cleveland in 1946 book was published in Iiving in the 1993, there had been Glenville area of absolutely no effort to Cleveland. His guitar teacher, Jerry Stone, asked Sharp, chronicle Cleveland's "Have you heard about the French hillbilly guitar player? many links to the His name is Reinhardt and there's a record out called history ofjazz. Then, in 'Clouds.' I went out immediately," said Sharp, "and bought 1996, there was another the record. It was a Decca Personality Series. It was 75 book about Cleveland cents, the most expensive record out. I played it in the store jazz and Cleveland's jazz musicians. and it just floored me. It put a mark on me for the rest ofmy Jazzkeepers was produced by Gregory Reese, the life." director ofthe East Cleveland Public Library, who had Sharp sent away for a catalog. "It listed all these been presenting free jazz concerts at his library on Djangos. I had never heard any ofthem. So I sent them 234 Cleveland Jazz History money and ordered all the records that were listed." The Campus Owls preserve swing While pursuing his own guitar career, touring with the Adrian Rollini Trio and Red Norvo's , Sharp continued building his Reinhardt record collection. "I had about 50 sides and got in touch with a guy in Chicago who was a Django collector. He said, 'Ifyou want some of them, come to Chicago and we'll tape them. ' So I went to his house. He had stuff I had never heard of. He had like 600 sides. We taped for hours. "The collection began to build from there. I started to buy records and trade with people in Holland, Courtesy of Hank Geer Hank Geer directing the Miami University Belgium, all over the world." Campus Owls Alumni Band Reinhardt died in 1953 at the age of 43 and was buried at Samois, France. Sharp visited Django's grave Ifyou spent any time at Miami University in Oxford, eight times and planted flowers there. Ohio between 1924 and 1961, you probably remember Django's son, Babik, learned ofSharp's great interest the Campus Owls. It was a student big band that played in his father's music and gave Django' s old goitar to at Miami for four decades. Fred, the guitar Reinhardt had used when he played with The band was formed just a few weeks after Bix Duke Ellington in Cleveland in 1946. Beiderbecke and the Wolverines played at Miami' s Eventually, Sharp's collection of Django Reinhardt Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity in 1924. records grew to about 1, I 00 sides. "Most people don't In the summer of 1935, the Campus Owls were know he made that many," Sharp said. "Of course booked by the Cunard Lines to play aboard a trans­ there's a lot of second takes and third takes of things." Atlantic ship. They played as an intermission band for Charles Delaunay, Django' s biographer, asked Sharp the Duke Ellington Orchestra. They went to Germany, to compile the Reinhardt discography. France and Switzerland in 1938. The leader of the Miami Campus Owls in the early Remembering Albert Ammons 1940s was the saxophonist who later was considered the Cleveland resident dean of Cleveland jazz musicians, Hank Geer. Christopher Page set out "It was a first class band," recalled Geer. "Most of in the 1980s to research the guys came offthe road with bands they played with the life of boogie in the summer months." woogie pianist Albert In fact, before he went to Miami University, Geer Ammons. Page said, "I had played with bands led by Charlie Spivak and Henry wanted to discover and Busse. During the summer before starting college, Geer reconstruct the man was touring with the Ray Anthony Orchestra. behind the famous Another member of the Anthony band, Harry name. The irrepressible DeMarco, also joined the Campus Owls with Geer. joy that radiates through DeMarco later toured for years with a group called the the notes on Albert Tune Toppers and played with a variety ofbig bands in Ammons records seems Cleveland, including the Vince Pattie and Hal Lynn to have been a reflection bands. of his soul and 1 had to Trumpeter Dick Mains, who played with the Campus fmd out if this was true." Owls in 1940 and '41, later played with the Teddy In 1989, Page began interviewing Ammons' family Powell Orchestra and in 1945, joined the Benny members, friends and associates and researching the Goodman band. Mains later spent 31 years playing with history of boogie woogie. In 1997, the Northeast Ohio the U.S. Army Band. Jazz Society published Page's book, Boogie Woogie Each fall, they arrived in Oxford a week early to Stomp, Albert Ammons & His Music. The book is not a prepare for the new school year. "We did nothing that biography in the usual sense; it is more a celebration of week but break in new recruits and rehearse," said Geer. Ammons and boogie woogie music. "We rehearsed eight or nine hours a day, getting ready Page celebrated the publication of the book with a to play at the end ofthe week for the Freshman Mixer." party at his home. Among the guests were a number of The Campus Owls was not an official Miami boogie woogie piano players and Ammons' son, University band. It was a bunch of student musicians granddaughter, niece and nephew. who were working their way through college. In Preserving the Legacy 235 exchange for free meals, they played Monday through and said Geer, "Some guys hadn't touched their horns in Friday nights at a local restaurant called the Huddle. "It 50 years!" used to be packed," remembered Geer. "We also did While some ofthe playing at the reunion concert was two-hour sessions on Sunday afternoons. People drove a little rough around the edges, it still sounded pretty up from Cincy, drove down from Dayton, came from good and reminded the players and the thousands of Columbus. They came from all over. They used to have others who listened to the Campus Owls over the years of to put two traffic cops to direct the traffic in Oxford, an outstanding, long-running college big band. there were so many people that wanted to come in and After that first reunion, the Campus Owls alumni hear the band. And the Huddle wasn't a big restaurant." began playing regularly at the freshman orientation and When Geer was leading the Owls in the '40s, the band reunion weekends. The band's alumni also created an also played throughout the Midwest during school breaks. endowment to preserve the memory ofthe Campus Owls The Campus Owls was a dance band, playing the and to promote jazz. Among other projects, they music of the swing era, strongly influenced by Benny sponsored a high school jazz festival at the university. Goodman. Geer said, "We were carrying five brass, five To help raise money for the endowment, the alumni trombones, four saxes, and four rhythm, same as the old group produced a half-hour videotape of the band's Goodman band." history. I was delighted when they asked me to host and In addition to leading the band, Geer was one of the narrate the video presentation. Entitled Big Swinging arrangers. The band members wrote their own arrangements History, it was completed late in 1997 and sold by the ofthe popular music ofthe day, as weU as some 1Dngue-in­ university. cheek original charts. Jack Amaran did an original thing When Geer died in 2000, it was suggested that in lieu called "A Madrigal to a Melancholy Mugwump." of flowers, donations be made to the Campus Owls In addition to the nightly sessions at the Huddle and Memorial Fund at Miami University. touring during vacations, the Campus Owls frequently shared the bandstand at college dances with name bands. Jazz recorder Fred Eisenberg Geer remembered the night the Gene Krupa Orchestra "Come on upstairs," said Fred Eisenberg, "I want to came to Miami. "We'd always play opposite the name show you something." The retired rabbi led me to the band. Some of the guys came in and said, 'These third floor of his Cleveland Heights home. There, he college kids are gonna play some things.' The members had a huge collection ofjazz recordings. of the Krupa band went outside to have a smoke or I had seen many large jazz record collections, but this whatever. And when they heard the band, they all one was different. There were shelves filled with reel-to­ turned around and came back, to stand down front and reel tapes that Eisenberg had recorded himself on listen." Krupa later said he never heard a college band location. He had spent years, from the 1950s to the early play so well. '70s, combining his interests in jazz and recording by Les Brown said the Miami Campus Owls were better creating his own library of live performance recordings. than the college band he led at Duke University, the Duke His collection included live performance recordings Blue Devils. Drummer Ray McKinley, who sat in with of such artists as Les Brown, , Louis the Miami band one night, said the Owls was the best Armstrong, , and Lionel college jump band he ever heard. Hampton. "Hampton was thrilled," he said, "because I "We'd make enough for tuition on road tours at recorded him in four channels. He had heard of me and Christmastime," recalled Geer. Like all touring bands, knew what I was doing and knew that ifhe wanted them, the Campus Owls had their share of adventures on the he could have those tapes." road. Geer remembered, "Up in the Catskills in the Eisenberg began recording in Boston when he was 13 wintertime we pulled into Binghamton, all frozen, and we years old. His father gave him a Wilcox-Gay disc slept ten guys in a room." recorder, in the days before wire and tape recording, and The band faded away in 1961, but in June of 1992, he began recording jazz from radio broadcasts on during the annual alumni reunion, there was a reunion of plastic-coated paper discs. the Campus Owls alumni in Oxford. "It was beautiful to When he went to Hebrew Union College in see all the guys," said Geer. "When we sat down to Cincinnati, Eisenberg was hired by a Cincinnati radio practice, I knew I had my work cut out for me to try to put station and . "My best gig," he said this together and try to make it at least presentable." was to record Dave Brubeck for the Jazz Goes To Geer, one ofthe few members ofthe Campus Owls to College series. "All of the material from the University make music his career, led the alumni band for the ofCincinnati, I recorded on a Magnacordertape machine. reunion concert. Most of the players were doctors, I set up the microphones, listened as they were warming lawyers and businessmen - many in their 60s and 70s­ up, set the mics [volume] and went and sat down and 236 Cleveland Jazz History watched the concert. It was incredible!" share them and we don't sell them -for any amount of After becoming a rabbi, Eisenberg served as an air money!!" He explained his philosophy: ''I recorded this force chap lain. He began recording all ofthe j azz artists for posterity, not to make money. 1 was never interested in who entertained at Lackland and Keesler Air Force making money from it. I wanted to be sure, in the Mosaic bases, where he was stationed. tradition, that I wrote down 'the words of God' - the "I taped everybody I could," he said, "everybody music and excitement ofthese good musicians." from the Buddy Morrow band to Louis Armstrong and Rabbi Eisenberg also said, "Jazz is like a religion. It' s Jack Teagarden. You name 'em. Ifthey were there in beautiful, it's lovely, it's expressive. And a good musician the South in the 1950s, I got them." is praying. He's praying that he hits the notes and that In November of 1958, the Stan Kenton Orchestra people listen and like what he is doing." played a four-hour dance at the Keesler Air Force Base. "I set up four micropbones and just let it rip," be Jazz painter Raymond Farris recalled. Eisenberg's private recording of the Kenton When died in performance was later released on a compact disc. September of 1991, there was Over the years, Eisenberg recorded countless jazz banging in bis home in artists. He was not sure how many. "I must have a California a portrait of him hundred tapes oflive performances that I taped," he said. painted by Cleveland "I did a lot of stuff for Hampton and some for Harry drummer and artist Raymond James. I recorded them for the bandleaders mostly." Farris. He said he believed his live recordings of live "After meeting and p.erformances were far superior to carefully-engineered keeping in contact with studio recordings. "The studio recordings, even the best Miles," said Farris, "I gave ones," he said, "are absolutely dead. They don't have him a portrait of himself, the proper ambiance. And the feeling ofthe live music whicb was banging in his Raymond Farris from the live musicians, even when they made Malibu borne. It was a mistakes," be said, "was mucb, much better than tbe painting ofMiles on a coin and it had the inscription, 'In beautifully-engineered recordings of the time." Miles We Trust.'" Eisenberg was also critical ofrecordings made with That unusual portrait ofDavis by Farris was not the dozens of micropbones and later mixed by engineers. only copy. Farris said, "Freddie Hubbard had another of "With those," be said, "I feel tbat what I'm getting is a my Miles Davis acrylic oils banging in bis home in fake. Tbe engineer is making the music, not the band. Hollywood Hills." Tbat hurts because it sbouldn't be the engineer's choice For painter and jazz drummer Farris, there was as to what goes on the recording." always a defmite connection between his visual art and When he became the rabbi ofa congregation in Grand his music. "Without a doubt," he said, "They are both Rapids, Michigan, Eisenberg continued his long interest very creative media, involving individual self-expression in playing clarinet. He played for four or five years with and improvisation." a group that included a banker and teachers. His last gig Davis had been Farris' hero since he was a child and as a clarinetist, be said proudly was with trumpeter Bobby his brother began bringing borne jazz records, "and there Hackett and trombonist Vic Dickenson. was something about that music that I could never get Eisenberg came to Cleveland in 1971. "I was with out ofmy mind," said Farris. (Rabbi) Arthur Lelyveld at Fairmount Temple," he said, He went to East Tech High School and studied drums "and there was no time for collecting. I spent 70 hours with former Stan Kenton arranger Phil Rizzo at his a week visiting people, working with them, teaching and Modern Jazz School in Cleveland Heights and with the preaching." Later, Eisenberg became the founding rabbi percussionist of the Cleveland Orchestra at the of Temple Israel Ner Tamid on Lander Road. Cleveland Music School Settlement. By 1960, Farris "Now that I have retired," said Eisenberg, "I'm going found himself playing jazz drums with such Cleveland back to sort through my collection." stand-outs as Carl Fields and Bobby Few. In 1961, With an enormous collection ofjazzthat he recorded, Farris became part of a popular local jazz group, the Rabbi Eisenberg plays some of his tapes for friends but East Jazz Trio that included pianist Few and bassist he flatly refuses to sell them. "We listen to them and we Cevera Jeffries, the late older brother ofDewey Jeffries.