Notorious Band the Gibson Gang Is Corn Prised of 12 Jazz Men
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TAILGATE RAMBLINGS VOL. 2 NO. 3 at least about traditional jazz. And Leonard Feather has turned a nice dollar or two in the WINTER, 1973 30-odd years he has been writing the Jazz gospel according to Feather. EDITOR - AlanC. W ebber But this doesn't mean that Muggsy and ASSOCIATE EDITOR - John A. "Scotty" Lawrence Leonard saw eye to eye on this music called PRODUCTION EDITOR - Dolores Wilkinson jazz. Matter of fact, Muggsy differed so ART DIRECTOR - Thomas E. Niemann violently from Leonard that he once chased Leonard out of Nick's. Or so I'm told by Tailgate Ramblings is published for members some other experienced and knowledgeable of the Potomac River Jazz Club, an organiza persons. tion dedicated to the support of traditional Then there's my good friend and fellow jazz interest and activity in the Greater Wash record collector Joe Badass (that's pro ington, D. C. and Baltimore areas. Member nounced B'dass; Joe’s touchy about that). ship, $5. Initiation fee, $2. Joe didn't actually see Pinetop Smith spit W rite to: blood, but he knows Pinetop's blood type and nickname of every girl Lulu White employed Mrs. Eleanor Waite Johnson in Mahogany Hall in 1912, not to mention the Secretary matrix numbers of every record Clarence Potomac River Jazz Club Williams ever made. Moreover, he's read 10201 G rosvenor P lace, #905 every book ever written on ja zz in this R ock ville, Md. 20852 country and Europe and believes them all. Funny thing is, Joe can't carry a tune in a Articles, letters to the editor, and ad copy bucket and can't tell the difference between (for which there is no charge to members) A rt Tatum and A rt Hodes on record. But he should be mailed to: can ree l off ad nauseum what various authors have written about both those gentlemen. No Alan C. Webber doubt about it, Joe is experienced and know Editor ledgeable about ja zz and has a w all-to-w all TAILGATE RAMBLINGS record collection of old 78's. But I don't 5818 Walton Road really know how valuable his influence on the Bethesda, Md. 20034 direction of the PRJC would be. Wilbur de Paris is another cat who can claim to be "experienced and knowledgeable" in jazz. He's been blowing trombone for 50 WHAT PRICE KNOWLEDGE? years or so. But I can't forget his reply when I asked him some years back what the By A1 Webber basic difference was between white and Negro traditional jazz. Wilbur didn't have to give "Suggest direction of the PRJC be influenced the m atter any thought at all. He just trotted by experienced and knowledgeable persons." out somebody e ls e's cliche. The above bit of no-nonsense prose adorns The difference, quoth W ilbur, is that white the membership application of a distaff mem traditional jazz is two-beat, Negro traditional ber of the PRJC. jazz is four-beat. Guess Wilbur never heard Right on, baby! That's telling it like it is! Jelly's "Shoe Shiner's Drag," or "Kansas Only trouble is it's kind of hard to know an City Stomps" or any of countless other re "experienced and knowledgeable" jazz person cordings by New Orleans Negroes playing when you see him - or her. heavily accented two-beat. I guess you could have called Muggsy Don't get me wrong. I do know some "ex Spanier pretty experienced and knowledgeable, perienced and knowledgeable" persons in ja zz. - 2- They happen to be musicians and record col- . Seven from the Baltimore area. It ended after lectors who share my likes, dislikes, and 8 p.m. with a second set by the Kid Bastien prejudices in regard to style, tempo and in Camilia Jazz Band, which drove clear from dividual musicians. This means that they are Toronto for the occasion (they were invited to narrow, bigoted, partisan, backward-looking Fat Cat's Manassas Jazz Festival on the spot!). musical reactionaries and I love 'em for this. In between were seven hours of jazz on But the PRJC would be impractically small Blob's concrete "bandstand," surrounded on and select if we depended only on this clique three sides by big green picnic tables, all of for membership. So while giving experience them occupied by fans. People were down and knowledge their cue, we seek as members from New Jersey and up from North Carolina. people who just happen to like traditional jazz, We even had a member from Natchez, Missis even if they can't spout matrix numbers, re sippi — Charlotte St. Germain (husband Ray cording dates, and the mixture of myth and couldn't come). mumbo jumbo which so often passes for The fans showed a lot of staying power, "scholarsh ip" in ja zz. with a good crowd still on hand as Kid Bastien’s trumpet muttered for the last time into his m etal derby hat. One reason the crowd stuck around was the variety. The Bay City Seven, as those who PRJC PICNIC BECOMING MINI have heard them in the Baltimore area or at the Bratwursthaus have noted, play a West JAZZ FESTIVAL Coast style reminiscent of Lu Watters in the Forties or Turk Murphy today. They were By Gary Wilkinson followed by the Dixie Five-O and their nifty Washington, D. C. vocalist, which provided a complete change of pace. No wonder m ore than 400 ja zz diggers Chuck Liebau's Shakey's Jazz Band put on showed up for the Second Annual Potomac one of their typical routines which are so suc River Jazz Club Picnic at Blob's Park Sep cessful at the pizza palaces and were rewarded tem ber 16! by one of the day's biggest hands. The newly First, Mother Nature beamed a major formed Anacostia River Ramblers made one of smile. It was clear, the temperature was their initi.i. per1 ances; this band was born just right, and the humidity was low. And primarily through contacts made at PRJC func then with a name like Blob's, it had to be tions, especially the Bratwursthaus scene. g ood ! Another band born last year - the Bull Run Rudy Adler's P. A. system took the strain Blues Blowers - displayed yet another style of out of playing and listening. And since he gets jazz, led by the driving horn of iron chops a bouquet, so does Chuck Liebau, who tuned Kenny Fulcher. The area's oldest jazz band, the ancient PRJC piano not once, not twice, in name at least - - the Original Washington but three times before the picnic. Johnson Monumental Jazz Band — strutted their wares "F a t Cat" M cRee kept the fans straight on who in their usual smooth and competent manner. was cornin' and goin', a tough EmCee chore Washington's two most traditional bands that day. were there, the Good Time Six and New Sun The crowd went through 17 kegs of beer, shine Jazz Band. The Six hauled out some not bad for the $2 per PRJC member admis melodic King Oliver material while the Sun- sion price. The $2 also included the efforts shiners played some interesting but obscure of 11 jazz bands. Blob's had food for sale, but oldies from their new L P due out early this many folks brought their own. Spring. Both bands use a trumpet as well as Oh, yes, the bands. The mini-festival cornet. started about 1 p.m. with the fine Bay City Rudy Adler's Capitol City Jazz Band played - 3- tunes featuring each of their front line musi in the V oice of A m erica 's program (broad cians as well as their bass. This is another cast Oct. 17 and repeated Oct. 21) "From hard-driving band, capitalizing on Larry Skin the World of Jazz." ner's noble trumpet skills. Assuming you had done so, you would have Alexandria's Ragtime Band, which had a heard Maria Ciliberti announce that on this successful run at the Arlington Bratwursthaus particular program traditional jazz was up two years ago, was re-created for the picnic. for discussion. And you would have tapped Bixian jewels were dispensed by our good your frostbitten extremities to the strains of Australian friend, Tony Newstead, who, alas, Turk Murphy's "Alligator Hop." is going back down under early in March. It Maria rattled on about the rebirth of inter was good to hear them again! est in Dixieland ja zz, and you might have Bastien's group knocked everyone out! dozed a bit (those Siberian nights are a real Strictly a New Orleans style outfit, they con soporific) until she said: jured up visions of the Crescent City yea de "In Washington, Dixieland fans can hear cades ago. Shut your eyes and Kid Bastien is their favorite music in a club called Blues Kid Thomas - it's that close. George Lewis Alley. In the Washington suburbs, Dixieland still lives through Brian Williams' clarinet. bands have begun to appear in various res Pete Savory's trombone sounds like Jim Rob taurants, where their music is greeted with inson and Louis Nelson. The rhythm section great delight." is straight out of Preservation Hall. Drummer If that didn't bring you to your feet, rattling Denis Elder kept injecting sex into things with the bars of your cell and screaming hoarsely, an off-beat New Orleans "bump." "FISHEL LIVES!" surely this would have been The Cam elia band was discovered by PRJC your response had you heard M aria go on to members who attended last year's New Orleans say: Jazz and Heritage Festival.