Frisco Cricket Published By The San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation Spring 2014 A Heyday of Jazz In San Francisco © William Carter 2014 “Hey, Oxtot! You guys want to keep working to be linked to the mafia, eyed the transaction ap- here or not?” The jazz joint fell into a hush. Emilio's provingly. After closing, the cop on the beat (Robert phlegm-filled anger settled down with the smoke over Mitchum) sometimes came in for a friendly free drink the startled patrons and while the bartender (Jimmy wobbly tables. Stewart) topped up half If this was film noir, empty whiskey bottles with Emilio was Sydney Green- a little extra water. street. Perched In his wheel- Everything was normal chair near the cash register, in San Francisco. with that eternal blanket No one knew who over his legs (he was widely had named the place Burp thought to keep a gun under Hollow, but it fit. A seamy the blanket) he glared at hole-in-the-wall on Broad- us as cornetist Dick Oxtot way -- the booming enter- (Peter Lorrie) led us quickly tainment strip of North back onto the bandstand. Beach — this joint was near At the piano Bill Erickson the bottom of the long list (Humphey Bogart) flashed of jazz rooms flourishing me a covert sidelong smile as in San Francisco around Oxtot stomped off Rosetta. 1960. A few doors down A drunken sailor was the modernist club, Jazz staggered in from the side- Limited. Across the street walk through the dangling was Barbara Dane’s folk beads that served as a door, music haven, Sugar Hill. then plopped onto a bar Some blocks down, at 99 stool beside a sexy blonde Broadway, Turk Murphy’s who was showing him a lot first Earthquake McGoons of leg through a slit up the opened in 1961 at the site of side of her tight skirt. The the former Sail ’N (where sailor bought them both a Vocalist Jimmy Rushing at Sugar Hill, San Francisco, circa I had played a couple of 1960 drink, and paid, before real- Photograph © William Carter years earlier, after hav- izing she was a manikin. ing been on the road with Emilio, generally believed Turk in 1955). Nearby, on Contents PA Heyday of Jazz In San Francisco by William Carter 1 Remembering Bill Erickson, “Willie The Master” by Dave Radlauer 3 Donations - 2013 9 Membership Application and Product List 11 Click here-Permanent Clearance Sale on all CDs and Books 1 The Frisco Cricket Spring 2014 Embarcadero, were Kid Ory’s On the Levee (formerly the Tin Angel) and Pier 23. Farther away were the Club Hangover (trad jazz) and The Blackhawk (mod- ern) and after-hours Fillmore joints (modern). Can’t remember if the banjo-featuring Red Garter was still there, and think this was before most of the strip joints had sprung up. If the scene sounds extraordinary now, it seemed as normal then as that same policeman who I also saw after hours at Sugar Hill. I think the Burp Hollow gig was Fridays. I worked it regularly for a string of months. Walt Yost was on tuba, Oxtot doubled on banjo and cornet, Erickson doubled on piano and trumpet. One or two others came and went— most of us living, like me, in Berkeley. Erickson didn’t drive, so I often drove him across the bridge to the gig. I kept mostly on the pe- riphery of these jazz circles, concentrating on becom- ing a photographer. But I did hang out a lot at Sugar Hill, where I took the photos on these pages of Jimmy Rushing. I’m so glad Dave Radlauer has dug up the memories of Bill Erickson that form the backbone Brownie McGee at Sugar Hill, San Francisco, circa 1960 of this issue. Bill was a fine musician and one of the Photograph © William Carter tenderest, soft-spoken, humorous, understated people I’ve ever known. Advertise in the Cricket! The Frisco Cricket Issue No. 63 In an effort to help defray the costs of main- Published by the taining all the varied programs that SFTJF supports, SAN FRANCISCO TRADITIONAL including The Frisco Cricket itself, we’re going to JAZZ FOUNDATION begin providing limited advertising space here. We 3130 Alpine Road, #288 PMB 187 want to be fair to everyone, so there are a few rules Portola Valley, CA 94028 we’d like to follow: Phone: (415) 522-7417, FAX: (415) 922-6934 • The advertiser should be in a music related Website: www.sftradjazz.org (preferably Traditional Jazz related) business (band, E-mail: [email protected] club, cruise, radio station, etc.). Publisher: William Carter • No more than a total of 2 full pages will be Editor, Layout, Webmaster: Scott Anthony used in any single issue of the Cricket, so ads will Curator of the Archive : Clint Baker be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. 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Known locally as involved. After the Willie the Master, the initial impact, the soft-spoken popular wakes and benefit musician, who had concert, memory of been running combos Erickson faded. His and jam sessions for buddy Dave Greer about a decade, was took possession of suddenly gone. Bill’s trumpet and The trauma stored away the was worst among couple dozen reels of his closest musi- tape. It was decades cian friends in before cassette cop- the East Bay: Bob ies of the Monkey Mielke (trombone, Inn tapes circulated leader), P.T. Stan- among collectors. Recall of Erickson ton (trumpet), Dick Erickson at the piano, Monkey Inn, c. 1962. Oxtot (banjo, cornet, Photo by William Carter, courtesy Earl Scheelar. and his music almost leader), Bill Napier completely disap- (clarinet), Earl Schee- peared. lar (cornet, clarinet, banjo, leader) and Barbara Dane But Bill Erickson’s catalytic role in Bay Area (singer, guitar, leader). Having recently interviewed music can now be reconstructed with tapes from the some of them, it’s clear that his passing still hurts, and personal libraries of Dave Greer and Bob Mielke. For it’s understandable. the first time an extensive Bill Erickson web page Erickson had been deeply involved in the East containing music, photos and memories brings his Bay jazz revival dating back to the late 1940s. In the dynamic musical life into clear focus. late 1950s he co-hosted freewheeling jams and jazz parties at the “Jazz House” in Berkeley with his close Jolly Times at the Berkeley Jazz friend, Dave Greer, who often had his tape recorder House rolling. For years he led fine jam sessions atPier 23 in About 1956 Dave Greer sublet a room from Er- San Francisco, and combos in the East Bay at Monkey ickson, who was informally managing an old Victorian Inn. He was participant at the musical parties in the in Berkeley. A lifelong journalist and revival-jazz en- 3 The Frisco Cricket Spring 2014 thusiast, Dave Greer’s tapes and memories are key to unlock- They were really amazing events. Many ing Erickson’s long forgotten story: Bay Area musicians and most of the East Bay jazz crowd were there: Bob Mielke, “I took to calling the place the Jazz House, this was the Erickson, P.T. Stanton, Pete Allen. Oxtot party place. It was big and it had a big back yard. There was lived a block over on Dwight, and Frank another Victorian very much like it across Blake Street, and Goudie was there a good deal. They were we used to have wonderful big parties that would involve the regulars.” both these houses. Sometimes we would have a band playing in the front room, in the big kitchen, and in the back yard. Greer’s tape recordings from the Jazz Then we’d spread across the street. They’d begin about 2:00 House transmit the effervescence of the music, in the afternoon, and get rolling; they’d roll right through personnel and spirits: “See See Rider,” (prob- midnight into the morning hours.” ably Walter Yost, Goudie and Napier, Mielke, Erickson, Pete Allen).