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BERT BARR’S “UPTOWN LOWDOWN JB” BOOKED for JANUARY 19th
TO CONTINUE TRADITION OF OPENING NEW YEAR’S SERIES WITH THE BAND WHOSE ORIGIN DATES BACK MORE THAN FOUR DECADES
January 2014 Volume 39, Number 01
By Rod Belcher
WHERE: Ballard Elks Lodge, 6411 Seaview Ave. NW, Seattle.WHEN: 1 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., Sunday, January 19th.ADMISSION: $12 PSTJS members; $15 non-members. Pay only at door.FURTHER INFO: Carol Rippey, 425-776-5072. Or - website: www.pstjs.org. Plenty of free parking; great view & dance floor, snacks, coffee, and other beverages available.
NOTES FROM the PREZ!
I recall quite clearly the first time I met Bert Barr and heard the
small jazz group he led. The place was a pizza joint in West Seattle, and the band had no name. It was 1972, and I was lured to give a listen by a friend who, like me, was hungry to find a new sound, but performed by devotees of classic jazz. Two of his sidemen were old friends: trombonist Mike Hobi and legendary pianist, the late Johnny Wittwer. They, like Bert, were strong players. They were joined by clarinetist Dick Martin and Howard Gilbert, a Seattle Symphony percussionist, on drums.
That was the beginning of “Uptown Lowdown,” a name that was invented by Bert a couple of years later, to fit his mind’s tangency to early day jazz. A tune from early Great Depression days with a strong dance connection was “Doin’ the Uptown Lowdown.”
Bert was a hard-working leader, securing more and more bookings for his band, and increasing its “book” of a wide variety of jazz, blues, pop novelties, swing, ragtime and more. The tunes had skeleton arrangements by Bert and by members of his band, which had grown to seven or eight-piece units for some festival jobs. Many recording
dates followed, and its popularity grew geometrically. These days he also has a small unit – “ULJB Lite” – while his Jan.19 date with the PSTJS is his sextet version.It has Bert on cornet, Paul Woltz on reeds, Andy Hall on trombone, Bert’s wife RoseMarie on piano, Paul Hagglund on tuba and Al LaTourette on banjo.
Hear them, and thus hear an important entity in Pacific Northwest jazz history.
HAPPY NEW YEAR – Welcome to 2014. I hope every one of
you had a very Happy Holiday Season and are ready to make this new year the best one yet. Let’s begin the year with a big Thank You to Ruth Johnson and Judy Shook, the Directors of the Seaside Festival, for donating TWO (2) all event badges for their festival February 21-23. We’ll be auctioning off the tickets during this month’s Jazz Sunday. Bring your checkbooks and let’s have some rousing bidding going on, with the proceeds going to our Youth Scholarship Fund.
Some of our new members might not know what the Youth Scholarship Fund does. We sell raffle tickets each month with half the proceeds going to this fund. The raffle winner gets the other half. Each year we send several students to Jazz Camp Heebie Jeebies and
we pay their tuition and board for the week-long experience with the Scholarship funds. You may have noticed that some of the musicians in the bands that play for us are getting older each time we see them. The Jazz Camp is a wonderful training opportunity for young musicians to really be immersed in all things Traditional Jazz. They’ll be the new additions to the existing (aging) bands we have enjoyed for so many years. The other half of the winnings of the raffle ticket drawing are more often than not given back to the Fund as a charitable gift for those students who will be entertaining us in the future. More about Camp in future issues.
That’s it for me. See you on January 19th for Uptown Lowdown. Cheers, Judy
Jazz Soundings
BELLINGHAM TRADITIONAL JAZZ SOCIETY 1st Saturday 2 - 5 pm VFW Hall 625 N. State StJan. 4 Halleck Street RamblersFeb. 1 Phoenix Jazzers
FIRST THURSDAY BAND1st Thursday, 7-10 pm, New Orleans Restaurant, 114 1st Ave S., Seattle, WA CALL TO SEE IF BAND IS PLAYING! 206-622-2563
GLENN CRYTZER AND HIS SYNCOPATORS1st Sunday and 3rd Wednesday of the Month 9:30 pm -12:30 am Century Ballroom 915 East Pine Seattle, WA, 206-324-7263
NEW ORLEANS QUINTET Mondays, 6:30 - 9:30 pm, New Orleans Restaurant, 114 1st Ave S., Seattle, WA CALL TO SEE IF BAND IS PLAYING! 206-622-2563
GREATER OLYMPIA DIXIELAND JAZZ SOCIETY 2nd Sunday 1:00 – 4:30 PM Elks Club 1818 4th Ave, Olympia, WA
PEARL DJANGOJan 2-5 7:30 pm Jazz Alley 2033 6th Ave., Seattle, WA 206-441-8729 Jan 24&26 Bremerton, WA see: www.pearldjango.com/files/calendar.htm for more information
UPTOWN LOWDOWN JAZZ BANDJan 19 1-4:30 pm Puget Sound Traditional Jazz Society, See article on page 1
Page 2
Puget Sound Traditional Jazz Society
19031 Ocean AvenueEdmonds, WA 98020-2344425-776-5072 www.pstjs.org
UPCOMING EVENTSElks Lodge, Ballard, 6411 Seaview Ave N.W., Seattle
Jan 19 Uptown LowdownFeb 16 Ain’t No Heaven SevenMar 16 Crescent City ShakersApril 27 Sidewalk StompersMay 18 holotradbandJune 15 New Orleans Quintet
PRESIDENT Judy Levy [email protected] 425-890-6605VICE PRESIDENT Jack Temp 425-242-0683SECRETARY Cilla Trush [email protected] 206-363-9174TREASURER Gloria Kristovich [email protected] 425-776-7816
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Joanne Hargrave [email protected] 206-550-4664Leroy Johnson [email protected] 206-772-4378Jan Lemmon [email protected] 425-776-9763Edmund Lewin 360-297-6633Gary Lydum [email protected] 206-719-3955 George Oelrich [email protected] 360-793-0836 Carol Rippey [email protected] 425-776-5072George Swinford 425-869-2780
MEMBERSHIP COORDINATOR Carol Rippey [email protected] 425-776-5072
EDITORAnita LaFranchi [email protected] 206-522-7691 WEBMASTERGeorge Peterson [email protected] 425-453-5218
Gigs for Local Bands
On Your Dial........Saturday7 - 12 pm Swing Years and Beyond KUOW 94.9 FMSunday3 -6 pm Art of Jazz, Ken Wiley, KPLU 88.5 FM
JAZZ SOUNDINGSPublished monthly except July and August by the Puget Sound Traditional Jazz Society.Anita LaFranchi, Editor, [email protected] must be submitted in a jpeg or PDF format Payment in advance to: Gloria Kristovich, P.O. Box 373, Edmonds, WA 98020-0373
Advertising Rates:Full page $100. 7 1/2” wide by 9 1/2 “ tallHalf Page $60. 7 1/2” wide by 4 1/4 “ tall Quarter Page $40. 3 5/8 Wide by 4 1/4 “ tall Deadline is the 10th of the month for the next month’s issue
January 2014
Jazz Soundings January 2014 Page 3
BOB DRAGA WITH FRIENDS BLUE STREET CLIMAX JAZZ BAND CORNET CHOP SUEY JAZZ BAND DAVE BENNETT and the MEMPHIS BOYS HIGH SIERRA IVORY&GOLD® ORIGINAL WILDCAT JASS BAND TITAN HOT SEVEN TOM RIGNEY & FLAMBEAU UPTOWN LOWDOWN WE THREE BOB DRAGA, Guest Artist
Presented by Lighthouse Jazz Society
February 20 thru 24, 2014 SEASIDE, OREGON
NEW!!!
Thursday Night Special Event with WE THREE!
More information at www.jazzseaside.com or 1-866-345-6257; M-F; 9 – 5 PM only.
A portion of this project was made possible from a Tourism Grant by the City of Seaside.
23
January 2014
When I first started to play piano I knew what I wanted to do. I had been thrilled by the imagination and swing of certain musicians and I wanted to be able to do the same. I worked hard at it and I only saw it as one thing: art. To me musicians were artists and dreamers. That was it. Of course I did not start playing piano until I was 20, so my views may have been different from other beginners. But at first it never seemed like this was work or something a person did as a job. And then along the way I realized a piano player was also a worker. He usually had a boss and likely not a musical one and the ups and downs of work that anyone can face were also the ups and downs musicians faced, whether they might be seen as artists or workers in a work force.
So I have been thinking – how are some ways that the world sees or perhaps doesn’t see what a musician is. Are musicians famous people or completely unimportant in the scheme of things? Are they invisible? Are they workers? Servants? Suspicious beings? Shady characters? Here are some stories.
I remember in the 1970’s my band Berkeley Rhythm used to play an annual Kentucky Derby party at a fancy home in San Francisco. Phil Harris sang with us and we entertained before and after the race. There were televisions in every room so no one would miss a thing. One time I took a cookie from a tray in the dining room and a maid yelled at me, “Those are for the people,” and I was on my way in the process of learning that I wasn’t one.
Another time I played at an even fancier party on Nob Hill. I remember seeing Lauren Hutton in the crowd. I was in a band that was one of several groups providing entertainment. During the evening I noticed many men in similar dark suits with red armbands. I figured they were some kind of group, maybe the San Francisco Men’s chorus.
by Ray Skjelbred
WHAT IS A JAZZ MUSICIAN?
All of a sudden they descended on me, grabbed me by the arms and were going to throw me out. It turns out that they were security guards and they thought I had crashed the party to get free food and drink. Why? They had seen me drinking a beer without pouring it into a glass first. That was a sure sign that I was crude and an outsider, even though I was wearing clothes that matched other members of the band. Eventually I talked them out of it, but they were still suspicious.
The big jazz and sometimes marching band that I played in (trombone) at 49’ers games had a rehearsal before our first performance. I recall that we had about four or five of each instrument and we marched around the field in some sort of sloppy formation. I also seem to remember that our marching stopped after the first game. As we prepared to rehearse, my trombone playing friend Tony Landphere opened his case and found he had left his horn at home, so he assembled an invisible horn and marched in formation, blowing into the air and moving his arms. Management never noticed and he got paid that day. Was his role important? Or was he invisible?
A musician’s identity in the world is sometimes a source of humor among friends. One time when my cornet playing friend Jim Goodwin and I were playing with Dick Oxtot’s Golden Age Jazz Band at Mandrake’s in Berkeley, Jim and I decided to both be me. We wore matching red and black wool shirts and Chicago Cubs caps, and he wore a false beard to match mine. Then we staged a fight at the piano, each one of us claiming to be Ray Skjelbred. It took time to prepare this but the scene only lasted a few seconds, enough to cause Oxtot to break up laughing. And that is what is important about it and maybe a clue to a musician’s identity. Something about friendship and a sense of musical community seems to be at the center of being a musician. We had fun and we
got Oxtot to laugh because, as Joseph Conrad used to say, he was “one of us.”
Here is one last musical story. And the more I think about it, the more I appreciate the “identity” of musicians as friends in a community. Whether a musician sees what he does as work or art, a community of sympathetic peers helps define the self. When I played with the Turk Murphy jazz band, we once had a job in an office building that was under construction and we were told to exit the elevator on the balcony level. I was there early, as always, and the balcony was just a little ledge. Then I saw another balcony below me – the real one. When I went to go back I found there were no buttons for the elevator on the outside. I was stuck. So I waited until the band started to show up and I called down for help. Our tuba player Bill Carroll, a wonderful and witty man looked up and started trembling with suppressed laughter. Then I was rescued and the gig went on. Bill never mentioned the incident and we went on playing, maybe two more years, until one time when I was called upon to do a solo, a showy kind of piece like Little Rock Getaway. It drew a large applause from the crowd and when it died down, Bill leaned toward me and whispered, “Yeah, but you’d rather be out on that balcony wouldn’t you?” Wow! A two year delay and perfect timing. This time I broke up laughing. It reinforced my feeling about Bill, and illustrated for me a big part of who a musician is. Maybe there are several kinds of identities, but what matters most is what happens in the trenches where art and work meet. We have all had good, appreciative audiences and we’ve all had times when we have been eyed suspiciously, we’ve all had meals that consisted of 18 meatballs on toothpicks eaten in 10 minutes and, when we are lucky, we have had a community of musical pals who guide each other through a cockeyed world.
Jazz Soundings Page 4
Dues for 12 months: Single $25 Couple $40 Lifetime single $200 Lifetime Couple $350Patron $500 (One or two lifetime membership)Please enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
The Puget Sound Traditional Jazz Society is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization dedicated to the performance and preservation of traditional jazz. Your membership and contributions are tax-deductible. Thank you.
Puget Sound Traditional Jazz Society19031 Ocean Ave., Edmonds, WA 98020-2344
Please (enroll) (renew) (me) (us) as a member or members
NameAddress City, StateZip Code E-Mail Phone Check when renewing if your address label is correct
We’re looking for new
Members,
tell or bring a friend or neighbor.
Jazz Soundings Page 5January 2014
SUBSCRIBE TODAYNews You Can Use About Traditional Jazz and Ragtime
U.S. One Year: $26 -:- Canadian $39 U.S. Funds*U.S. Two Years: $48 -:- Canadian $74 U.S. Funds*
(*) Includes Airmail DeliveryMake check payable to: The American Rag
20137 Skyline Ranch Dr., Apple Valley, CA 92308-5035Phone/Fax: 760-247-5145
Name ________________________________________________________
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Puget Sound Traditional Jazz Society
AIN’T NO HEAVEN SEVEN Leader: Terry [email protected] 206-465-6601COAL CREEK JAZZ BAND Leader: Judy Logen, 425-641-1692 Bookings: [email protected] DE LUXE Bookings: Candace Brownwww.combodeluxe.net [email protected] 253-752-6525CORNUCOPIA CONCERT BAND Leader: Allan Rustadwww.comband.org 425-744-4575DUKES OF DABOB Bookings: Mark Holman, 360-779-6357, [email protected]. DUWAMISH JAZZ BAND Bookings: Carol [email protected] 206-932-7632EVERGREEN CLASSIC JAZZ BAND Leader: Tom Jacobusemail: [email protected] ph: 253-852-6596 or cell 253-709-3013FIRST THURSDAY BAND Leader: Ray Skjelbred,[email protected] 206-420-8535FOGGY BOTTOM JAZZ BAND Leader: Bruce Cosacchi360-638-2074GRAND DOMINION JAZZ BAND Bookings: Bob [email protected] 360-387-2500 holotradband Leader: Dave Holo email: [email protected] HOT CLUB SANDWICH Contact: James Schneiderwww.hotclubsandwich.com 206-561-1137
HUME STREET PRESERVATION JAZZ BANDBookings: Karla West 406-862-3814JAZZ UNLIMITED BAND Leader: Duane [email protected] 866-337-2111JAZZ STRINGS Bookings: Candace [email protected] 253-752-6525LOUISIANA JOYMAKERS! Leader: Leigh [email protected] 604-294-9464THE MARKET STREET DIXIELAND JASS BANDAnsgar Duemchen: 425-286-5703 Tim Sherman 206-547-1772www.marketstreetdixielandjass.com MIGHTY APHRODITE Co-leaders: Bria Skonberg, Claire McKenna [email protected] 405-613-0568NEW ORLEANS QUINTET Jake Powel 206- 725-3514 [email protected] JAZZ BAND Manager: Randy [email protected] 206-437-1568RAY [email protected] 206-420-8535RONNIE PIERCE JAZZ [email protected], 206-467-9365UPTOWN LOWDOWN JAZZ BAND Leader: Bert [email protected] 425-898-4288WILD CARDS JAZZ Leader: Randy [email protected] 206-437-1568
BANDS, CONTACTS
Non-profit OrgU..S. Postage
PaidSeattle, WAPermit 1375
You and your friends are cordially invited to hear sizzling-hot jazz
as a guest of Elks Club Jazz Society member Colin Dearing.
Admission is payable at the door.
Puget SoundTraditional Jazz Society19031 Ocean Ave.Edmonds, WA 98020-2344
Address service requested
X on your Jazz Soundings address label means your dues are payable.
XX means Good-bye
This invitation is MANDATORYfor the Puget Sound Traditional Jazz
Society event this month.
You and your friends are cordially invited to hear sizzling-hot jazz
as a guest of Elks Club Jazz Society member Colin Dearing.
Admission is payable at the door.
