[Dixielandjazz] What or Who to discuss

[Don Gumpert]

Charlie,
I was playing at the Crystal Palace Annex in 1964-65 when this particular
session occurred during one of my breaks from Sammy Gardner.  Tiger's Den
owned by Charlie Wells was across the street where  the Mound City Six (led
by Sammy Gardner, the clarinetist you mentioned) held forth.  Sing Palmer
was up the street at the Opera House.  Yes, Sammy deserved lots of mention,
he came to Pensacola to join me at Rosie O'Grady's original club in 1972 and
we had some good times until his death in about1994.  Gaslight Square was a
fantastic place, too bad it went downhill as quickly as it did.

One more note about Sammy Gardner; your assessment of his playing is correct
with his showmanship, etc., so many of the younger players just stand there
and play with no obvious sense of feeling.

Were you at SIU when we did the Horns of Plenty put on in part by Dean
Wiley.  Warren Brown, clarinetist was on the faculty.  There was a picture
in the Miss Rag of George Brunis, Dan Havens and me playing.  A whole bunch
of great players participated.

Enough memories for now.

Don Gumpert

----- Original Message -----
From: "Charlie Hooks" <charliehooks@earthlink.net>
To: "DJML Dixieland Jazz" <dixielandjazz@ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 14, 2002 1:13 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] What or Who to discuss


> on 7/13/02 11:11 PM, Don Gumpert at dongumpert@cox.net wrote:
>
> > You mean, like the night we had a session after hours at a club I was
> > playing in during the Gaslight Square era?  Several musician friends
stopped
> > by - Charlie Venura, Gene Krupa, Barrett Deems, Ray Brown (bass), Frank
&
> > Freddie Assunto, etc.
>
>     Which club was this, Don?  Near Olive and Boyle?  I was in the English
> Department at Southern Illinois University, the Alton campus just across
the
> river, while the Edwardsville campus was being built from 1958 through
1961,
> when I returned to Michigan.  The Crystal Palace was going in those years
> with Fran and Jay Landesman writing things and producing things (before
they
> fled to Spain to beat a tax rap).  I first saw (beg ital) The Nervous Set
> there, with Fran Landesman's words to Tommy Wolf's "Spring Can Really Hang
> You Up The Most" before it opened in New York.  Everyone knew early on
that
> "Spring....Most" would be a standard.
>
>     Across the street was a band led by the great black Sousaphone player,
> Singleton Palmer, playing his ass off.  Then back across the street again
> was a clarinet virtuoso whose name I really can't recall, but whose
> "favorite hobby..drinkin'..." I can recall clearly.  Help me out here...a
> good player, good showman, quite admirable.  A couple of buildings south
of
> the Crystal Palace...  Somebody out there knows this guy, and he deserves
> mentioning.
>
>     Those were good years, good fun.  [I wasn't playing professionally
just
> then, having stopped awhile to attend to academic business.  I returned to
> Ann Arbor the year before Dan Havens, my close friend back at Michigan,
> arrived in Edwardsville.  Now there is a bunch of memories--just ask him!
> We founded the Boll Weevil Jass Band (featuring Street Parades, Funerals,
> Parties, and Dances) back in Ann Arbor about 1954, with Havens/Hooks/
> Montgomery/Teachout/ Shannahan/ a white drummer from the Ed School and a
> black banjo player from the business college, neither of whom could play.]
>
>     But those years of the Gaslight Square, Olive and Boyle, Era:
arguably
> the very last of the great OKOM music in that most OKOM of cities: St.
> Louis.  Boy! I'm proud to have been there!  I was lucky, that's all.
>
> Charlie
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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