[Dixielandjazz] Musings on Rich Matteson

[JimDBB@aol.com]

I've been asked to share  some stories and experiences with the irrepressible 
Rich Matteson, who passed on a few years back.

Rich Matteson joined the Bob Scobey band shortly after Brian Shanley and I 
did in 1958.  Scobey found that he was very popular in the Midwest and he 
moved his operation to Chicago.  He would work a month or two at the Blue 
Note or the Preview in Chicago and then would do kind of a circuit around the 
midwest...Milwaukee, Minneapolis and a host of smaller cities and towns.  
Occasional forays were made to New York and the West Coast.

Bob Scobey had a formidible entertaing Dixieland Jazz group that included two 
powerful vocalists in Clancy Hayes and Toni Lee Scott.  This combination gave 
Scobey a wider reach into the general market.  Clancy and Scobey's classics, 
"Ace in the Hole" and "Silver Dollar" were on juke boxes around the country.  
Bob also had one of the great drummers in the country, Dave Black.  Dave had 
just come off of the Ellington Band where he had followed Louis Bellson.  
Dave had perfect time and fit in with any musical requirement and was a 
standout soloist.  The band was doing a very traditional repertoire, much of 
which have been rediscovered with the Lu Watters, Turk Murphy, Bob Scobey 
movement via the Yerba Buena band.  Jelly Roll tunes, early Armstrong 
things...Scobey knew them all.  

But Scobey did the traditional repertoire a bit different...a traditional 
front line with a more mainstream, looser rhythm section.  And it worked.  
Scobey was very strict regarding rhythm, the section had to be absolutely 
together with the time. If one guy rused or dragged, he was gone.  It paid 
off, if you notice, all of Scobey's recordings have a wonderul swing.  

Into this group comes Rich Matteson.  Rich had been teaching school music for 
several years and he was itching to play.  He was aggressive as hell which 
irritated the rest of the band but that sorted out as Rich was basically a 
warm, friendly guy. Rich announced right off that he intended to make a name 
for himself and that to make it you had to have a nickname.  He stated that 
his was the "Professor" and the sooner everyone started calling him that, the 
better. * note...no one ever called him that. He had a fancy autograph and he 
would hustle jazz fans to vote for him in the Down Beat jazz Poll because it 
would 'help' the band. Cy Touff was the reigning bass trumpeter in Chicago 
and was well known as a Woody Herman solist.  Rich also played the bass 
trumpet and was spoiling to take him on in a session.  I can't remember if 
they actually did meet up and play together.

Rich played an old helicon tuba, a dinosaur that wrapped around the neck and 
the bell came out the front.  I think that they were used on horseback in 
militiary bands.
Rich played it standing up and he played modern 4 beat lines.  He swung his 
butt off on that thing and would ripoff bebop-flavored solos.  Rich was a 
modernist but he fit in right away with the scene.  We had a succession of 
pianists, Floyd Bean, Art Hodes, George Zack, who were wonderful 
traditionalists and then Ronnie di Phillips settled in.  So we had Clancy 
Hayes, Dave Black, Rich Matteson and one of the above mentioned pianists.  
Clancy played banjo but he had it tuned like a guitar and rather then playing 
the usual plink, plink, plink he played wonderful syncopation and lightly 
danced around the banjo with that and little runs and things.  that and Rich 
playing modern bass lines on the Helicon...it worked and the band swung like 
crazy.

Rich Matteson quickly became a crowd pleaser, he would rip off a solo on a 
classic like "the Chant" and knock everybody out.  He also played the hell 
out of the bass trumpet and would solo on that or often we would trade fours. 
 He was qute an arranger and started doing charts for the band.  He would 
come in with a chart and it would have every cliche lick in it that ever came 
down the pike.  We would run through it and Scobey would deftly whittle it 
down until it was a decent chart.  But Rich got that stuff out of his system 
and his arangements got better and better.  He did an elaborate chart on 
"Slaughter on 10th Avenue"...for a 7 piece band, mind you.  but he built it 
around a Dave Black drum solo and it worked.  We recorded it for RCA but it 
was never released.

An interesting exchange took place with the pianist George Zack.  Zack was a 
towering legendary figure in Jazz.  6'5" with massive hands, George Zack 
could swing a band like no other pianist I've ever played with...when he was 
on, which wasn't often enough.  He had a formidible booze problem.  He was on 
the wagon and  Scobey hired him but was on edge knowing that Zack would 
probably go off of it anyday and when that happened he couldn't play a 
passable happy birthday. One day we were rehearsing some of Toni Lee Scott's 
stuff.  She had some elborate arrangements with 9 page piano parts.  George 
Zack was not up for this and was having trouble.  Rich Matteson put his 
Helicon down and said, "Oh, George, I'll help you out, I'll come and play the 
piano behind Toni."  Need I say that george was pissed.. He stood up, 
dwarfing the piano and bellowed out, " Oh Rich, I'm coming over there and I'm 
going to help you shove that tuba right up you ... Rich took his leave and 
went to help the bar out.

Rich Matteson was with Scobey about 1 & 1/2 years.  Frank Assunto, the leader 
of the original Dukes of Dixieland, offered more money to Rich than Scobey 
could pay or was willing to pay.  Scobey and the Dukes were friendly 
competitors, we worked the same circuit. Rich wanted to stay with Scobey but 
money and a change of scenery enticed him away.  We had a lot of fun 
speculating on the Dukes scene.  Papa Jac Assunto was still with the Dukes 
and he was a cranky old S.. The thought of Papa Jac when pushy Rich arrives 
on the scene brought us a lot of laughs.  One day we had a rehearsal.  Dave 
black had a very deadpan wry sense of humor.  Dave came walking into the 
club, very somber and carrying a newspaper under his arm. Dave says, "did you 
hear about Papa Jac?"  "No, What?"  Dave, " He tried to commit suicide."  The 
only guy who fell for this bit was Scobey who grabbed for the paper saying, " 
No...let me see that." 

Rich went on to considerable accclaim in the jazz-education field and I think 
he was on staff at several college-universities. He had a tuba consortium 
that gained lot of attention. He was a fascinating and unique musician.  I 
only saw him once after the Scobey days and we had a brief exchange and 
reminiscence.  We were on two RCA albums with Scobey, "Something's Always 
Happening on the River" and "Rompin' and Stompin' ". They were done in 1958 & 
59.  They hold up very well and Rich Matteson is outstanding on them. 


Jim Beebe