[Dixielandjazz] Alvin Alcorn

[John Farrell]

Burt Wilson's enviable remembrance of :

"The sit-in I best remember was with the great Kid Ory"

reminded me of my National Service days (a compulsory two-year stint in the
British military) way back in the 1950s. It was during those otherwise
hateful two
years that a fellow National Serviceman infected me with the OKOM virus (an
occurrence for which I shall always be grateful) - I still remember his
name, Phil Tietjen.

One of the first records Phil played to me was a Kid Ory band with Alvin
Alcorn on trumpet (or was it cornet?). I grew to love the sound of this band
so much that I used to borrow a record player and play the LP at full blast
out of my barrack room window in the hope of converting my rock-and-roll
compatriots to the truth.

Although I had my suspicions extensive enquiries never revealed who was
responsible for smashing the record player into a thousand pieces. Its owner
never forgave me (my weekly army pay was only one and a quarter pounds so
replacing it was unthinkable).

Does anyone know Alvin's story? What happened to the man who stirred my soul
all those years ago?

John Farrell
stridepiano@tesco.net
http://homepages.tesco.net/~stridepiano/midifiles.htm