[Dixielandjazz] Re: Max Collie in Indianapolis

[Eli Newberger]

Dear list:

Pardon whatever bias that may bleed from this message, because the Black
Eagles smelled a rat wouldn't go on before cash was in hand every day of
that benighted "world championship."  So this writer and his colleagues got
paid.  And the group placed third in the rigged competition.

But I'll never forget two moments, one musical, of the final "playoff" in
the big auditorium of the Masonic Temple at 10 AM on the Sunday morning of
the weekend.  They leave kind thoughts, even for Sam Johnson, the
perpetrator of the fiasco.

Max and the "Rhythm Aces" began their short set with "Ostrich Walk," taken
slowly, at a tempo more typical of "Girl of My Dreams."  The "dadadadada
dadadadadada" intro, played in almost straight time by Max, Phil Mason, and
whomever he had on clarinet, with Trefor Williams (bass), Jim McIntosh
(banjo), and Ron McKay (drums) starting their subtle shuffle, grabbed the
audience by its throat.  It was tense and relaxed, simple and rich.  Every
note and every overlay projected clearly.  And it swung like mad.

They even used some crazy stagecraft that challenged the usual American
Dixieland lineup.  Rather than presenting the group, as we all do, as a
tight hedge of rhododendrons, they planted themselves 10 feet apart, in a
big rectangle that must have taken up three quarters of the stage.  A
brilliantly territorial assertion, all balls, pure Max.

The other was a classic Alan Frederickson line.  Alone, he approached the
mike in the center of the stage, when the Queen City was announced.  And
uttered a single sentence that summed up the absurdity of the early Sunday
competition:  "It's going to be just me, because the rest of the band hasn't
finished vomiting yet."

Eli Newberger