[Dixielandjazz] Bob Crosby Library - Discovered

[Edmetzsr at aol.com]

Dear Listmates,
       For those of you who have expressed interest in the Bob Crosby 
Orchestra and the Bob Cats during the past half dozen years, and for those of you 
jazz historians in our group, I have some exciting and almost remarkable news. 
Further, I've chosen today, June 1, 2003 to share the news with you. June 1, 
1935, 68 years to the day, was the date that the first four sides ever recorded 
for Decca under Bob Crosby's name were completed. 
       During the past two weeks, I have taken delivery of a big band 
library, reviewed it in a fair amount of detail the nearly 5000 pages contained 
therein, sorted it all and then filed it all for easy access in the weeks and 
months ahead. I am pleased to report to all interested jazz loving parties that the 
"original" (1935 to 1942) Crosby library, in large measure, has been 
recovered and will be preserved. Included in the collection is the original 
arrangement of "Beale Street Blues" recorded on this day in 1935.
       About a month ago, I received a phone call telling me that someone in 
Florida was contacting big band leaders, claiming to have the Crosby library. 
I immediately assumed that if this was true, it was the library that Bob 
Crosby had at the time of his death in 1993. That was the collection I've been 
looking for at least 8 years to no avail. 
       Never did I even consider that it could be the "original" 1930s and 
40s library. After all, Crosby himself told me that the original was destroyed 
after Eddie Miller took it to New Orleans for safekeeping in 1943. His story 
was that Miller, who received a medical discharge went back to New Orleans, took 
the music with him, placed it carefully in the garage of a friend, which 
garage developed a leaky roof, which in turn led to the disintegration of the 
paper, etc., etc., etc. I've told this story hundreds of times from the bandstand 
as I explained that we've had to rewrite all of our charts in order to present 
the Crosby music in any form.
       Well, it turns out that Mr. Crosby didn't have all the facts quite 
right. Eddie Miller took over the leadership of the Bob Crosby Orchestra in 1943, 
after being elected to do so by the band members, and with Mr. Crosby's 
concurrence. This didn't last for too long because wartime conditions made it 
virtually impossible for the band to travel to engagements, and also because more 
and more available musicians were being drafted, making it difficult to field a 
band, even in the Los Angeles area. So Eddie gave up and resorted to becoming 
a studio musician in Hollywood, where he stayed until the late 50s. 
       Sometime near the end of the 50s, Eddie got a call from Pete Fountain 
to come back to New Orleans to join Pete's band. He did so and stayed on until 
the late 60s. Somewhere along the way, he returned to California where he 
passed away in the 1980s.
       The best that I can tell, Eddie took the big band library that he had 
for his leader's stint in the LA area with him to New Orleans. I have no 
information as to whether he ever led a big band after the 1950s. When he left New 
Orleans to return to California, he left the library behind, except for the 
Tenor sax parts, which I am sad to report are missing. My guess is that he 
pulled the Tenor book for some reason, and carried it with him.
       How did I get the library, you ask? I contacted the fellow in Florida 
to let him know that I was interested. After a short "getting to know you 
dance" period, and after I received information from him as to the contents of the 
collection, we negotiated a "deal". Basically what I learned, was that this 
collection contained lots of things that the 1993 library did not contain. I 
knew that because I played from the Crosby book many time during the 1980s. 
What's in the collection that I now have in my possession are the following:
       About 50 tunes recorded by the Crosby band prior to WWII.
       About 80 tunes never recorded by Bob Crosby, but which are tunes that 
I know. 
                It's likely that many of these tunes were carried by the band 
as dance            tunes, standards, some of which were written during the 
war after the             band broke up, during which time Eddie Miller was 
looking for more            work.
       About 30 or so tunes for which I have no reference source, likely pop 
tunes of             the day that didn't make it, or perhaps movie tunes that 
didn't make it.  
       Quite a few of the arrangements are missing parts in addition to the 
tenor sax parts, e.g., second trumpet, third trombone, guitar or drums. They 
can be fixed by recreating the parts. Some of the titles are missing an 
extensive number of parts and are simply not fixable. Obviously, those tunes for which 
I have the Crosby recordings (which is all of them, thanks to the Halcyon CD 
series) will be fixed eventually.
       At any rate, I share this long winded tome with you because I'm very 
excited as I'm certain many of you will be. To us, this is like finding Venus 
de Milo (even without arms, she's been a source of joy, a thing of beauty and a 
treasure). However, I have a favor to ask. If anyone on the DJML, or any of 
your friends can lead me to the family of Eddie Miller, I'd appreciate it very 
much. What I'd like to ascertain, is whether Eddie's possessions at the time 
of his death included the missing tenor parts. If so, and I can at least copy 
them, it would save hundreds or thousands of hours required to reconstruct 
them. After that work is complete, it is my intention to turn this material over 
to one of the major jazz archives such as the ones at the Rutgers Institute of 
Jazz Studies in New Jersey or the Tulane archives in New Orleans.
       Further, if anyone can provide additional information regarding other 
Crosby arrangements (after all, there were well over 300 tunes recorded by the 
band) that might have been owned by other recording companies, other 
vocalists, other   musicians, etc., I'd sure like to hear from you. In particular, I'm 
certain that Decca had an arrangement library, as they underwrote much of the 
band's expenses. I know this was true of Capital and Columbia records.
       Oh, you ask how the music was recovered??? Here's the rest of the 
story.....
A few months ago, a house painter in New Orleans discovered two beat up cases 
in the attic of a house on which he was working in New Orleans. Upon 
inspection, he discovered that the cases contained moldy smelling music. After 
inquiring and finding that no one wanted this "junk", he contacted an old friend of 
his father who lived in south Florida and collected music. After it was 
shipped, the gentleman in Florida did what he could to air it out to get rid of the 
smell, including hanging individual parts of it out on the back yard wash line, 
and getting rid of the cases, replacing them with  cardboard boxes. That's 
precisely how the music arrived here in New Jersey two weeks ago!!!
       For those festival fans out there, the Bob Cats will be in Davenport 
for the Bix In July, in Orange County California for John Dieball's Classic in 
August and at the Fresno Mardi Gras in February, 2004. Some of the Cats will 
be appearing in Morristown, NJ at the Bickford Theater on Monday 8/18. Then in 
April 2004, we'll have the Bob Crosby Orchestra on the American Queen for a 
five day cruise between Memphis on the Mississippi River and Henderson, up the 
Ohio River. Anyone in any of those audiences will hear the debut, or rather, 
the first authentic recreation of this Crosby music in 60 years. Just a quick 
plug for those who don't know us, we've already included about 200 "Crosby 
tunes" in our Bob Cat Library. That's about enough material for all the festivals I 
just mentioned above, without a repeat -- except for "Big Noise From 
Winnetka" and "South Rampart Street Parade", which if they left us cave in, we'd have 
to do every set.

       Thanks for you interest.  Best Regards from all the guys in the 
band!!!

       Ed Metz for the Bob Cats
       Edmetzsr at aol.com