[Dixielandjazz] My bio.

[Rev M J (Mike) Logsdon]

Recently turned 38 (I'm a D-Day Baby), I was born and raised in Salinas,
California, the Salad Bowl of Central California, and the place where
much of DJML's lettuce, broccoli, and artichokes (that most gawdawful of
cultivated thistles) comes from.  At an early age, I asked my mother if
we could buy a piano, and was told there was no room for one.  By the
time I was willing and able to become a musician, the necessary time and
energy were elsewhere occupied, and the rest is armchair history.

My education, at what is now California Baptist University, Riverside,
California, was in English literature, history, and philosophy.  So what
am I now? -- A gov't grunt, and a Catholic priest!  (Well, a Deacon,
actually, which is little more than pre-Vatican II for "waiting for
Priesthood".)

Though always enamored by jazz in its more big-band-ish iterations, I'd
always kept dixieland at arms' length, and why, I cannot tell.  I just
know that in 1993, I saw one of the first ads for the 4-CD Complete Good
Time Jazz Lu Watters set, and thought to myself, "Self, yon set
beckons."  But, not knowing what it actually was, I didn't purchase. 
Then, later in the year, in the heat of an El Centro, California,
September and the back room of a filthy antique shop -- you know, where
the red label Columbia and black label Mercury 78s generally get tossed
-- I saw a white label Jazz Man 78 sporting the name Lu Watters' Yerba
Buena Jazz Band and the tune names "Come Back Sweet Papa" and "Tiger
Rag" (the tamest "Tiger Rag" the world has ever heard, I think!).  Days
later and back in Salinas, I dropped my circa 1954 Voice of Music
aluminum tone arm into the lead-in groove of "Come Back Sweet Papa," and
a trad-jasser was born.

Ten years and many gobs of dollar$ later, here I sit, one of the "1st
Six Months Charter DJML Members," typing my short, and bland, story.

The only real contribution I've made to "the Cause" is a series of
privately produced CDs consisting primarly of live mid- to late-60s
recordings of the El Dorado Jazz Band and South Frisco Jazz Band, the
raw material of which is provided me by fellow collectors on cassette
tape.  The total number of discs in the series is up to 22, and I'm far
from reaching the half-way point in the tapes!  Anyone interested in
financing a commercial issue of the series?  As it's a "complete" series
(including partial takes, break-downs, run-offs, and tape breaks), some
sifting would be necessary, but as long as I could retain creative
control, I could certainly make the time!  (Like I don't already spend
more time than I should on it, when I should be saying my Daily Office!)

So that's me.... Next?!,.....,
-- 
Etc,

Rev M J "Mike" Logsdon, Deacon
http://www.naorc.org