[Dixielandjazz] Sons Of Bix

[Charlie Hooks]

on 6/24/03 5:28 PM, Robert S. Ringwald at ringwald at calweb.com wrote:

They had that wonderful Bixish cornetist Tom Pletcher &, was it Russ whitman
on bass sax?

BTW- How is Tom after his accident?

   Yes, indeed.  Tell us of Tom.

   I only worked with Tom Pletcher once over a quarter century ago when he
showed up in Chicago at Flaming Sallie's in the Blackstone Hotel where I was
playing 5 nights with Jim Beebe and Barrett Deems, but it was an experience
I'll never forget.  I heard him play, which was an experience I recall with
clarity and admiration these long years ago.  Then I sat a table with him
while we listened to Beebe's current trumpet player, one who shall remain
nameless because I loved him like a brother, yet never admired his playing.

   "What do you think of ----- ------?" Tom asked me.

   I put two index fingers in the air and described a square.   "Do you
realize," 
Tom mused across the table, "how many people don't hear that?"  And the
truth was, I didn't realize that.  I'd thought I was just being picky.

   Pletcher was the real thing.  IS the real thing!

feeling old,
Charlie