[Dixielandjazz] Re; Goldenrod Revival

[Don Ingle]

Yeah -- I played it with the Sons of Bix. We were sandwiched in between the
Salty Dogs (Lew Greene version) and the Jim Cullum band. We worked out an
arrangement where by we picked a transition tune, and on the last tune the
band started, then one my one a guy from the next band would take over the
chair of the other until eventually the whole band had been switched without
stopping the tune -- and same thing at the end of the second band's last
tune.
Worked neat.
I MC'ed for the SOB's and had a note passed to me as I was introducing a
tune, and read it to the crowd announcing the death of Benny Goodman. It was
a sad moment for all.
I also remember the skinny space you had to pass through to get through to
the stage.
Chubby then, fatter today, I might have gotten stuck if it were this summer.
Hope they get the old tub going and that jazz will be back aboard.
Don Ingle
----- Original Message -----
From: "G. William Oakley" <gwilliamoakley at earthlink.net>
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 29, 2003 11:18 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Re; Goldenrod Revival


> Dear Listmates:
> The following was sent to me by Tommy Bartlett of the Salty Dogs.  For
those
> of you unaware the Goldenrod Showboat has recently been rescued from its
St.
> Charles, Missouri boneyard by a local businessman.  It is his intention to
> refurbish the boat and to that end he has created a website for public
> suggestions.  The site is:
> http://www.goldenrodshowboat.org
>
> The following post is from Tommy:
>
> I played with Salty Dogs and other jazz bands for several decades of
"hot"
> June Festivals...which also featured  other top bands in the world!
>
> It was far more than a floating stage...it was our "home" for the week or
> the weekend.  The St. Louis Ragtimers (Don Franz) can expand on that
> theme...except that they were the "host" band..and we were the
> out-of-towners who brought in the crowds from across the country..the
world.
> Turk Murphy, leader of the most popular jazz band of its time (50's thru
the
> 80's..) hesitated to leave his San Franciso-based club..EXCEPT for the
> annual St. Louis Ragtime Festival onboard the Goldenrod.  He repeatedly
said
> that it was the perfect setting for a jazz get-together.  We believe the
> term or at least the modern-day concept of the "Jazz Festival", as it has
> come to be known all over California and across the country, originated
with
> the  St. Louis Jazz Festival on board the Goldenrod Showboat...in the 70's
> and 80's.
>
> KEY contacts for "jazz ideas" for the Goldenrod Showboat should include...
>
> Jim Cullum..leader of his world-reknown jazz band from San Antonio, TX...
a
> fixture on Nat'l Public Radio weekly..
>          www.landing.com
>
> G. W. Oakley...former SUPER festival promoter of the Goldenrod
> festivities,jazz festivals in Colorado, Broadway Productions etc,
> (Georgetown , Colo.)
>         gwilliamoakley at earthlink.net
>
> Lew Green, leader of Salty Dogs Jazz Band..with "contacts."
>         lewhorn at aol.com
>
> Leon Oakley, jazz trumpeter extraordinare, leader/memeber  of various hot
> jazz groups with.."contacts."
>
> None of this will sustain a "floating theatre" during the whole calendar
> year.  However, it might infuse enough enthusiasm in the city fathers to
> want to bend over backward ($) in keeping the Goldenrod Showboat as a
jewel
> of the riverfront in St. Louis...as a museum, restaurant, operetta
> stage...and home of a unique annual floating jazz festival!!
>
> Jazz Festivals won't be the main course-savior of the Goldenrod
> Showboat..but it could be that "cherry, nessled in the whipped creme on
the
> dessert.."..you just gotta have~!!   Historical tourist attractions are an
> illusion!  They're a recreated or preserved ambiance of what was.
> Goldenrod is "REEKING" of  the AUTHENTIC!!
>
> Get the jazz stages out of the staid hotel meeting rooms and back on the
> REAL THING.. The  GOLDENROD SHOWBOAT!!
> (Talk to the St. Louis Jazz Club..St. Louis phone book)...  ask for Jeff
> Leopold.   Throw aformentioned names around.  If they get pissed with
> me..I'll deal with it.   I think they'd be delighted.
>
> Hey,  It worked once!! Why not again??!!
>
>
> Yours truly,
>
> Tom Bartlett,
>
> just a long-time lover of that boat.
>
> P.S.   What's it's Coast Guard status..as a  floating vehicle?
>
> Could it be wet/dry docked "inland" somewhere?   (like ten feet inland?)
As
> a salesman, I used to dine/customer entertain  in a "Bayou Belle"
restaurant
> that was a former steamboat, dragged across the land to a shopping center
> location in suburban St. Louis.  I don't think that's really the dignified
> place for the Goldenrod!!
>
> That lovely boat deserves much better!!
>
> St. Louis did much with it's railroad heritage.  (Check out the
> railroad/transp;ortation museum!!)    Why not have the Goldenrod be the
> foundation of a Nat'l Steamboat /Showboat Museum?!!  Let's Go!!
>
>
>
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