[Dixielandjazz] Celebrity thread

[DWSI at aol.com]

Regarding Jimmy Durante. When I was learning to play the Rag, Dill Pickles, I 
remember reading that this was the one rag (and apparently the only one) that 
Jimmy Durante could play. (It's fairly simple--key of G). He was also quoted 
(somewhere) as saying that it always got him a round of applause when he 
started out on Coney Island. Back then, I guess, you had to play an instrument as 
well as dance and tell jokes to get booked. Later Max Morath, (my great hero of 
syncopated piano) inserted most of Dill Pickles into his rendition of Livin A 
Ragtime Life. Absolute great stuff!

Dan (piano fingers) Spink