[Dixielandjazz] Jazz Society of Pensacola--Jazz Alert--Eddie Layton, Yankee Stadium Organist retires after 37 yrs. Reprint from Wall Street Journal

[Norman Vickers]

Dear Friends on our Jazz Alert list and listmates on DJML--

Here is an article from the Wall Street Journal about Eddie Layton, organist
at Yankee Stadium for 37 years nearing retirement.  I hope that you find it
interesting, as I did.  There was also a recent photo-essay in USA today
about him, but this WSJ article gives more details.

Norman
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After 37 Yankee Seasons, He'll Be Heading for Home...
by Mark Yost
The Wall Street Journal

Will the New York Yankees' post-season play end with the American League
Championship Series, which begins tonight in the Bronx, or result in the
team's 27th World Championship?  It's too soon to tell, but one thing's for
sure:
The end of the season will also mark the end of the long and distinguished
career of Eddie Layton, the keyboardist who plays the Hammond organ at
Yankee Stadium.

Mr. Layton is calling it quits after a 37-season run in the House That Ruth
Built.  Ironically, he didn't know much about baseball when he took the job
at the start of the 1967 season.  "I thought for years that a sacrifice fly
had something to do with killing an insect," said the always-jovial Mr.
Layton in a recent phone interview.

Baseball aficionado or not, Mr. Layton has become as much a part of Yankee
Stadium as the centerfold facade and the dirty-water hot dogs.  In a world
that has increasingly seen ballpark organs replaced with digital keyboards,
and in a clubhouse that's been home to some of the most inflated egos in
sports, he has humbly practiced his craft -- with panache.

"In a world of disappearing organists, Eddie Layton is one of the last,"
said Dennis Floramonti, executive vice president of the Hammond Organ Co.
"He's an icon."

He didn't plan it that way.  Born in West Philadelphia, he took piano
lessons as a kid.  After attending West Chester State Teachers College,
where he majored in meteorology and minored in music, he did a stint in the
Navy. While stationed at Lake Hurst, NJ, he stumbled upon a Hammond organ
and taught himself to play.

After the Navy, he moved to New York and studied under the "Poet of the
Organ," Jesse Crawford, who played the Mighty Wurlitzer -- the Stradivarius
of pipe organs -- at the Paramount Theater in Times Square.

His first gig was at the Copacabana, where he met executives from Mercury
Records and began making the first of 26 albums that would sell more than
three million copies.  And while Mr. Layton will say only that he's
"approaching middle age," he's old enough to remember playing the Park
Sheraton Hotel and entertaining penthouse resident Jackie Gleason.

Mr. Layton eventually landed a gig at CBS, playing for the soap operas "Love
Is a Many Splendored Thing," "Love of Life," and "The Secret Storm."  When
CBS bought the Yankees in 1966, Mr. Layton was asked to be the team's first
organist.

Initially, he turned down the job because he didn't have a driver's license
(never has) and was worried about the long commute from his Queens home to
the Bronx.  CBS provided him with a limo and the rest, as they say, is
history.

Mr. Layton credits his soap opera experience with his success at Yankee
Stadium.  "Playing for a baseball game is like playing for a soap; there's
no scripted music," he said.  "It's all instinct."

His instincts have proved acute.  Mr. Layton claims he was the first to
translate to organ the trumpet trill that culminates in the crowd yelling
"charge." He also lays claim to the repetitive, and accelerating, four-note
bass march of C, G, A, B that is now ubiquitous at stadiums and arenas
around the country.  "The first time I played it, I looked over to [Yankee
President] Mike Burke," said Mr. Layton.  "He gave me the thumbs up and I
got an immediate raise."

Mr. Layton also had a knack for finding tunes that matched a player's
personality.  When Rick Cerone was a Yankees catcher in the 1980s, Mr.
Layton would play the "Tarantella," endearing him to another
Italian-American Yankee great, Phil Rizzuto.  "Whenever Eddie Layton plays
that Italian music, Cerone usually gets a hit," was Mr. Rizzuto's standard
on-the-air commentary, Mr. Layton recalls.

"Phil Rizzuto's my favorite person of all time," Mr. Layton said of the
shortstop-turned-broadcaster.  "He's such a nice guy."  Other nice guys who
have befriended Mr. Layton through the years include Mickey Mantle, Joe
Pepitone, Don Mattingly, and current centerfielder Bernie Williams and
manager Joe Torre.

Of course, any 37-season career isn't without its gaffes. Mr. Layton recalls
playing a disco tune between innings during a game in the 1970s and getting
lost in the moment.  Lead-off hitter Reggie Jackson approached the plate;
Mr. Layton kept playing.  Mr. Jackson stepped into the batter's
box; Mr. Layton kept playing.  Finally, Mr. Jackson threw down his bat and
started dancing.  The entire stadium, umpires included, erupted in laughter,
Mr. Layton said.  Eventually, someone got his attention and he stopped
playing.

On a typical day, Mr. Layton gets to the stadium about 4 PM and eats dinner
with the writers in the press box.  He begins playing about 30 minutes
before game time.  Before electronic mixing boards and canned music, Mr.
Layton used to provide almost all the music at ball games.  Now he plays
before the game, between innings, and "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" during
the  seventh-inning stretch.  He also continues to provide ad-libs at key
junctures in the game. Today, he jokes, his salary has quadrupled while his
playing has been cut to about four minutes.

In addition to his job at Yankee Stadium, Mr. Layton plays the Mighty
Wurlitzer at Radio City Music Hall for the annual Christmas Show and other
special events.  He also plays a Mighty Wurlitzer at the former Brooklyn
Paramount Theater, now home to the Long Island University Blackbirds
basketball team.

He'll continue those part-time gigs, but he plans to spend most of his
retirement cruising the Hudson in his custom-made, 26-foot miniature
tugboat.  And clearly his fondest memories are of Yankee Stadium.

The greatest, he said, came during the seventh-inning stretch of the last
game of the regular season.  That's when the Yankees officially announced
that Mr. Layton would be retiring.

The entire stadium, opposing players and umpires included, stood, looked up
to his booth and applauded.  Many fans were chanting "Ed-die, Ed-die."

"Athletes are used to getting ovations like that," said Mr. Layton.  "I'm
not."

Take a bow, Mr. Layton.  It's well-deserved.

							--End---