[Dixielandjazz] Toad Recordings

[BudTuba at aol.com]

Hi All,

I am plowing through my old LPs making CDs for my future compact music 
collection and came across a recording on the Toad Label of the Queen City Jazz Band 
(Cinncinnati) which was copywrited 1962.  This band and record has long been 
one of my favorites.  It included our friend, Frank Powers, who corresponded 
on the DJML many times before his demise last year.

Not long ago, I ran across another Toad Recording on an auction which I 
bought and it was the Tin Rainbow Jazz Band.  This I found included Eli Neuberger 
on piano and I contacted Eli about it.  The band was apparently playing around 
Yale University in the early 1960's.  All the excitement of youth is evident 
in the band and included a VERY ENTHUSIATIC washboard player.  Eli is playing 
piano and has one solo track. The band included Fred Starr (on clarinet?) and 
Fred's wife Ivy Starr designed both this album (TR-LP-1) and the Queen City JB 
(TR-LP-2) mentioned above.  Eli told me that the "liner notes" was a 
mimeographed sheet and he was going to look around for a copy for me.

What I am wondering is: did the Toad Label make any other recordings and if 
so what were they?  I remember when I bought the Queen City record years ago, 
that my trad jazz mentor, Bob Fertig, told me that the Toad label (which 
depicts a toad sitting on a lilypad listening to a windup Victrola with a 
lily-shaped horn) was a snub at RCA who was not willing to record small jazz groups at 
the time.

Can any other of you contribute to this story and fill in a more complete 
discography?

By the way, I have cleaned up up and put both of these LPs on a single CD 
which people may contact me about obtaining a copy for a modest charge.  

Bud Taylor
Smugtown Stompers
Trad Jazz Since 1958
Rochester, NY