[Dixielandjazz] French Quarter Festival/Memory Lane

[Charles Suhor]

Yes, good times and good music and food at the Festival. Activities at the
Mint, visits with old friends and relations, and unfortunately a bad back
kept me from a lot of the music but I got some of that and plenty of food,
from Ralph and Kacoo's to Dookey Chase's & beyond.

A point of interest for jazz lovers with a long memory--at the peak of the
under-recognized local popular revival of jazz in N.O. about 1947-1953, the
city was, to use Bunk's phrase, real crazy and running wild about jazz.
Whitney Balliett, who was nowhere to be found at the time, wrote later that
the revivial "petered out in the late forties." Tom Stagg wrote that in
1950, the peak year, "Dixieland was no longer popular in New Orleans." Au
contraire. My research excavated this list...

THE LOCAL REVIVAL, A PARTIAL LIST OF EVENTS DURING 1950

Live Music--

Tony Almerico, Sunday concerts, Parisian Room; weekends, Pontchartrain Plaza
Dutch Andrus, weekends, Gennaro's and Steamer President
Paul Barbarin, Mondays at Paddock
Jay Barry at Old Absinthe Bar
Basin Street Six at L'Enfant's, Gunga Den, Cotton Club, various sites
Sharkey Bonano at Famous Door, Blue Room; Sunday concerts, Municipal
Auditorium side room with Roger Wolfe, host
Papa Celestin at Paddock; Sundays, Patio Royale
Dukes of Dixieland at Famous Door
Bunny Franks (Basin Street 6) at Perez's Club Oasis
Sal Franzella, weekends, Bungalow and St. Regis
Armand Hug at Absinthe House, Bayou Bar
Mike Lala, Sr., weekends, St. Regis
George Lewis at El Morocco; weekends at Manny's Tavern
New Orleans Jazz Club monthly meetings/jam sessions, St. Charles Hotel;
summer pops concerts in Congo Square; all-day Mardi Gras session, George
Lewis, Ciro's              Patio
Santo Pecora at Silver Slipper
Louis Prima, Keely Smith, Sid Davilla, at Prima's 500
Various bands, weekends at Luthjen's
Johnny Wiggs at St. Charles Hotel
Phil Zito at L'Enfant's, Moulin Rouge

Recording Sessions and/or Releases--

Tony Almerico on Crescent City
Paul Barbarin on Circle, GHB
Basin Street Six on Circle
Sharkey Bonano on Bandwagon, Capitol, Dixieland
Papa Celestin on Bandwagon
Armand Hug on Bandwagon (duo w/Ray Bauduc), Capitol, Good Time Jazz
George Lewis on Good Time Jazz
Herb Morand on New Orleans
Big Eye Louis Nelson & others on American Music
Santo Pecora on Mercury
Johnny Wiggs ON New Orleans
Phil Zito on Columbia


Media--Broadcast and Print

ABC Network "Battle of Bands" series from N.O.; Roger Wolfe, host
Almerico/Parisian Room on WNOE, WWL
Sharkey Bonano on WDSU-TV; on WNOE from Famous Door
Campus Dixieland Band (mainly, Loyola--Fred Assunto, G. Erskine) on Ted
Mack's          Original Amateur Hour
Papa Celestin on WDSU-TV; radio show from Paddock
Down Beat writeups (G. Hoefer) on Armand Hug and Doc Souchon's 6 & 7/8 Band
Bunny Franks (Basin St. 6)/Perez's Club Oasis on WDSU-TV
Sal Franzella on WNOE
Ed Hart, Saturday "Dixie Downbeat" record show, WTPS
Armand Hug on WDSU-TV
Jazz Journal (London) article (John Provenzano)
Irving Fazola on WTPS, five days a week
George Lewis/El Morocco Sunday on WTPS
Look magazine article by J. Roddy, June 6, "Dixieland Jazz is Hot Again"
New Orleans Jazz Club Summer Pops concerts on ABC Network
New Orleans Jazz Club Sunday night record show, WWL
First broadcast of N.O. Jazz Club jam session on WNOE
Louis Prima, Keely Smith from Prima's 500 on WNOE
Johnny Wiggs record show on WNOE
Roger Wolfe Saturday night "Dixieland Jazz" record show, WDSU
Miscellaneous ads and mentions in daily papers & Louisiana Weekly


Other--
Paul Barbarin forms his own band
Jazz Pioneers Club formed
NOJC's Jazz Club Bulletin , first issue in April; becomes Second Line in May
Doc Souchon lectures at first annual joint meeting of NOJC/ New Orleans Art
Association, Delgado Museum
Teenage Dixieland groups--Murphy Campo's band (Pee Wee Spitelera, Reed
Vaughan) at Rex Club, Buras; "Dixiecats" (Connie Jones, Larry Muhoberac,
Charlie May)               formed
Johnny Wiggs recording of Bourbon Street Bounce a local hit

This doesn't include spot jobs or weekend gigs at places that often used
jazz bands for dancing--Happy Landings, neighborhood dance halls, etc. And
it doesn't touch at all on the lively R&B scene that was making history in
the same years (John Broven's book traces this), or the great modern jazz
underground that was playing jam sessions.

Charie Suhor