[Dixielandjazz] OLD JAZZ MUSICIANS

[Stephen Barbone]

Nancy Giffin asked about "Old Folks" still playing Jazz. My current
favorite is drummer Johnny Blowers. He is either 93 or 94. See the snip
from a Village Voice article below.

I think Blowers is largely unknown among DJMLers. Yet he worked with
Goodman, Armstrong, Berrigan and a whole bunch of other jsazz legends.
He and Gene Krupa made long drum solos, as opposed to just 4 or 8 bar
breaks, a staple in jazz. At about the same time as Krupa's Sing Sing
Sing solo, Blowers recorded a lengthy solo on Caravan. Who was first?
Who knows.

Other old folks included Doc Cheatham, Benny Carter, Benny Waters, One
soon to become "old folks" is drummer Roy Haynes who at 78 out plays
about 98% of the drummers in the world.

Cheers.
Steve Barbone


 by Nat Hentoff (written in 2002)
Johnny Blowers: Riding the Rhythm Wave at 91

One of the myths about jazz was that it was a young man's game. Bix
Beiderbecke played his last chorus at 28; Bunny Berigan at 33; and
Charlie Parker at 34. The medical examiner, however, first thought Bird
was at least 20 years older. However, the actuary charts have become
more accurate, especially for players who have not burned the candle at
both ends. Benny Carter, with whom I recently reminisced, is 94, and the
ever-voluble Artie Shaw is 91.

Among the most active jazzmen I know, regardless of age, is
drummer-leader Johnny Blowers, who turned 91 on April 21. Last year, he
brought a band, the Louis Armstrong Legends, to a Hofstra University
symposium on the 100th anniversary of Louis' birth. Johnny worked with
Louis, Benny Goodman, Bunny Berigan and many more entries in the
Encyclopedia of Jazz. The year before, he was in Russia, Sweden and
Mexico with the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band, of which he is the only
white member.

As his stationery shows, Johnny is also available for weddings, bar
mitzvahs, trade shows and dinner dances. At his gigs, he sells quite a
lot of his self-produced CD, Johnny Blowers and His Giants of Jazz
(phone 516-333-8937 to buy a copy), with such stellar sidemen as John
Bunch, Howard Alden, Ted Nash, Randy Sandke and Harry Allen.

In Spartanburg, S.C., Johnny started playing drums at eight and, four
years later, sat in at some of the gigs of his drummer father, who had
become a friend of Louis Armstrong. His mother played piano for silent
movies until Al Jolson put her out of work in the 1927 movie, The Jazz
Singer.

After an apprenticeship in the South and Midwest, Johnny came to New
York in 1937 for a stay at Nick's in Greenwich Village in a combo led by
Bobby Hackett with Pee Wee Russell, Eddie Condon and George Brunies. In
the December 1937 issue of Metronome, George Simon heralded his coming:
"Johnny Blowers supplies the most excitement
He possesses the happy
faculty, found  only in great drummers, of settling into a really deep
groove and moving the whole band and himself right along in that same
groove until the very last tag
His breaks are stupendous and his future
looks tremendous."

That future, encompassing the big band era and beyond, is detailed in
Warren Vaché's Back Beats and Rim Shots: The Johnny Blowers Story
(Scarecrow Press, 1997). As an enthusiast of the Eddie Condon repertory
company, I first heard Johnny in that exhilarating context. Condon, best
known for his wit and organizing skills, was a masterful rhythm
guitarist. "He had a sense of  tempo," Johnny told me, "that was
incredible. He knew exactly where it should
be so it swung like crazy. He never missed."

Johnny was with Frank Sinatra for 11 years. I mentioned hearing Sinatra
at a rehearsal at the Copacabana in New York. It was a large orchestra,
and Sinatra suddenly stopped the music. Pointing to a trombonist, he
said, "You played an E flat. That's an E natural."

"Oh," said Johnny, "Frank had a keen ear. And I never met a man who had
so much respect for musicians." Except when someone played the wrong key
behind him. One night, Johnny recalled, Skitch Henderson did just that
in an
arpeggio leading into a Sinatra medley. "Take your gloves off," Sinatra
said in front of the audience at the Copacabana, "and stop playing the
piano with your knuckles." In the dressing room, Henderson told Sinatra
that he'd never play for him again. "Well," said Sinatra, "I guess you
didn't realize you were finished after you played that arpeggio in the
wrong key."

Johnny sent me a video of a performance by the Harlem Blues and Jazz
Legends, as they're now called, at the Roslyn Presbyterian Church on
Long Island. The band includes guitarist Al Casey (who was with Fats
Waller from 1934 to 1942, and Teddy Wilson, among others), pianist Edwin
Swanson (who worked with Louis Armstrong, "Hot Lips" Page and Erskine
Hawkins), tenor saxophonist David "Bubba" Brooks (Bill Doggett, Wynonie
Harris, Ruth Brown) and bassist Carline Ray (International Sweethearts
of Rhythm, Melba Liston, Doc Cheatham, Budd Johnson).

There was standing room only in the church as the band exuberantly
exemplified Edwin Swanson's credo: "Young or old-you play together-and
keep music alive!" The band was formed by Dr. Al Volmer in 1973, and
Johnny Blowers joined in 1986. As the musicians autographed CDs, Blowers
said to the crowd around the bandstand: "You people keep me young. I'll
be doing this until I die."

Blowers, with his white hair, courtly air and glasses, looks like a
college dean, or maybe a provost. But when he gets behind the drums and
breaks into a grin, he still-as at Nick's in 1937-settles into a deep,
swinging groove that does indeed keep the music alive. Johnny has big
plans for this year. "Because," he said, "people in Europe are much more
knowledgeable and fond of jazz than Americans, I'm going into our
schools here and do something about that. Also, since I've been almost
everywhere but Japan and China, I'm going there too."   (remainder
snipped)