[Dixielandjazz] From Bill Pond

[Robert S. Ringwald]

Listmates,

The following message was sent to me by the DJML software.  It was marked as
filtered content.  I really don't know why.

Hope it makes it through this time.

BTW- George Wettling was Dick Cary's favorite drummer.

Bob
mr.wonderful at ringwald.com



> these comments from a drummer friend - Lou Johnston-  relate more to
> Wettling's big band appearances but thought they would be of interest
anyway
>
>   Wettling - 'one of his breaks could just
> lift you off your chair' - .  Yeah.  I've always liked wettling yet never
> could find enough of him.  One of my favorite records is Benny Goodman's
> Stealin' Apples taped from a live broadcast in 1943 when Wettling was
> sitting in for one night.  The author of Benny's 'Listen to the Music',
> Russel Connor, says of this date that the rhythm section inspired Benny to
> five choruses of the best Goodman heard on record.  Wettling fit in just
> great - he was 'felt'  more than heard.
>
>   I've always felt Wettling contributed to the group as a whole.  He lead
> the next soloist in.  His drumming was for the band.  I remember reading
> somewhere a comment Artie shaw made to Buddy Rich.  It was along the lines
> of 'You're doing fantastic things out there Buddy, but they're all for
Buddy
> Rich, not for my band".
>
>   Some comments about Wettling though:
>
>   From 'Thirty Years with the Big bands - Art rollini:
>
>   "....Wettling was in the first drum chair, playing fine drums when he
was
> sober.  After hours he would drink and become absolutely impossible; he
had
> a mild tempered nature, but when he drank, he was mean.  On one show we
had
> to lock him out of the studio and he banged on the door while we were on
the
> air".
>
>   >From "The Life of buddy rich - mel torme" -
>
>   "....Wettling had a beef with the piano player, Joe Lippman.  We were
> driving along the highway.  Lippman stopped the car, got out, and beat the
> s**t out of Wettling, who had made an anti-semetic remark.  We left him
> there on the highway in the middle of nowhere".
>
>   Regardless, it would have been great to hear these people in person.  I
> wish there were videos out of condon's groupt with wetlling et al.
>
>   Bill Pond
>