[Dixielandjazz] MR Article on Phil Crumley and NGJB

[Dan Augustine]

DJMLers--
     There's a nice article on Phil Crumley and the Natural Gas Jazz 
Band in the July 2004 issue of _The Mississippi Rag_ called "Crumley 
Cooks with Natural Gas)_ (pp. 1-8), by listmate Will Connelly, who 
writes with his customary verve, wit, and humor.  (The last is 
evidenced in the disquisition on the provenance of the band's name: 
"Jazz's own Dr. Phil assured us that the band performs in keys other 
than B-flatus.")
     In passing (so to speak), Connelly mentions that "the cans of 
beer emptied by the band at 29 Sacramento Jubilees, laid end to end, 
would span 1,551.666 feet, or 17.222 years more than the length of 
five American football fields." Well, my ungovernable arithmetical 
unit kicked into gear at this point, and generated the following 
inferences: assuming that a beer-can is 5 inches long, or 0.416 feet, 
one may calculate that this 1,551.666 (i like the "666" part) feet 
might have come from about 3,730 cans of beer.  Dividing 3,730 by 29 
years results in 128.621 cans per year, and dividing that by the 
seven members of the band yields 18 cans per man, or 4.5 cans of beer 
per man per day (Friday through Monday)(6.0 cans for a three-day 
Jubilee).  Is that ALL? Gracious, what extraordinary restraint the 
band showed!
     He also mentions that Pete Clute, the band's pianist for ten 
years who died in May 2001, had been working on a book called 
_Earthquake McGoon's_ along with Jim Goggin.  He says that Crumley 
wound up doing the layout for the 800-photo book, which will be 
available in mid-July from Carol Clute (he gives her addresses and 
telephone).  Just thought i'd pass along this info....

     Dan
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**  Dan Augustine     Austin, Texas    ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu   **
**    "What survives every change of system is melody."               **
**                    -- Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)                  **
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