Fw: Fw: [Dixielandjazz] River Boat Five

[Dave Hanson]

To all the list mates concerning the Riverboat 5 Albums.............

Peanuts Fitch (banjo), Ed Tedder ( almost everything), Wray Thomas
(trombone), Keller Merck (piano)
were all from the Atlanta area. As friend Bill Rutan is saying, the
personnel listed on the liner notes were not always the players on the
albums. Not really sure why, and one can only guess. Sammy Duncan (cornet)
was, I think on the first recording, but not any of the others.

The Turk Murphy story IS real.......as Turk heard Fitch on the recording, or
what he thought  was Fitch, he flew him to San Francisco, only to send him
back to Atlanta after hearing him. Don't get me wrong, in this case with
Milton Dargan "Peanuts" Fitch, he was a marvelous entertainer and vocalist,
just not the banjo player Turk was looking for.

I knew most of these guys and worked with them for many years.........Milton
Fitch, Wray Thomas, Ed Tedder,Keller Merck and some others. They are all
gone now, and were territory musicians that stayed close to Atlanta, where
the work was good and opportunities abounded.

Friend Bill Rutan  Banjo) has a number of the recordings and I'm sure he
would welcome any inquiries about the
records he has.

I just wish I knew more about these recordings where the players were
constantly changing...............

Dave Hanson
Trombone
Atlanta


: RE: Fw: [Dixielandjazz] River Boat Five


> Dave......From what I remember hearing from Peanuts [Milt Fitch] Ed Tedder
> [Louis Tedder] Keller Merck et al these albums were always issued with the
> wrong personel listed.  Ernie Carson  had one of the albums with a real
> good banjo player.   The cover said it was Peanuts [Milt] Fitch.  Ernie
> played it for Turk Murphy who then sent off to fly Peanuts to Las Vegas
for
> his "banjo chair"  It was not Peanuts.  nuff said.   I do know that Ed
> Tedder played Eb Tuba on  one of the recordings and played his ass off.
He
> also at various times played piano and clarinete.  Doc Kittrel [sp?]  ex
> husband of Jeanne Kittrel from St Louis did a lot of the trumpet work.
Jim
> Lunceford [drums] lives in Inman Park.  I have 2  or 3 of these albums.
> [of course, no record player]  If you want to borrow them I can put them
in
> the mail.  [or bring em by the Union Hall >
> > [