[Dixielandjazz] River Boat Five

[Bigbuttbnd at aol.com]

Here's what little I know about it...

Ed Reed, Ed Tedder and Milton Fitch were all from Atlanta before the move to 
Chicago. Years later I played extensively with Milton "Peanuts" Fitch and 
occasionally with Ed Tedder.

Tedder was an amazing multi-instrumentalist who played tuba, trumpet, 
clarinet and piano (and maybe more)... in his later years he mostly played piano and 
clarinet but also had a reputation in Atlanta as being a great small combo 
arranger. Tedder died a few years ago from diabetes complications (if memory 
serves) and was a good friend of listmate Dave Hanson.

I knew "Peanuts" far better as I played with him all the time. Peanuts 
(Milton Dargan Fitch) was probably the greatest shout-singer since Bessie Smith and 
developed a reputation and following around the southeast with a tune that 
eventually became identified with him called "Just A Bowl Of Butterbeans". 
Peanuts played with the Ruby Reds Band here in Atlanta for about 35+ years and with 
my group, the Fanny Moons Big Butt Band, for about 6 years. He had a unique 
personality that kept him from ever meeting a stranger... we've been in some 
pretty remote locations over the years, lost, broke down, stranded, etc. and 
someone would come along and stop and say, "Aren't you that crazy little b*st*rd 
that sings "Butterbeans" so damn loud?"

Peanuts would identify himself and pretty soon that stranger would be hunting 
us a gas can or a mechanic or lead us personally to the gig... it was always 
amazing. Peanuts suffered a fatal heart attack a few years back. We still miss 
him terribly.

One of the quirks about Peanuts' history was that he was given credit for 
playing banjo on all of the Riverboat 5 recordings. Peanuts DID play with the 
group as their regular banjo player but was not actually on the recordings. No 
one ever explained why or identified WHO played banjo on the recordings. One 
funny tidbit concerns this mixup as to the identity of the recorded banjo player. 
The story, as I heard it, was that Turk Murphy heard the Riverboat 5 
recording and wanted to hire the banjo player. His inquiries led him to Peanuts and 
the little guy got the gig for a while based on the strength of the playing of 
the mysterious recorded banjo player. 

There are at least 1 million GOOD Peanuts stories and I probably only know 
1,000 of them... all of them are funny and unbelievable... and most of them are 
true.


~Rocky Ball, Banjo
Atlanta