[Dixielandjazz] Frank Thomas RIP

[Robert S. Ringwald]

I first met Frank in about 1979 when I moved from the Sacramento area to
Tinseltown.

In the early days of Disney, what started out as a noon-time record
listening get together, ended up as rehearsals for what became the Firehouse
5 Plus 2.

After Ward Kimball disbanded the FH5P2, several musicians at the Disney
studio continued the noon-time jam session tradition.

As soon as I moved to LA, Pete Daily invited me to the sessions.  Pete used
to pick me up twice a week & we would go into the Disney studios & have a
session on one of their sound stages.

I remember (I think it was Studio B, or maybe C) there was a Foos ball game
set up & the brother of the comedian Professor Erwin Cory, who worked @
Disney, was always in there at lunch time playing foos ball.

There was another character always hanging around.  he used to do radio
voices years ago but I can't remember his name.  I'll find out who it was.

Anyway, Frank Thomas, who had just retired from Disney, always came to the
sessions.  We got to be good friends.  he was a great guy.

>From those sessions, I met the guys who I eventually asked to join the band
that I was forming, The Great Pacific Jazz  Band, Zeke Zarchy (the legendary
lead trumpet player from the big band era), Roy Brewer trombone (film
editor), Jack Wadsworth bass sax (Music editor) & Don nelson (Ozzie's
brother, writer and producer), sop sax.

Later when Roy Brewer quit to devote more time to his religion, bob Havens
joined the band & played with us for 12 years.

Jim Turner piano (now with the Jim Cullum band) eventually joined the band,
as did Ray Templin on drums.

At one point, 4 of us in the band were also piano players.  One year in
Sacramento, for the Panorama, all 4 of us each did a 15 minute segment,
culminating in a finale of all 4 (8 hands) playing the same piano.

I disbanded the GPJB in 1995 when I left LA & returned to the Sacramento
area.

--Bob Ringwald
Placerville, CA USA
Fulton Street Jazz Band
The Boondockers (Jazz and Comedy)