[Dixielandjazz] Firehouse Five...corny

[Trumpetom at aol.com]

"Corn" sold real well here in Southern California. I heard them many times as 
a young teenager. Ward Kimball's "attitude" drove the band with a mixture of 
cornball humor and sarcasm. The level of energy was beyond anything I have 
heard before or since. They had loads of musical shortcomings...rough playing and 
tempo variations. But they drove the audiences crazy with their intesity. 
Usually there were two outchoruses, the final one never failed to bring the 
audience to a high level excitment. 
 
I did see them once in a GIG FROM HELL (we've all played some of these). They 
were at the Casino Ballroom on Catalina Island for a few days around 1959. It 
was a mistake to book them there. It was not their first night. There were 
perhaps 2000 serious ballroom dancers in attandence. The band was giving it's 
noble best to play four hours of foxtrots, waltzes, rumbas, tangos, etc. It was 
awful; that sort of thing does not work very well with a showband with banjo 
and tuba in the rhythm section. To this day I still remember George Probert 
dressed in red longjohn pajamas standing there playing. He looked tired and 
defeated.
 
Anybody else on the list wanna talk about their GIG FROM HELL?
 
Tom Loeb
_www.hotsytotsyboys.com_ (http://www.hotsytotsyboys.com)