[Dixielandjazz] Re:George Rock/Spike Jones
LeslieMRag at aol.com
LeslieMRag at aol.com
Sun Aug 21 21:59:23 PDT 2005
Hi:
Don't have much time to read or post to this list, so I apologize about if
these comments are a bit out of date. I finally had a chance to read a bunch
of old digests today and saw that people are curious about George Rock. The
next Mississippi Rag (Sept. issue) is running the fourth part of our Jazz and
Novelty Music series, and Rock is pictured along with other City Slickers in a
great photo of Spike Jones' band. Don Ingle from this list kindly identified
the musicians in the photo for me, including Rock and Don's own
multi-talented father, Red Ingle. If my memory serves me right, George Rock continued to
play for quite some time in the Midwest, and I believe he played regularly at
the annual Thanksgiving jazz weekend held in Rhinelander, Wisc. Eric
Schneider and Chuck Hedges were also regulars there, and they could say whether or
not that was the case. I've been a Spike Jones fan since childhood (my dad
used to wander about the house, calling out "Choe"), and I still fall on the
floor laughing whenever I play the "Hawaiian War Chant." For Mother's Day some
years ago, my kids gave me the complete Spike Jones collection, along with
Ernie Kovacs and Stan Freberg recordings -- I guess that says something about me
as a mother, though I'm not sure what!
Leslie Johnson
_editor at mississippirag.com_ (mailto:editor at mississippirag.com) OR
_lesliemrag at aol.com_ (mailto:lesliemrag at aol.com)
P.S. I also saw Steve Barbone's note about non-coverage of Jonathan Russell
in a rather ancient posting. Steve, the RAG doesn't ignore suggestions...we
simply have to depend upon freelancers to write articles, and though we try to
follow up on suggestions, we aren't always able to find the right writers to
do the stories. The administrative staff of the RAG is 1-1/2 women, and we
definitely don't have money to send reporters out in the field. (As Don Ingle
noted in a followup posting, we do pay freelancers a modest fee, all we can
afford.) Quite frankly, many more people read the RAG than pay for
subscriptions, so though the RAG is well known worldwide, it's not well funded, a common
problem with special interest publications. Our coverage has never been
based on who subscribes or advertises--we determine coverage based on
newsworthiness, space available, and availability of good writers who will do justice to
the piece, and we devote a good share of the RAG to free listings to support
musicians and jazz events. (Far more content is devoted to jazz of the
present than to historical features, although the latter are actually the most
popular articles we run.) Anyhow, this is a long-winded way of saying that we
haven't forgotten about Jonathan Russell--we just haven't found anyone to do
the story and we have a pile of other manuscripts that need to be published
first. This isn't meant to be a plug for the RAG--I just felt a need to respond
to criticism regarding our coverage (or non-coverage, in this case). That
being said, thanks to those of you on this board who have been such loyal and
supportive subscribers (including Steve). You're wonderful!
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