[Dixielandjazz] Re: Peg LaCentra

[Robert S. Ringwald]

Listmates,

Recently, someone was asking about the singer, Peg LaCentra.  I asked Zeke 
Zarchy about her.

Zeke played trumpet in my Great Pacific Jazz Band when I lived in the Los 
Angeles area.  He played lead trumpet for all the great big bands, including 
the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band, before going into the studios after WW 
II.

Zeke wrote the following:


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rubin Zarchy"
To: "Robert S. Ringwald" <robert at ringwald.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2005 8:49 PM
Subject: Re: Peg LaCentra


>
> Dear Bob
>                       Peg  La Centra was the girl
> singer  in Artie Shaw's  first band  which was the one
> I joined at the French Casino in NYC and
> unfortunately  failed after about three months.  I
> have a picture of part of that band on the wall in my
> house. It shows  Tony Pastor tenor sax, Lee Castaldo
> trumpet,  Moe Zudekoff  trombone and me.  In the
> background we see Ben Ginsberg on bass and  George
> Wettling at the drums. In the foreground we see  Jerry
> Gray  violin and arranger and Sam Rosenblum  viola.
> They were the other part of the string quartet  with
> another violin and a cello. The rest of the band had
> Tony Gutuso
> on guitar  and Joe Lippman on piano.  and that was the
> whole first band.  I loved playing in it.  We  also
> cut a few sides for Brunswick  . Try to find
> "Copenhagen".
>
> The French  Casino where I joined was a theatre
> night club. Huge  place that  had two bands. Artie's
> was on one side of the stage for dancing and a large
> orchestra that only  played for the show  was on the
> other.
> The best part of that gig was when we had to go
> through the
> chorus girls dressing room to get to the band stand.
> Man,
> was that ever boob city !!   The show was brought over
> from
> Paris  so you can just imagine what it  was like.
>
>                                 Best from us,
> Peggy and Zeke
>
>                  Artie gave me an  acetate air check
> of my first night in the band which I still  have some
> place.  Peg La Centra
> sings on it. I  don't have a 78 rpm player anymore
> to play it  , besides, it plays from the inside out
> to the edge !!
>
>
>
>
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