[Dixielandjazz] Kasper 'Stranger' Malone, 1905-2005

[Bob Loomis]

   I picked this up off a fiddle list I'm on:


KASPER "STRANGER" MALONE
1909 - 2005

We regret to inform all the friends and extended 
family of Kasper
"Stranger" Malone of his passing on May 30, 2005.

Those who knew him will
smile when they hear that he left in typical 
Stranger style, in his sleep,
with the book "Life is Worth Living" open in his 
lap.

In 1912, when he was three years old, Kasper 
Malone's brother gave him a
beat up old cornet. By the time he was five, he 
was playing loud. The
cornet was the first of many instruments Kasper 
played in his ninety-five
years as a musician. Up until the moment of his 
death, he still actively
played clarinet, flute, double bass, and guitar 
with musicians all around
the country and the world.

His life is like a musical history of America. He

played swing with the
Jack Teagarden All Stars and old time with 
Clayton McMichen, Riley
Puckett, Lowe Stokes & the Melody Men. He played 
in silent film orchestras
and radio bands, and he was on some of the first 
recordings ever made by
Columbia Records. He also played orchestral bass,

and was first chair of
the Tucson Symphony for over ten years.

But Stranger Malone was more than a musician. He 
was a self educated,
worldly, open minded, kind, hard working ethical,

and deeply spiritual
human. He was a voracious reader. He loved to 
travel and meet new people.
Even at 95, if you mentioned any song title, he 
could tell you, not only
the year it came out, but the month, the 
composer, the performers, and
some interesting anecdote about the song. He was 
gregarious and generous
to everyone he met. Yet he was also a very 
private person. And every
morning when he arose, he said to himself, "I am 
no better than anyone I
will meet today, and everyone I meet today is no 
better than I."

Kasper Malone was born in 1909 on a farm near 
Paducah Kentucky. His given
name was Kanoy, but he wasn't too pleased with 
that, so he changed it to
Kasper. As he puts it, "I was born before birth 
certificates, so I just
named myself."

When he was fifteen, he sold his personal effects

and left home. He was
picked up by two boys headed to Miami, but found 
Miami too expensive so he
headed back north. His ride stopped for gas in 
Armuchee Georgia and there
just happened to be a band tuning up. Kasper 
said, "I'll get off here."
Someone in the band saw him and asked, "Who's 
that little Stranger (he was
about 5 feet tall) with the big horn?" He joined 
the band and became
"Stranger" ever after.

He spent three years with that band, and in that 
time picked up the
clarinet, and began playing for silent film 
orchestras. During this
period, Kas hooked up with Clayton McMitchen and 
Riley Puckett and
together they formed the Melody Men. Until 1928 
they made two recordings a
year with equipment sent down from New York City.

Columbia Records set up
a studio in Atlanta at 15 Pryor Street. They also

played at the radio
station WSB housed in the old Biltmore Hotel. 
With Gid Tanner they
recorded the record "A Day at the County Fair."

In 1929 on New Year's Day, he placed an ad in 
Billboard Magazine for a
clarinet player. A response came from Schnitz 
Seymour's Miniature Circus,
in St. Louis Missouri. Kas got the job, and 
became part of the entourage
that played at show theaters throughout the 
Midwest.

Kas was in the house band for many radio 
stations, and earned enough money
to pay $35 for a Model T, an open roadster with 
no top. On a windy day he
got in the roadster and drove to South Dakota 
arriving at 4:00 p.m. at the
local radio station. Happy Jack, the old time 
fiddler, was on the air and
Kas just happened to have his double bass in the 
car. "You're on the
payroll," he was told by Harvey Nelson the 
personnel manager. He became a
"doubler," playing clarinet and flute, and also 
creating sound effects
using chimes and other inventions.

While on that station, Kas was given his own show

along with singer and
pianist Olive Nelson. The popular show was called

"Olive and Stranger,"
and they played modern music. Kas also played 
with the Rosebud Kids, a
German family named Kosta, from the Rosebud 
Indian Reservation. "Five
dollars was pretty big and I got $10 for a dance 
on the side from the
radio station," says Kas.

In 1934 he got his San Francisco Musicians' Union

card, sold his car, and
got a job playing on the cruise ship S.S. 
Cooledge which needed a bass
player. They played concert and dance music and 
for forty-seven days
travelled to Hawaii, Japan, Shanghai, Hong Kong, 
and Manila. Upon his
return, he learned that someone needed a bass 
player on the boat to New
York City and so he boarded the Grace Line ship 
Santa Elena and headed
east. In New York, he stayed just long enough to 
find out that he
preferred the prairies to "conditions prevailing"

and headed westward once
again, joining Jack Savage in Columbus Ohio in a 
band promoting Crazy
Water Crystals, a medicinal tonic from Mineral 
Wells, Texas. England
forebade commercial broadcasting, and so to sell 
the medicinal tonic
there, the company set up a store in London but 
advertised from
Luxembourg. Though Kasper was invited to join the

band to travel to
Luxembourg (they stayed there 18 months), he had 
met his first wife
Virginia  and with her, settled down in Yankton 
South Dakota and had two
daughters.

In 1943 Kasper began a stint of 2 years and 12 
days on Catalina Island in
the USS Maritime Service Band led by Phil Harris.

After the war, times
were tough, so in addition to playing at a club 
near Glacier Park, Kas
also carried mail.

In 1953 he joined Jack Teagarden's Jazz Orchestra

at the Royal Room on
Hollywood Boulevard. Kas and Jack became fast 
friends and Kas continued to
tour with him for three years, as well as living 
with Jack and his family.
With the Teagarden All Stars, Kas played string 
bass and was featured as
well on flute on such numbers as "Stardust," 
"Indian Summer," and "Body
and Soul." Kas and Jack discovered that they had 
a number of strange
"coincidences." Both had the same injured finger.

Both had a brother named
Clois. Both bought a five dollar baritone horn 
when they were nine years
old. Both were given a baritone horn by an uncle 
when they were ten.

Feeling a yen to settle down, Kas accepted a job 
with the Tucson Symphony
and was hired on the staff of the University of 
Arizona. In the Symphony
he was Principal Bass, and at the university he 
taught bass for thirteen
years. During that time he also participated in 
the American Symphony
League Orchestra summer workshops, which became 
one of his most treasured
experiences. The one-hundred piece symphony 
included players from every
major orchestra around the United States and 
Europe and was led by master
conductor Dr. Richard Lehrt from Pasadena 
California.

As seen already, Kasper's life has included much 
travel. In 1969 he walked
around Ireland with a backpack and a flute. He 
found the Irish to be
exceedingly hospitable. "The Irish won't let you 
walk," he recounts. While
walking in Ireland he was picked up by a Catholic

nun who took him right
away to play with her choir. After his Irish 
adventure, Kas got a Eurail
Pass and travelled around Europe using his music 
as a passport and an
introduction to adventure.

In 1973 Kas moved to Winsbach Germany where he 
was to marry his second
wife and spend the next twenty years. In Germany 
he taught privately with
the world famous Boys Choir and had private 
students in clarinet, flute,
and bass.

In 1993 Kasper decided it was time to come back 
to the United States. He
returned to Rome Georgia, found it "ideal" and 
settled there in the middle
of town where he lived to the end of his life, 
just one city block from
where he played the Rivoli Theater in 1925.

Since returning to the United States, Kasper 
"Stranger" Malone never
slowed down his playing. From his first 
appearance on 78 RPM records for
Columbia in 1926, to his latest performance on 
EMWorld Records in 2003
with Elise Witt, Kaspar "Stranger" Malone's 77 
year career in recording is
unchallenged for longevity. It is suspected that 
he will be entered in the
Guiness Book of World Records for the longest 
career in recording history.
The Georgia Music Hall of Fame recently presented

"An Evening with
Stranger Malone" highlighting his long and 
diverse career in music.
Stranger also received the 2004 Founder's Award 
from the Country Music
Hall of Fame, and the Swannanoa Gathering is 
planning to award him a
Lifetime Achievement Award at this summer's 
gathering.

Forwarded Message


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