[Dixielandjazz] Left Bank Bearcats

[user102000 at juno.com]

Hello, this is Drew Techner. I saw some of my research about the Left Bank Bearcats posted on your Website. I also saw my name mentioned with it. I thought I would provide you some of my research. 

My father Joe Techner (1925 - 1989) was the actual trumpet player in the studio-only band. Joe was named "Aron Dubois" on the record. The Left Bank Bearcat albums were probably “knock-off” albums made by Somerset the label to “cash-in” on the Dukes of Dixieland albums that debuted in May 1957. Local Philadelphia pianist Ted Gerike remembered this record and says it was made about the time that he worked with Joe at the Marlton Manor in New Jersey. Joe made the record with Joseph Kuhn, an army musician buddy. 

My mother recalled that Joe recorded "six sides", which would have been three long-playing albums. If this is correct, then he did all three of the known Left Bank Bearcat albums. My mother claims that the recordings were made about the time of Sputnik (launched October 4, 1957) in an approximately 16 -17 hour recording session which lasted all day and through the night. It possibly was made in two successive days. Gerike said he met “ultra-hip people” in France that said they actually met Aron Dubois! However, now we know more information about these recordings from Al Leopold. 

The following is a letter written by Belgian jazz discographer Walter Bruyninckx to the editor of Names & Numbers (July 2003), “A RIDDLE (ALMOST) SOLVED AFTER 50 YEARS! I’m in correspondence with Mr. John Bewley who teaches music at the University of Buffalo and recently writing about “weird” entries in the discography he mentioned that he got trmobone lessons from Al Leopold who played trombone in the band of Jan Savitt from 37 till 41. It seemed he also made some recordings under his own name and also as the leader of the “Left Bank Bearcats” listed in the discography as a French group. I phoned John to find out if Al was still around and got his address. I wrote to Al and 2 weeks later I got a 20 minute spoken tape with the following details. Al Leopold got a phone call from Dave Miller producer of the Somerset label to put a band together that had to play dixieland music but had to sound like a French amateur band! Several years ago I talked to some French friends like Jean-Claude Alexandre and Claude Carriére amongst others but no one ever heard of any of these names and we all thought it were psuedonyms for French musicians who wanted to hide their identity. Finally we know that Aaron Dubois is Joe Techner (tp), Marcel Durand is Al Leopold (tb, ldr), Jack Bonner is Frank Lewis (cl), Bertrand Gasté is Bernie Low (p), Robert Eluist is Billy La Pata (bj, g), Jon Gautreaux is Joe Kuen (b, tu) and Jacques Cas is Jack Cassidy (d). The first LP was Somerset P1400 recorded in Philadlephia, PA, but Al can’t remember the exact dates although he says 1956-1957 must be the years the recordings took place. The second LP was Somerset SF8300 and was recorded in Swartmore, PA. The third LP was Somerset P5300, recorded in Wallingford, PA and there’s some history about this LP. Dave Miller choose as location a bar which had a room behind for all sorts of events. The bar and the room were both connected to the toilet in between. Miller wanted to add some echo to this LP and opened the toilet door on the room side. After the first number they were listening to the balance when suddenly there was a flush of a toilet so Dave decided they should make the record without an echo!”

Walter Bruyninckx
Lange Nieuwestraat, 121, 
2800-Mechelen,
BELGIUM
Telephone: 003215.418163
His son Lucien has e-mail: lucien.bruyninckx at pandora.be 


Al Leopold was in Jan Savitt’s “Quaker City” band 1939 - 1941. Local 77 directory address: 3543 Woodcrest Ave., Newtown Square, Pa. 19073, phone 610-356-3722. Walter Bruyninckx sent me a cassette tape letter that he received from Al Leopold recorded probably May-June 2003. I Interviewed Al Leopold telephonically on 9-21-03. He said Jack Cassidy was local to Chester and was related or associated somehow with Dave Miller. Miller was an affable and free-spirited persion. He only put lead-sheets containing the melody in front of the personnel and told them to make it up as they went along. He didn’t want the players to sound good, but it was too hard for the professional musicans to sound bad, so they eventually gave up on that. The reocrdings were made on three separate recording dates. Time span amongst these recordings is all within less than a year’s time. Leopold thinks they were rechanneled for stereo. The recordings were made with a single microphone on tape and then “waxed” on records. Miller was at the recording sessions but had engineers to do the actual records. The players all had a lot of fun making the recordings and Miller provided a spread of food and “drinks” during the recordings. Leopold said that he and the other musicians were all local union men and were paid properly (union wages), unlike the earlier “Chinese Restaurant” days. He is in touch with a Linda McDonald who is somehow related to the Kuhn family and was last known to live in the Ocean City – Somers Point area [In 1987, the Kuhn sons made recordings on an Ocean City independent label]. She calls sometimes and he will forward my name and telephone number to her. I told him I was doing research on Dave Miller and Joe Kuhn and had just published articles about Elliot Lawrence. Kuhn’s sons did go on to be musicians. Frank Lewis died about six months ago. He had been on the radio (WCAU and KYW) with Al Leopold during the Jan Savitt days. Billy LaPata (correct spelling) was a Philly local. 

The Delaware County recording at Plush Mills (an old factory) was probably made in Wallingford, not Swarthmore [Plush Mill Road goes through Swarthmore. The 1957 address for Somerset was Baltimore Pike and Wallingford Rd. in Swarthmore]. But it was “between the Wallingford-Swarthmore-Media area.” The Philadelphia location was at Reco-Art. Leopold made six discs [probably cassette tapes] of memoires of his Jan Savitt days for a researcher. Leopold had his own band but stopped playing recently. He had double bypass surgery this past summer.  Leopold didn’t know that Miller had died in London in 1985. He said my father Joe Techner had an excellent reputation around town and was a “lead man,” meaning that he was one of the men that the leaders would often go to first. Leopold couldn’t remember when the Left Bank Bearcats were recorded but said 1956-1957 was “close.”  Leopold was invited to go to New York to record the Tommy Dorsey [Symphony For Tommy] album on Somerset but couldn’t go. Joe Kuhn was definitely the composer/arranger for the 101 Strings, not Robert Lowden. Leopold did not know that Lowden took over Somerset arranging after Kuhn died in 1962. Leopold did not dispute speculation that the Left Bank Bearcats were cover records of the Dukes of Dixieland. Al Leopold said that the recordings sounded great.