[Dixielandjazz] Fritz Richmond - R.I.P.

[Ed Danielson]

One of the founding members of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band has died.  Here's an 
obit (put together by Geoff Muldaur) that I received:


FRITZ RICHMOND

Fritz Richmond was the undisputed all-time king and world champion of the 
jug and the washtub bass; nowhere better demonstrated than by the 
Smithsonian Institute's inclusion of Fritz's instruments in its collection.

Fritz was born John B. Richmond, Jr. in Newton, Massachusetts on July 10th, 
1939. He attended local schools in Newton and graduated from Newton High 
School as a member of the class of '58.
Fritz's interest in homemade instruments started in late-1958 or early-1959 
when, with friends John "Buz" Marten and John Nagy he went to Sears Roebuck 
to purchase his first washtub. Using a broom handle and a piece of rope, 
Fritz was almost immediately able to play – and play well. The boys formed a 
folk group called The Hoppers (named because there were three Johns!), and 
performed in the local Boston-area coffee houses.

Fritz continued to play the washtub through his term of duty in the US Army 
(1959-61), during which he served as a helicopter mechanic in Germany and 
Korea. Of note, and certain interest to afficionados, is the likelihood 
that, to this very day, Fritz is the only member of the US Army to have ever 
"played" a Quonset hut.

During his early days as part of the Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts 
folk music scene, Fritz provided his solid bass lines for Eric Von Schmidt, 
Geoff Muldaur, Tom Rush, The Charles River Valley Boys and many others. 
Fritz was a founding member of The Jim Kweskin Jug Band (1963) and it was 
with that band that Fritz began playing the jug. His unique talent was given 
nationwide attention on US tours and national television with the Kweskin 
Band (Steve Allen Show, Johnny Carson, Mike Douglas, Roger Miller, Pat Boone 
et al.).

After the Kweskin Jug Band disbanded in 1968, Fritz moved to Los Angeles. He 
continued his life as a musician in LA, but he primarily worked as a 
recording engineer with producer Paul Rothchild at Elektra Studios. He 
engineered sessions for The Doors, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Lonnie 
Mack, The Everly Brothers et al. As a musician during that period, he 
recorded with Ry Cooder, Brown, The Doors and many more.

Since the late 1970s, Fritz lived in Portland, Oregon with his wife, Cynda 
Herbold. He worked as a legal assistant at the law firm Markowitz, Herbold, 
Glade and Mehlhaf and performed locally with his jug band, The Barbecue 
Orchestra. He played during this time with Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan, Ramblin' 
Jack Elliot, John Sebastian, Geoff Muldaur and others, with recent tours of 
Europe and Japan. He also performed several times on Garrison Keillor's A 
Prairie Home Companion, where he once astounded the audience with his jug 
performances, with The Turtle Isle String Quartet, of The Flight of the 
Bumblebee and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.

Fritz Richmond lost a year-long battle with lung cancer on November 20th, 
2005.


In a missive of 11/21/05, Al Haug was seen to expound:

Fritz (tub bass/jug player with the Kweskin Jug Band and others) passed away 
Sunday morning. That's all I was able to find out so far.... They included 
this link to a nice interview.

http://www.cascadeblues.org/NWBlues/FritzRichmond/FritzRichmond.htm

Al