[Dixielandjazz] Cubs Band Article

[dingle at baldwin-net.com]

jcblegen at sbcglobal.net wrote:

>I thought some list members might be interested in this Chicago Sun Times article on Ted 
>Butterman and the Chicago Cubs Dixieland Band:
>
>http://www.suntimes.com/output/cubs/cst-ftr-butter07.html
>
>and, if you're interested, opening day was COLD.
>
>
>  
>
I will add a Butterman story (but first note that the article called 
Eric Schnieder a guitarist, but the last I heard he was atill a 
saxophone player.)
I played a date with the Sons of Bix at the Long Grove (IL) Village 
Tavern a number of years ago, and Butterman, who I did not know at the 
time, came in and sat in with the band a few numbers. As he played, I 
listened to a very good cornet picker, and began to watch him -- a 
mistake for one who knows  the fingerings of  the cornet pretty well. 
But Butterman's fingerings did not fit any of the notes I knew in the 
key we were in. I thought I was having an acid trip - though not ever 
having taken acid I could only guess that it was like this. To say it 
about blew my mind to watch his fingerings comes close.
Turns  out, as I later was told, Ted learned to play by ear and his old 
78 player was a half tone off chromatically. So he figured out the 
fingerings to fit what he played along with, and later when sitting in 
with a band let his ear guide him to match the key with his unorthidox 
fingering. I was also told -- hearsay, mind you -- that he had a cornet 
made to play with his odd fingering.
Regardless, that night with Butterman seemed at the time to bea bit of  
Twilight Zone hapening.
As a Northsider born, I was a Cubbie fan made -- that Ted et al keeps 
the jazz we like alive in Chicago is great and I know that Ted has done 
us all justice in the Big Windy jazz tradition. At least, for good 
music, we don't  have to "Wait until next year!"
Don Ingle