[Dixielandjazz] So who's this Jim Cullum...?

[David Dustin]

Tom Wiggins wrote:

> As an admittedly "Johnny Come lately" to this genre of music I had
> never heard of Jim Cullum, Jim Beebe, Charlie Hooks, Kenny Davern, Ed
> Polcer, Johnny Varro, Jim Kash, Vince Giardono, Tom Saunders, Duke
> Heiteger,  and countless others,  why?  Because they were hidden from
> the Public Eye and ear if indeed they were ever there in the first
> place, outside their hometowns or Trad. Jazz Society gigs.

Tom, I agree with a lot that you¹ve said in recent posts but I¹ve just got
to say that Jim Cullum and his terrific trad band is and has appeared weekly
on NPR or PRI with his Riverwalk series from the Landing at San Antonio,
probably for the last 20 years.  Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks Orchestra
are a fixture on the east coast OKOM scene, and Vince guests frequently on
bass sax with the Shoe Band on Prairie Home Companion and was the music
director for a couple of recent films, including ³The Aviator². He was also
spotlighted in the Sunday NY Times about 4 months ago.  Duke Heitger, the
youngest of these players, reached a national audience with the Squirrel Nut
Zippers retro-jazz band (if you¹re over 50 you may not have heard of them)
and is out there nationally and internationally as a terrific jazzer out of
the New Orleans tradition, etc.  If you haven¹t heard of these monster
players, it¹s not because they are hiding under a rock or failing to find an
audience or not being excellent OKOM jazz ambassadors in the current
cultural scene.  Perhaps you should get out a little more, or at least turn
your radio on over their in the Bay Area.  A lot of good OKOM jazz has been
going down since Turk Murphy stomped Earthquake McGoon¹s.....

Fuerte y afinado,
David Dustin