[Dixielandjazz] Small World was Jitterbugging (Harlem)

[Steve barbone]

EDWIN COLTRIN <boreda at sbcglobal.net> wrote

> Thanks for the article,Steve.
> 
> I didn't know all that had preceded me in 1943. I was attending CCNY in the
> Army in 1944. On two occassions I walked from CCNY to the city through Harlem,
> down Lenox Ave. On my way to Eddie Condons Town Hall  Concerts.
> 
> Didn't realize that a dumb west-coaster was walkng through a very troubled
> area. More interested in the early musicl history than any thought of racial
> problems. There hadn't been any problems in the S.F. Bay area that I knew of.
> Possibly because I was searching out musicians, White or Black. This took me
> into some different locations.

Small world Ed. Actually, other than that 1943 riot, Harlem was pretty safe
until 1960 or so. I played some joints there in integrated bands in the
1950's and never had problems.

Funny thing, in 1989, I was getting my chops back after a 30 year layoff
from playing. I sat in, on occasion, with a group in Philly, led by a black
sax player. He asked me where I was from, detecting a slight NYC accent.

"New York City, Queens County", I replied.

He replied, "I was brought up in Harlem on 118th Street."

"Ha", said I, "In the 1950s, I used to gig not far from there with a drummer
from Germany, White, who married a Black gal. They lived with her family on
118th for a while till they got there own apartment in the same building. I
can't remember his name, but he used to brag about how well he was treated
by Blacks there in contrast to the trouble he got from Whites downtown.
Walter something or other, from Frankfurt."

The sax player broke up saying; "Walter Muller, he married my Aunt and as a
kid, I lived across the hall."

Small world.

Cheers,
Steve