[Dixielandjazz] NY Times Twenty Year Old Jazz Review

[Steve Barbone]

This was about 10 years after Eddie Condon's passing and shows the power his
name still had.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone


JAZZ: A CONDON REUNION

NY TIMES - By JOHN S. WILSON - June 15, 1986

SINCE Eddie Condon's, the jazz club, lost its home on West 54th Street to
the wreckers' ball a year ago, the two musicians who own the club - the
cornetist Ed Polcer and the guitarist Red Balaban - have been looking for a
new location. No permanent place has materialized yet, but for four weeks,
through July 5, a floating group of Condon's veterans will be taking part in
what has been called ''the first annual reunion of the Condon's gang'' at
Michael's Pub, 211 East 55th Street.

On Thursday evening, the ''gang'' included the clarinetist Kenny Davern, the
bassist Bob Haggart, the drummer Bobby Rosengarden, the trombonist Tom Artin
and the pianist Mark Shane, along with Mr. Polcer and Mr. Balaban. Mr. Artin
was particularly impressive, in part because he is not as well known as some
of the other musicians on the stand. He is in the mainstream of the Condon's
trombone tradition that stems from the boisterous manner of Georg Brunis,
moving through slippery dips and bows and descending to sudden dark and
climactic exclamations at the bottom of the horn.

The presence of both Mr. Haggart and Mr. Rosengarden led to their familiar
bass and drum duet on ''Big Noise From Winnetka,'' in which Mr. Haggart's
gap-toothed whistling has become more air than whistle, and to his
composition ''South Rampart Street Parade,'' to which Mr. Rosengarden has
added the rhythmic whistle-blowing of Brazilian street parades. Mr. Davern
sometimes produced distant echoes of Pee Wee Russell's wry style on clarinet
but was unusually rich and robust as he filled out ''Wrap Your Troubles In
Dreams.'' 

Although the atmosphere of Michael's Pub - white tablecloths and an airy,
spacious room - is more formal than Eddie Condon's was, the spirit of
Condon's is rekindled whenever the musicians start playing.