[Dixielandjazz] OKOM RADIO FROM FRED'S FARM

[Steve Barbone]

While some list mates were at San Diego this weekend, a few of us here in
the Eastern USA met for some radio program taping and a F2F at Fred's Farm
in Warbasse, NJ. (Near Newton in the rural Northwest part of that state)
Fred played tuba in the Southampton Dixie, Racing and Clambake Society JB in
the 1960s when Joe Ashworth replaced me after I moved to California.

Tom Wiggins' number one fan, list mate Nancie Beaven was there as part of
the live audience and so I was fortunate to have both my wife (Martha) and
my girlfriend at the taping. :-) VBG

We did 3 one hour radio shows for www.okom.com, an internet radio station
located at Bill Taggart's (Fred's Farm) house. Located there is a state of
the art recording studio plus all the electronics for internet broadcast.
Tune in some time for the music you like, plus some of the corny humor of
the Bob & Ray show back in the old radio days.

The band was eclectic as were some of the songs we recorded. It included
list mate Rick Knittel on trombone; Crazy Harry on Piano; Bruce McNichols
banjo; Norm Burbank tuba; Robbie Scott drums; Jim Fryer trombone; Bob Leive
trumpet; Brett Boyd trumpet; and special guest from Nimes in the south of
France, Michel Bastide (Hot Antic JB) on trumpet.

Michel and his wife are going to be in NYC the next few days and Martha gave
Ms. Bastide some tips on shopping while I tried to convince them to see Ken
Peplowski at Lincoln Center in "Dizzy's Club Coca Cola". As many might know,
he is a retired ophthalmologist who every year travels to Mauritania for 3
weeks to perform eye operations on the locals at clinics there. He donates
his services. Heck of a guy as well as a fine player.

Michel sang "Breeze" beautifully, as well as his own Lina's Blues. And
played some really fine music. Brett Boyd (19 years old now + or - a year)
proved to be one hell of an OKOM player. It might behoove some of the
festivals looking for younger audiences to investigate this young man's
band. Jim Fryer? Well, what can you say about this guy other than he is the
equal of anyone out there on OKOM trombone today and sings beautifully also.
Rick Knittel did a wonderful job on Basin Street Blues. Robbie Scott (who
drummed with Bobby Short for years) was simply excellent both rhythmically
and soli. Norm Burbank's tuba was rock steady throughout and Stormin Norman
as he is known here ranks with the best of the OKOM Tubists anywhere. Bob
Leive is a real pro, Brett Boyd's mentor, and a wonderful
player/singer/entertainer. Crazy Harry did a neat job on Jimmy Durante's
"Lost Chord" routine which I hope was taped. Bruce did the microphone
patter, played excellent banjo and also dabbled in a plastic recorder. He
also organized the sessions

Me? I was just plain lucky to be there among friends, players and fans.

Other songs included "At The Devil's Ball", "Home", "Blues My Naughty
Sweetie Gives To Me", "Apex Blues". "Minnie The Mermaid", "Sweet Georgia
Brown", "Bourbon Street Parade", "Avalon".

I should have made a list because I am forgetting a bunch of more obscure
tunes. The neat thing was that this was obviously a band that never played
together before, playing some songs that some players didn't know, and
relying on chord charts and lead lines printed instantly on Bill Taggart's
computer, or brought over from France by Michel. (took a couple of seconds
to figure out the French way of indicating "breaks" on his chord charts) The
end result was a very credible band sound, jam session style, one take.

There was something for everybody and we all had a blast. The day ended with
dinner for about 50, supplied by the Taggart's whose home/studio is large
enough to easily accommodate 50 more.

If you get a chance, tune in to www.okom.com sometime for some good OKOM,
some old fashioned radio show programming and just maybe, give a listen to
the three programs we taped yesterday.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone