[Dixielandjazz] Pee Wee Russell Anecdote

[Don Ingle]

Bill Haesler wrote:
> Dear Steve,
> There I go again!
> I should have reread the Eddie Condon book account in full and not taken
> your abridged version.
> Sorry.
> However, in an attempt to redeem myself, I checked out the facts in Robert
> Hilbert's fine book 'Pee Wee Russell. The Life of A Jazzman' (1993. Oxford
> University Press).
> Pee Wee opened at the Brass Rail on 6 July 1940 [I suspect Mr Hilbert meant
> 1941, as he also mentions that Pee Wee's health was poor and and, after
> resting in Chicago he returned to New York in time for a November 1941 job
> at Ryans.
> So what do the much-maligned discographers say?
> That on 15 July 1941 'Downbeat' reported the following Jimmy McPartland band
> at the Brass Rail:
> McPartland, c; George Brunies, tb; Pee Wee Russell, cl; Joe Sullivan, p;
> Eddie Condon, g; Hank Isaacs, d.
> And who was Hank Isaacs?
> He recorded with Jimmy McPartland's Squirrels in Chicago for Decca on 11 Oct
> 1939 with McPartland; Bud Jacobson, cl; Boyce Brown, as; Floyd Bean, p; Dick
> McPartland, g; Jim Lannigan, sb.
>     Jazz me blues  
>     China boy      
>     The world is waiting for the sunrise
>     Sugar      
> A session we all know and love - and well overdue for reissue on CD.
>
> So Steve, you get the ceegar agin.
> It WAS a local drummer.
> Kind regards,
> Bill. 
>
>
>
>  
>
>
>
> . It was Jimmy McPartland's gig and it seems that Joe Sullivan was in the
> band. Mr Hilbert quotes the 'milk story'. The McPartland band had a
> successful month-long engagement at the Brass Rail which was broadcast
> nightly over local CBS radio.
>
>
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>
>   
Bill et al:
The "Squirrels" reference was to North Side jazz maven and sometimes 
pianoman-lawyer-cum-Bixophile Squirrel Ashcroft, at whose home many 
sessions were held. Among the other regulars who attened these sessions 
at Squirrels were drummer Orm Downs, bassist Joe "Country Washburne, Red 
Ingle, Rosey McHargue and others from the Ted Weems band, bass saxist 
Joe "Blizzard Head" Rushton, plus an assorted bunch of drop-ins from 
Squirrels' Yale jazz band alums. There were some Sessions at Squirrels 
recordings pressed and released, though my copy is long gone into the 
fuzzy limbo of too many moves over the years.
McPartland was a regular at these sessions, and interestingly enough, 
some of these  session groups dubbed themselves the "Sons of Bix." We, 
the members of the latter day band of that name, stole the title without 
a hint of guilt or remorse. So be it.
Bud Freeman sometimes attended when in town. And  as an added bit of 
trivia, I sat directly behind Emily Ann Freeman, Bud's niece, in Swift 
elementary school in North side Chicago in the 1930's, and admit to 
putting chewing gum into her braids when she wasn't looking. Chicago 
kids were mean little sons of bitches -- had to be to survive. I am 
so-o-o-o much more mellow in my dotage.
Don Ingle