[Dixielandjazz] Phil Zito

[Charles Suhor]

On Jan 16, 2007, at 10:37 AM, Bob Loomis wrote:
> Bill Haesler wrote:
> "Herewith the details of the Phil Zito sides you
> are looking for ... (snip)"
>    Funny, just last night I was reading the
> opening chapter of Charlie Suhor's Jazz in New
> Orleans - The Postwar Years Through 1970." He
> mentions buying a "mix-and-match drum set" as a
> young student from Phil Zito and mentions
> parenthetically that Zito was "a true eccentric,
> I later learned." I haven't gotten to the place
> in the book where he explains this, but perhaps
> he will chime in here with further details.
>
> Bob Loomis
> Concord CA

Here's a bit more on Zito.  On pp. 130-131, I expand on 
him--affectionately, as regards "the compulsive eagerness" of his 
"run-on personalty." As regards his drumming, not so much. Essentially, 
most of Zito's band--Fountain, Girard, Rotis, and Zimmerman--fired the 
leader after the 1950 Columbia release and a gig at the El Morocco on 
Bourbon Stree. They brought in Charlie Duke on drums and Bunny Frank on 
bass, and became the Basin Street Six, most popular band in the local 
revival. It was Zito, though, who had the insight to put together the 
great front line and swinging pianist Roy Zimmerman. Interesting 
aside--Phil's bassist, Emile Christian, was the oldster in the group. 
He had replaced Eddie Edwards on trombone with the ODJB in 1919-21. 
Bunny Frank was a "hotter" player but not a seasoned vet. Around that 
time I was a sixteen year old drummer in Joe Helwick's weekend 
Dixieland/dance combo, with Tom Brown playing bass and occasional 
trombone.

Charlie Suhor