[Dixielandjazz] The Bolden band photo - one more time

[Anton Crouch]

Hello all

As promised (? threatened) late last year, I have some more info on this
important artefact of jazz history.

The full reference to the article I mentioned is:

Ashforth, Alden (1985).  "The Bolden band photo - one more time". Annual
Review of Jazz Studies, No. 3, 1985, pp 171-180. Transaction Books, New
Brunswick, NJ.

As mentioned  before, the article makes a compelling case for the
conclusion that the photo was printed the wrong-way around in the 1939
"Jazzmen". I am happy with the "reversed" version printed in Rose &
Souchon (1967) "New Orleans jazz - a family album", p 160, and Hardie
(2001) "The loudest trumpet", p 43.

BUT - nothing is ever simple.

Ashforth goes further and concludes that from "Jazzmen" onwards most
people have got the identity of the clarinetists wrong! The conventional
assignment is that Willie Warner is standing and Frank Lewis is sitting.

Dan Hardie discusses the "puzzle" of the clarinets in "The loudest 
trumpet" (p 101) but sticks with the received opinion, ie Warner 
standing and Lewis sitting.

Ashforth, however, argues that the reverse is the case. Lewis was known
to play the B flat clarinet and Warner the C clarinet - therefore, on
visual evidence, Lewis is the standing player and Warner the sitting player.

This is also the view of Rose & Souchon (p 160).

Dan - over to you  :-)

All the best
Anton