[Dixielandjazz] Mentoring - Was The 1951 Bob Cats

[Steve Barbone]

Don Ingle at dingle at nomadinter.net wrote: (about Miller and the Bob Cats)

> "where does the tenor sax fit in?")
> When it's Uncle Eddie, anywhere he wanted to. I knew Eddie literally all
> my life, as he and dad often shared times together when the Crosby
> bandplayed the Blackhawks and the Weems band was doen the block at the
> Palmer house. Growing up and starting to play, Eddie and Matty Matlock -
> his doppleganger- would allow me to sit in in their jam sessions as the
> old Club 47 in Studio City. Me and Jackie Coon, Gene Estes, and Jerry
> Fuller as well. they's teach me the right changes to a tune, and
> encourage me. It was a mentoring that I still emain in awe of, but then
> their generation and my dad's were like that. Same goes for my first
> teacher, Red Nichols who lived a few blocks away and helped dad find my
> first cornet (used being war time) and then got suckered into giving me
> my first lessons -- and later hired me to write some charts for the
> Pennies after some study with Matty Matlock. The members of the Bobcats
> were not just great players, they were giving and caring people who
> always had time to help a youngster get a good start.
> If you have not given something back as these gentlemen did, then you
> need to wake up. I have had the great pleasure of working with some
> young players and see them come along.
> It is a great feeling to see talent sudden come into focus.
> Eddie Miller, always "Uncle Eddie" at our place, was a giant on the
> tenor sax, and an even bigger gentleman and mentor to a young wannabe.
> Players need to pass it on -- if we don't, who then?
> Like I said, if it was Eddie Miller, he always had a place on any stand
> I was on...period. I hope you will have the chance to bring a young
> player onto yours.

Amen Don:

I was mentored by almost every jazz player I got to know in the 40s-50s.
Hank D'Amico, Thelonious Monk, Yank Lawson, Chuck Traeger, Sal Pace, Pee Wee
Erwin and a whole bunch of other guys OKOMers wouldn't recognize.

Yessir, they all helped young kids. Today? Damn few take the time to
personally get involved with kids. And when you do, many of your fans and
fellow musicians ask you why you do it. Like they resent it. Go figure?

Shoot, when I started seeking out open mic nights, and/or places to sit in
in 1990 when I picked up the horn again after a 30 year layoff, the most
unhelpful cats were the Dixielanders. So I ended up playing with the young
kids of modern jazz on open mike nights. The modern jazzers were much more
helpful and encouraging to this old moldy fig who wanted to play again.

Different times indeed.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone