[Dixielandjazz] George Melly NY TIMES OBIT

[pat ladd]

George Melly, 80, Jazz Singer With Flair for Extravagance, Is Dead>>

Hi,
 George Melly really came above the radar horizon of the jazz scene at the 
Beaulieu Jazz Festival which was to British Jazz what  Woodstock was  to 
another generation.   Beaulieu was a private estate and the Festival was 
about the first large outside music spectacle in the country, predating 
Glastonbury by several decades.   Much beer was drunk, complaints from 
outraged locals poured in, the police were called and everyone had a great 
time.
The enduring picture of the festival was a very drunk Melly, in his 
twenties, shouting the blues into an empty glass. The picture was later used 
on one of his LP`s.

George was a very physical performer. In his version of Frankie and Johnny 
when he got to the line `root toot toot right through the bar room door` he 
would leap into the air, arriving on the floor centre stage to a resounding 
crash and die..boy did he die.

In his first autobiography which included his Navy service he parodied the 
old description of the British Navy as Rum, Sodomy and the Lash and he 
entitled it ,  Rum, Bum, and gramophone records.  His stories of touring 
with Mulligan were hilarious. He also explained that the fans, known as 
`scrubbers`,who followed the band were usually dedicated to one instrument. 
There were trumpeters scrubbers and drummers scrubbers etc., and as the band 
moved from area to area during the tour the scrubbers would pass their 
player on to the appropriate scrubber in the next area. Rather like the 
baton in a relay race. Quite an appropriate simile really.

Georges outrageous suits were legendary and I heard him tell the story of 
standing in the lavatory of a club in New York in a particularly garish suit 
only to be looked up and down by a couple of (whatever the allowable phrase 
is today)  One looked George up and down and said `Dahling, they are letting 
straights in here now`

George will be missed

Pat