[Dixielandjazz] gangster songs/tunes

[Bill Gunter]

I remember Capone's Chicago Tea Room in Sacramento.  It was on Fulton Avenue 
and it's where Ringwald's band "Fulton Street Jazz Band" got its name.

I also worked there for a while with Bob and remember it well.  When they 
first opened, the door was built to look like a telephone booth and when you 
stepped into it the back wall of the telephone booth would open into the 
joint. It had great ambiance!

That just reminded me that in Budapest (the on in Hungary) there is a night 
club called "Alcatraz" and all the employees dress up in prison garb and 
when you sit at one of the long tables there is a screen running down the 
middle with openings in it where you could talk to people across the table. 
Sort of like "visitors day" at the prison.

They of course had a jazz band for entertainment and when I was there the 
place was packed. Especially with youngsters who absolutely loved to do 
swing dancing.

Cheers,

Bill "I'm innocent!" Gunter
>From: "Robert S. Ringwald" <robert at ringwald.com>
>To: Bill Gunter <jazzboard at hotmail.com>
>CC: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
>Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] gangster songs/tunes
>Date: Sat, 12 May 2007 17:36:51 -0700
>
>Colin Toomer wrote:
>
>>I would like ideas of songs/tunes to play at a local restaurant called 'Al
>>Capone's' for a gangsters & moll night.
>>
>>Any unusual tunes/songs that would suit the night.
>(snip)
>
>Oddly enough, I worked for 16 1/2 years at a place called Capone's Chicago
>Tea Room in Sacramento, California.  It was patterned after a 1920s 
>speakeasy.
>
>Any songs from the 20s will work.  Anything sounding like Ragtime or
>Dixieland will work.
>
>However, off hand I can think of one tune that I learned from Turk Murphy.
>It is titled "Wise Guys."
>
>Another could be "The Prisoner's Song."  It is an old (maybe) Jimmy Rogers 
>song) or that type, but can be done very effectively in a Jazz style.  The 
>words start off:
>
>"If I had the wings of an angel, over these prison walls I would fly.
>
>I'd fly to the arms of my love one.  And there I'd be willin' to die."
>
>Of course there is always "Chicago."
>
>It has been so many years since the "Roaring 20s" that none of the songs
>have to be authentic 1920.  They just have to sound like they are.
>
>--Bob Ringwald
>
>
>
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