[Dixielandjazz] Prima's Drummers -- Pete Fountain

[Robert S. Ringwald]

Pete's pianist referred to below was Merle Koch pronounced Cook.

After leaving Fountain, he moved to Virginia City NV and opened a night club
named Michele's Silver Stope.  Michele was his wife's name.  She also had a
gift shop next door.

Merle was a wonderful player and great guy.

He used to have jam sessions at his club every Sunday.  Back then, lots of
the Jazz guys would be playing the clubs in Reno and State line and they
would go over to Virginia City on Sundays.

Guys such as Bob havens when the Welk show was in town, John Best, Eddie
miller, Sam Donahue (had the orchestra at the Nugget in Sparks), etc.

The drummer Smoky Stover worked with Merle there for quite a while.

There were some nice recordings made at the club.

--Bob Ringwald


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "J. D. Bryce" <brycejo at comcast.net>
To: "Bob Ringwald" <robert at ringwald.com>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 8:35 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Prima's Drummers


> Interesting list of Prima's drummers.  Godfrey Hirsh played vibes with
> Pete
> Fountain for years.  He's on most of Fountain's small group albums
> throughout the 1960's.  Fountain used a "West Coast" rhythm section
> composed
> of Morty Cobb on bass, Jack Sperling on drums.  They used a pianist named
> Koch, whose first name I think was Earl.  Hirsh fitted in nicely with this
> group.
>
> J. D. Bryce
> One of the Sheik's minions
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "steve yocum" <dayoke54 at hotmail.com>
> To: "Jack Bryce" <brycejo at comcast.net>
> Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 9:25 AM
> Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Prima's Drummers
>
>
> I worked from time to time in the 70's and 80's at Disney Florida with
> Harvey Lang, Prima's drummer 1957-58. Fine fellow even though I once
> counted
> 27 separate surfaces set up around him to bang on. He always enjoyed
> reminising about his Vegas days.
>
> Jimmy Vincent was Prima's drummer from 1944-50. When The Witnesses
> recorded
> in 1956 the drummer was Bobby Morris, then Harvey, then Paul Ferrara, then
> Bobby Morris '59 + 60. Jimmy Vincent returned from 1962-1974 and the
> drummer
> on his last album in 1975 was Joey Vespe.
>
> Earlier drummers from 1933-1940 were (in order) Stan King, Sam Weiss,
> George
> Pemberty, Godfrey Hirsh, Oscar Bradley, John Castaing, Jack Powers.
> _________________________________________________________________
> Climb to the top of the charts! Play Star Shuffle: the word scramble
> challenge with star power.
> http://club.live.com/star_shuffle.aspx?icid=starshuffle_wlmailtextlink_oct
> _______________________________________________
> To unsubscribe or change your e-mail preferences for the Dixieland Jazz
> Mailing list, or to find the online archives, please visit:
>
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>
>
>
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> To unsubscribe or change your e-mail preferences for the Dixieland Jazz
> Mailing list, or to find the online archives, please visit:
>
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>
>
>
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>
>