[Dixielandjazz] C Melody sax, Jack Pettis, Ben Bernie film

[Charlie Coleman]

Hi Listees,   I had been thinking of posting something on Pettis when I saw the recent thread on the Ben Bernie film.  I've long been a fan of Pettis and wondered why he didn't get more attention.  I guess he stood in the very long shadow of Frank Trumbauer but Pettis was there at the beginning - with the Friars Society/NORK and later with other Irving   Mills groups as well as under his own name with Goodman, Teagarden, Lang, Venuti etc. I guess that his style is an aquired taste (like olives), but even Richard Sudhalter in his epic "Lost Chords" gives Pettis faint praise - "Pettis was available" and words to the effect that he was a capable player but never got past the bovine sound of the C-melody sax.  He dropped out of sight in the late 20's and made one final recording in the late 1930's which I've never heard.  I guess the parade had passed him by but I still treasure his recordings.
Regards,  Charlie (MOO) Coleman