[Dixielandjazz] Frank Chace

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

In 1946 Norman Mason the St. Louis clarinetist complained to Paul Oliver about havin to play in an anonymous standardised style rather than the native style.  I suspected this style was represented by a slightly sourish sound in Pee Wee and in Gene Sedric.  Then I heard the young Frank Chace on the recent Delmark CD issued under the name of the otherwise almost unrecorded Dewey Jackson (Bob Koester recorded the gig with a borrowed tape machine in 1952 in St. Louis). At first I supposed the clarinetist had to be a local, though the band was really Don Ewell's with Jackson subbing on trumpet due to the development of Lee Collins's emphysema. 
It's quite possible that as a member of the Ewell band Frank Chace brought a St. Louis style to St. Louis!  Very good he was, and I gather he is on some other live recordings with 1920s players quite apart from other recordings which hadn't reached me..  
I knew nothing about him before the Delmark issue, and with the sadness of his passing so soon after it is at least good that he was allowed to leave some recordings able to make a real and individual impression. 

       
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