[Dixielandjazz] Valve Bones- a personal view
Don Ingle
dingle at nomadinter.net
Sun Mar 16 12:48:23 PDT 2008
Again the great name drop goes on. Ain't it fun.
I met Bobby when I first went to Jazz Ltd. and had a room in an apt.
near Broaday and Lawrence and he stayed there as well. Nice player -- a
sweet sounding style and no frills cornet that made every note count. I
only met Danny Alvin once, but when I worked with Joe Marsala I heard
dozens of Alvin stories. I used to go into the 1111 Club under the L on
Bynmar (SP.) mant times when I was still going to college in Michigan
and used to come to town to catch some jazz. (That club never carded
anyone over 15.) At that time Del Lincoln (Bert Arronson) was on cornet,
and another great player.. When I was a kid (and a Chicago-born one at
that), he and his wife Alene and daughter Patty lived in the same
apartment building as my family did and we were all close friends.
Of course there was the squirrelly one, Hey Hey Humphries, a good
drummer with more than a few loose screws. They finally shipped him out
to a state funny farm downstate around Matoon, but he was a memory-maker
first class. Between his side show antics and Brunis playing trombone
with his feet it was a real twilight zone of trad jazz but had its moments.
Send me your mailing address off line and I will slip you something with
Mr. Hedges and I sharing some fun at a Jazz at Noon session you might
appreciate.
Hope the eyes are doing okay. I will be having a cateract taken out on
one eye this spring. Getting to the point of my reading with a Popeye
look -- one eye lid scrunched tight.
Hell -- got good use of the old one for 77 years, so a new lens may make
me gain a younger outlook on things.
I do keep in touch with Wayne Jones and a few of the old Chicago gang.
Hope to see them this spring when we head over to the BigWindy for a
week of obsessive behavior at several old watering holes.
Nice to hear those old friends' names. It brings some warm thoughts.
Don Ingle
Marty Nichols wrote:
> yep Don, Doc was a fine dixie
> drummer. i met him while playing together at 1111 club. i hit Chi town
> a little ahead of you. Chuck Hedges and i shared an apt while we both
> cut our teeth on the scene. i played with D Alvin, Bob Ballard and if
> i could type without my glassed a whole bunch
> more. i m having a surgery on my nose so --- no
> glasses.
>
> */Don Ingle <dingle at nomadinter.net>/* wrote:
>
> Knew Doc Cenardo well. early onin Chicago when he was with the
> JAzz Td.
> band and I used to go into the old club at State and Grand. I later
> worked with Doc in L.A. at the Millionaire's Club with Pete
> Bielmann's
> band, and we got to be even better friends.
> Theman could play the sweetiest press rolls this side of New
> Orleans.Doc
> was the go between with Bill Rheinhardt at Jazz Ltd. when I was hired
> for the turmper chair inthe 60's. Over all I put in nearly five years
> there from '63 to '68.
> Nioce to hear Doc's name again. His wife was a neat lady, too.
> Don
>
> Marty Nichols wrote:
> > Don Ingle wrote:"
> > Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:20:19 -0400
> > From: Don Ingle
> > Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Valve Bones - a personal view.
> > To: DJML
> > Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List
> > Message-ID: <47DAB3D3.20006 at nomadinter.net>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> >
> > I have played a Conn V-bone that I picked out of the line at the
> > Elkhart
> > plant in the 60's when I was still in the house band at
> Chicago's Jazz
> > Ltd. on trumpet.
> > I had played valve bone as a double with the Ted Weems Band --
> all the
> >
> > trumpet players doubled so there was a four trombone "choir" on some
> > charts.
> > I took three horns back to Chicago to try out for two weeks,
> sent two
> > back, bought the other and have used it ever since. (Those who
> have any
> >
> > of the LP's or CD's of the Sons Of Bix will hear it on that band
> (since
> >
> > we had the wonderful Bixian cornet sound of Tom Pletcher so other
> > cornet
> > players need not apply.) I also played v-bone with Joe Marsala in a
> > quintette in Aspen, and onseveral L.A. gigs with Rosy McHargue - not
> > the
> > Conn then but an old hock shop Austrian horn I'd picked up for
> $40 in
> > my
> > Senor year at MSU. It played enough to do the job but was a
> stuffy horn
> >
> > that wore one out.
> > The Conn V-bone is built on an odd combination -- pistons -
> over-bored
> > -
> > are from a trumpet design, the 22-B; the bell is off a Conn 6-H
> > trombone, (and hanging on to one all night calls from some arm
> muscle
> > conditioning -- just lots of brass.) But that horn has a sound big
> > enough to call in an elk in heat from a mountain away.
> > As to playing in tune - all brass instruments require you to use ear
> > and
> > lip control, as there are areas within any horn that are less in
> tune
> > than others. The constant player learns to lip for these
> instinctively
> > -
> > especially the low D and C sharp on trumpet/cornet. Some horns
> have a
> > trigger that will add length to the third valve tuning slide,
> but most
> > players just lip it by practice.
> > As to other intonation and volume problems, go back to playing right
> > --
> > as in getting enough air into you to support the air stream --
> suck it
> > down to fill the bottom of the gut and use the diaphragm muscles to
> > support it. Practice playing sustained long tones, soft to loud
> to soft
> >
> > again, and lots of them, and much of this problem will disappear.
> > Fundamentals still count on any horn and especially a brass one.
> >
> > Yamaha has made a decent V bone -- Reynold made them and they
> were, in
> > my humble opinion, a waste of good brass. Each player must
> decide what
> > sounds right and plays well for himself. Satisfy yourself first,
> then
> > play your best and stand.
> > At least for a change there has been talk about V-bones without the
> > usual 'put down' as to not belonging in a trad band. Valve trombones
> > are
> > what they are - and in the hands of a player that puts in the
> time and
> > effort, can be capable of very good jazz - in any jazz band,
> trad or
> > not. (I evoke the memory of the Condon's with Brad Gowans or Frank
> > Orchard as my best examples.)
> > My opinions --- that's all they are. Having gicen them, I too will
> > stand.
> > Don Ingle"
> >
> > I don't play valve, not since a brief flirtation with one in
> Chicago, circa 1955-57 or so. I was just learning to play slide
> when Bob Brookmeyer came on the national scene and I thought I
> really needed to try valve, so I got a loan from a bank where I
> worked and bought one. My approach was to try and "fake it" , just
> like I did on slide. Didn't work well.
> >
> > I was picking up the valve on a tune or two during a gig
> somewhere on Chicago west side. The only guy I can remember who
> was on the gig was Doc Cenardo (dms), now long deceased but known
> to many OKOM aficionados I'm sure. I used to spot him on breaks,
> standing outside the club and he always seemed to be smiling or
> chuckling. I wonder if he was laughing at me?
> >
> > Anyway, the reason I am posting is to sing the praises of the
> valve bone when in the hands of Bob Brookmeyer. I have several of
> his recordings, the latest being ""KANSAS CITY SOUNDS." By Fresh
> Sound Records (FSR CD 430)
> >
> > If one regards the valve bone as merely a trombone with keys
> instead of slide so as to facilitate faster more "notey"
> > performances, forget it! Bob B. does things with a valve bone
> that should make any slide player envious, and not for speed.
> >
> > Brookmeyer gets effects and tones with his axe that really get
> one's undivided attention. But you have to hear it.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Gerald M."Marty" Nichols
> > Hear Me Play Trombone On "New Orleans" at
> > http://myspace.com/freemarty And
> > Hear Me Sing "Rosetta" at
> > http://www.esnips.com/web/JazzTrombone
> >
> > Click On The Box with a mike and cd ;)
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
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> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
> Gerald M."Marty" Nichols
> Hear Me Play Trombone On "New Orleans" at
> http://myspace.com/freemarty And
> Hear Me Sing "Rosetta" at
> http://www.esnips.com/web/JazzTrombone
>
> Click On The Box with a mike and cd ;)
>
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