[Dixielandjazz] Big Sid Catlett /Louis armstrong

[Thad McArthur]

Hi Ken,  I am responding to your post re Dream Performances you wished you 
had seen--a 1947 concert in Chicago featuring Louis Armstrong--I picked up 
this info from an Ed Coltrin response to your "Dream" post which I didn't 
receive and am contacting you thru your Sid Catlett post which in this case 
seems appropriate.

If you thought you might enjoy the Chicago 1947 Armstrong outting you would 
have been quite ecstatic over his engagement in the Summer of 1948 at Billy 
Berg's, Sunset and Vine, Hollywood, CA, which I attended at least 4 or 5 
nights.   The engagement was for several weeks or more as I remember it.  It 
was hailed as the rebirth of Traditional Jazz.  It featured all the guys you 
would really like to see and hear, including Sid Catlett, Jack Teagarden, 
Barney Bigard and Earl Hines.  The only junior member of the club was Arvell 
Shaw on bass, whose talent as you know, propelled him to a long and 
acclaimed career.  Berg's was a fairly large and open club and the musicians 
sat/stood at floor level in an informal and changing arrangement toward the 
south end of the club with the patrons very close to them on three sides.  I 
have never been so close to performing first line musicians in any venue 
(Stan Kenton once came up to the fraternity house and worked on our Steinway 
for two hours, another interesting afternoon).   The program was set but 
somewhat flexible.  They played a lot of the standards, little or nothing of 
the unknown or obscure, at appropriate tempos, they didn't rush.  Strong 
ensemble openings, solos, solos with back-up riffing, two or three great 
out-choruses.  The people went wild, there was no doubt you were in the 
presence of greatness.  One of the things that you look back on in later 
years is how well it all went together.  The audience was so close, there 
were so many talents to be accommodated, they were so nice to each other, 
everybody got heard, a lot.  Louis was undoubtedly the leader and probably 
only he could make the musician relationships so easy and the performance 
flow like it did.   The audience heard and experienced exactly what they had 
hoped for.   All this, and it was very reasonable, otherwise I wouldn't have 
been able to enjoy it that many nights.

               Thad McArthur
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Mathieson" <ken at kenmath.free-online.co.uk>
To: "Thad McArthur" <wthadmc at whidbey.com>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: 01/09/2009 2:40 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Big Sid Catlett & All the other drummers!


> Hi Bill,
>
> Thanks for the heads up on this site. The narrative is fairly minimal, but 
> the photos are great. I'll take some time to check out some of the other 
> drummers, or at least some of those that I've heard of!
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ken Mathieson
> www.classicjazzorchestra.org.uk
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