[Dixielandjazz] Waltzing with Henry-- HL Mencken's Saturday Night Club

[Norman Vickers]

To:  Musicians and serious jazzfans list; DJML and Pensacola Mencken List

From: Norman Vickers, Jazz Society of Pensacola

 

I realize that the following will be of interest to some.  It's ok to skip
it.  There will be no quiz!

 

This is about music, American culture-especially Baltimore-- in the first
half of the 20th century and H. L. Mencken, the most important man in
American Literature in the 20s and early 30s. ( Mencken hated jazz-couldn't
play it. Didn't try.)

 

Mencken-newspaperman, magazine editor, critic, iconoclast-was an amateur
pianist who loved classical music, especially German.  He was a bachelor for
most of his life 1880-1956.  He organized a stag  group-musical, dining,
drinking and discussion-called Saturday Night Club.

 

The article for which I give the link is about a musical researcher who has
gone through the archived  music and gives his findings and insights.

Thanks to Oleg Panczynko who manages the official H. L. Mencken Society
website ( there are others) and to Frank Forman who manages the national
Mencken e-list.

 

Pensacola connection:  in 1980, we celebrated Mencken's centennial by
re-creating the Saturday Night Club.  Two of our attendees had studied in
Baltimore at the Peabody Conservatory under Louis Cheslock, who was also the
youngest member Mencken's Saturday Night Club and music librarian.  Cheslock
wrote our pianist Jimmy Guest about what music would be appropriate to play
for the evening's event. Our local group has an annual banquet honoring
Mencken. 

 

If you have read this far, here's the link:  Waltzing with Henry

http://www.urbanitebaltimore.com/includes/print.cfm?sectionID=4
<http://www.urbanitebaltimore.com/includes/print.cfm?sectionID=4&IssueID=72&
ArticleID=1216&print=1> &IssueID=72&ArticleID=1216&print=1

 

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