[Dixielandjazz] Buck Clayton & Terrassi's

[Stephen G Barbone]

Dear Marek and List Mates:

Excerpts from Buck Clayton's Jazz World. (Autobiography) Time frame is  
1950-52

"Gigs (one time jobs, my note) were mostly the thing of the day. There  
were not too many jobs that were steady unless you belonged with a few  
chosen musicians that played regularly in the Village at the jazz  
joints there such as Nick's, Eddie Condon's, etc . . . One day I met  
Tony Parenti who asked me what I was doing and I told him just what  
was happening. . . . I didn't expect him to have any gigs for me,  
because I only knew about two dixieland numbers and I wasn't too sure  
of those."

"Tony says to me, 'Buck, I have a group but we only play dixieland. We  
sure would like to work with you if you'd be intersted in learning  
some dixieland tunes. . . ."

"We met at Tony's . . . and I began to get my first lessons in  
dixieland. . . before long i was beginning to get the drift of things  
and I kinda liked it. The main thing I learned about dixieland was  
getting the format together. There are certain routines of dixieland  
numbers, certain modulations, and once you learn these routines you  
are on your way, as you can play anything you want on your solos. So I  
learned the formats, but when it came time for my solo, I would play a  
typical Kansas City style solo. Sandy Williams (Ellington and Chick  
Webb trombonist - my note) was a big help to me in learning because he  
had also learned how to play dixieland . . . "

"After several gigs with Tony and Sandy, I went into a jazz house off  
Broadway called Lou Terrassi's. Lou's place was a swinging joint and  
was a favorite place for jazz fans that didn't want to go down to the  
Village. All of the guys from Broadway would come in and listen to  
such guys as Buster Bailey, Willie 'The Lion' Smith, Red Allen,  
Charlie Shavers, and a lot of others. So I went in with Kenny Kersey,  
Herb Fleming and Sol Yaged and we stayed there for some time. It was  
really something else because the room was dark and there was rally  
some good jazz coming out of that place. Lou, however, later sold the  
place and moved to Florida but it sure was a pleasant gig while it  
lasted." END EXCERPTS


Clayton's experiences were similar to those of a lot of black, big  
band "swing" musicians around that time
in New York City. Big band swing gigs virtually disappeared and so  
guys like Clayton, Vic Dickenson, Jonah Jones, Wilbur DeParis, Sidney  
DeParis, Sandy Williams, and others all learned how to play Dixieland  
in order to make a living. And as Clayton said, a "Kansas City"  
influence merged in to the NY and/or Condon, and/or New Orleans  
Revival (Conrad Janis) styles that were prevalent in the Big Apple in  
the 1950s. It is too bad that not much of it was recorded back then as  
it was very powerful dixieland jazz.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband