[Dixielandjazz] Jim K ~ Ory ~ Rosolino ~ Winding

[Jtnt at aol.com]

Richard Flecknell wrote:
 
<<Superb Dukes and a most unusual Helicon player who I believe  can/did 
play bop on it. He's certainly nippy on the Dukes session. I think he  was 
called Ron Mathieson, not sure of spelling.>>
 
Close; it was Rich Matteson RIP who had previously played with Scobey's  
band.
 
A couple stories:
 
When Scobey came to the Twin Cities (Mpls-St. Paul), '57-'58, we would be  
there every night. Always had a front table right in front of Scobey so we 
got  the front line playing right at us. Wife Nan had been chasing 2 toddlers 
all day  long and was pretty tired by the time the 2nd set came along. One 
night she  actually nodded off, asleep, with that front line blasting us. 
Next night she  did it again. Rich came around to the front of the stage, 
leaned over, put the  bell over head and gave her a wake up blast; she woke up. 
After that it happened  every night; got so the regulars would be watching 
for Nan to start  nodding off and gave her a hand when Rich woke her up  :-)
 
One night, the new pianist got lost on the way to the club. Set started  
without him. Matteson sat at the piano playing helicon with one hand, piano 
with  other.
 
We got transferred to CA spring '59 and were very happy to see an upcoming  
concert advertised with both The Dukes and Scobey, our 2 favorites. But was 
 disappointed when Scobey's band showed up w/o Matteson. Then pleasantly  
surprised to see him when the Dukes came out.
 
Rich has always been one of my favorites, but there were many Mouldy Figges 
 who never took to him complaining of "too many notes". They were probably 
also  the ones who never took to the Dukes; some even calling them a "comedy 
 band".  Wonder what those folks thought of FH5+2???  Another band that  
joined the ranks of our favorites
 
Catch more Matteson stuff at   _http://www.richmatteson.com/_ 
(http://www.richmatteson.com/) 
 
Jack Thomas