[Dixielandjazz] Dixieland Droopy Band

[Stephen G Barbone]

>  "M J (Mike) Logsdon" <mjl at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
> Considering the high quality of the playing, why haven't researchers  
> merely assumed it was Pee Wee's band?  Would Pee Wee have been  
> likely to turn down such an offer?

Dear Mike:

Hunt probably would have relished such an offer. However the MGM  
studio orchestra probably had quite a few jazz musicians on salary.  
Similarly to the Radio studio bands at the time. So it would have been  
cheaper for them to use studio musicians than to hire an outside band.

During the 1940s and 1950s, many jazz musicians joined the various  
studio orchestras in order to make a living, For example, guys like  
Pee Wee Erwin, and Hank D'Amico and many other jazzers all worked as  
studio musicians in NYC.

And in the 1930s recording studios had their own stable of studio  
musicians which included Benny Goodman, the Dorsey Brothers, Miff  
Mole, Red Nichols Jack Teagarden and others et al.

Studio musicians are all versatile, top level players who could  
routinely produce what we hear in Dixieland Droopy. I think they did  
so in the musical backing of most of the cartoons produced during the  
30s, 40s and 50s. Much of that music was Dixieland. (Carl Stallings  
productions etc.)

Even today, there are cartoon music bands, reprising that music For an  
example near you, see:

http://www.afm6.org/ArtistProfile_JeffSanfordsCartoonJazzBand.htm.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband