[Dixielandjazz] Buddy Tate - Benny Waters

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

I am wondering which gig Marek is referring to in his mention of a Buddy Tate Benny Waters performance which went over time. 
If it was in Ryrie's tavern I was there, and frankly that was an exceptional gig, with Buddy Tate playing out of his skin,. I never heard him play better than on the gigs where he was alongside Benny Waters.  Buddy simply ascended to play in a higher class than he belonged to under more circumstances,  after which Benny proceeded to outplay him comprehensively. Number after number.  Buddy had also brought along a flute, as well as tenor and clarinet. Benny had clarinet, alto and tenor, and was on better form than when Jake Hanna heard him for the first time a few years later and with eyes wide and hair standing on end declared him the greatest living saxophonist. 
When Benny was told this by somebody who had watched Jake's hair rise and his eyes leave their sockets on first hearing Benny on tenor, Benny said it was just a matter of Jake not having heard him before.
When Benny switched to clarinet Dave Green turned to me and said he'd never heard a more beautiful sound on the instrument.

I'm not all that sure they overran badly at the Ryrie's gig, a narrow upstairs bar with the band at one end and the exits narrow stairs.  Before the next band could be set up the Benny & Buddy group had to dismantle and get down the same stairs the audience had overflowed into and wanted to use to leave and allow the next gig to take place, 
There was a definite problem of changeover, quite apart from finishing on time, and as Marek will remember, anytime Buddy and Benny were sharing the same bandstand that year the word exceptional applied. The following year, Benny had to drop out for temporary medical reasons, being replaced by Al Cohn, and the year after Buddy had heart surgery and was replaced by Hal Singer. I think Red Rodney was happy enough to have a gig with Hal, but he was seriously upset about Buddy's health problem. I missed that and also Red's gig with Benny, after which Edinburgh never saw either Buddy or Benny again..