[Dixielandjazz] eddie condon

[Robert Ringwald]

cebuisle2 at aol.com wrote:
 
>I just revisited a CD I have of Condon's band-and saw for the first time he was playing a 4 string guitar. Believe this is a tenor guitar? I always thought he played a conventional guitar.


 I believe his guitar was tuned like a plectrum banjo.  



> The 4 stringer has a rather thin tone-which accounts for the fact I can't really hear him on recordings. Is it tuned the same way as the banjo he used to play? 


When I was a kid and used to listen to Condon recordings on crappy turntables and amps, I couldn't hear Condon either.  I used to think that he was a figment of someone's imagination.  

Since then, on better equipment, of course I can hear him now.  



> I remember visiting his place in NYC many years ago, and it seemed he was doing more table hopping than playing. Given that he never soloed? how did he get a reputation as a top flight jazz player??? I > know his wit couldn't be beat--but his playing??????? 
   

Condon was quite a character besides being a fine musician.  

There are musicians and then there are band leaders.  Not all musicians are cut out to be band leaders.  

 When I moved from Tinsel Town back to the Sacramento area, I vowed never to lead a band again.  I had been a band leader since the age of 12 -- And here I am, a band leader once again.  

Condon was the glue that put it all together.  Besides being a fine musician, he was good in handling musicians.  He was also good at PR which we all agree is very important in the music biz.  

I understand from musicians who played in Condon bands, that he and some of the musicians, Bobby Hackett for instance, used to spend all afternoon sitting on his couch running chords to songs.  

I know that Dick Cary was very well off with investments.  He once told me that Condon took very good care of the musicians.  

I have also heard that his club was really owned by the Mafia and that Condon was just the front man.  

On one of his recordings from the 50s, he has Pete Pesky (SP) listed as playing trumpet.  Pesky was really the club manager.  I think the real trumpet player was Hackett.  Hackett was probably under contract to another recording Co.  

Anyway, Condon was very important to the Jazz scene through the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s.  Some of the finest recordings probably wouldn't have happened if it weren't for Condon.  

Speaking of musicians using assumed names to record, Benny Goodman once recorded under the name of Shoeless Joe Jackson, I believe it was.  I am not good at remembering details so I could have the names wrong.  I'm sure that Bill Haesler will correct me if I am wrong.  

There is a story about Louis Armstrong being called into the office of a recording exec and having a record played that was obviously him.  It was on a different label.  

Louis is supposed to have said, "That isn't me and I'll never do it again."  

--Bob (Now which end of this piano do I blow in to?) Ringwald


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