[Dixielandjazz] Fiddler Williams

[lrg4003 at aol.com]

Claude passed away in Kansas City on April 26, 2004.  In some small way I always though of him of the Wally Pipp of jazz players (for you non-mainlanders, Pipp was the baseball player who took a day off and was replaced by Lou Gehrig who went on to set a then major league record for consecutive appearances.)  His Basie replacement of course was Freddie Green, who went on to play with Basie and later Basie re-incarnations for 50 years.

Fortunately "Fiddler" kept up with his violin and became one of the great performers on the instrument.  I met him 10 years ago when I arranged to have him do a sound track for a t.v. spot I was producing for a jazz loving client.  His younger wife dropped him off.  He played impeccably without charts for about an hour and later pulled me over to the side to tell me he was carrying a knife in his boot because "You should always have somethin' to protect, that's how I grew up."   Sorry I never had a chance to perform with him as my friend Eupher Dude did.  

One other piece of Fiddler trivia.  When he passed away, he was supposed the last surviving jazz player to have recorded prior to 1930.

KC Clarinet



-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Mathieson <ken at kenmath.free-online.co.uk>
To: Larry Garrett <lrg4003 at aol.com>
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Sat, Apr 10, 2010 11:44 am
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Fiddler Williams


Hi Eupher et al,
I'm sorry to hear Fiddler has gone to the great jam session in the sky. He could 
lay like crazy and was, as you say, a nice man. The golden smile was a bit 
pecial too!
Cheers,
Ken Mathieson
ww.classicjazzorchestra.org.uk
______________________________________________
o unsubscribe or change your e-mail preferences for the Dixieland Jazz Mailing 
ist, or to find the online archives, please visit:
http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz

Dixielandjazz mailing list
ixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com