[Dixielandjazz] Historic Photos of New Orleans Jazz-Review by Charlie Shuhor

[Norman Vickers]

To:  Musicians and JazzFans list and DJML

From: Norman Vickers, Jazz Society of Pensacola

 

Charlie Suhor, currently a resident of Montgomery, AL.  He is a
percussionist from a jazz family, a New Orleans native.  He is author of
book about Jazz in New Orleans, Post WWII.

For Pensacola readers, Charlie is father of Pensacola's
vocalist/pianist/singing telegram artist,  David Anthony Suhor.

 

Charlie Suhor's review:


Historic Photos of New Orleans Jazz 
by Thomas P. Morgan
Turner Publishing Company, 2009
206 pages; $39.95, hard cover
Reviewed by Charles Suhor

I was eager to see Tom Morgan's Historic Photos of New Orleans Jazz. Morgan
has been a broadcaster at WWOZ in New Orleans since 1999 and was formerly
host for radio shows at WTJU-FM in Charlottesville, Virginia. His 1992 book,
>From Cakewalks to Concert Halls: An Illustrated History of African-American
Popular Music from 1895 to 1930, was a lively volume that combined a strong
narrative by historian William Barlow of Howard University with several
biographies by Morgan and colorful prints from his extensive collection of
vintage sheet music. 

Turner Publishing Company has an ongoing series titled "Historic
Photos"-abundant visuals with little text beyond the captions. Most are
about cities and states but there are specialized topics like Broadway
shows, Chicago crime, and Colorado mining. Accordingly, Morgan's book
includes a short preface, captions, and brief introductions before five
sections that are divided into time frames-1890 to 1925, 1926-1945,
1946-1960, 1961-1975 and 1976-2000.

The first section includes many classic photos of early jazz artists--e.g.,
Bolden, Papa Jack Laine, the Waif's Home band, the ODJB, Oliver, New Orleans
Rhythm Kings, Keppard, Marable's SS Capitol band, Morton, Clarence Williams,
and Armstrong. Though familiar to jazz fans, such pictures are important in
any historical collection. 

A strength unique to the book is an extensive array of photos of the popular
revival in New Orleans after World War II. Morgan's selection captures the
energy of that oft-neglected movement with shots of Sharkey Bonano, Papa
Celestin, Irving Fazola, Tony Almerico, the Basin Street Six, Pete Fountain,
Paul Barbarin, George Lewis, Doc Souchon, Johnny Wiggs, Armand Hug, the
Dukes of Dixieland, and numerous excellent sidemen. The New Orleans Jazz
Club is cited as an animating force in the revival. 

But Morgan falls short of his desire to "bring to life the major players who
shaped this spectacular Louisiana City and musical genre." Understandably,
up to a point. Encapsulating the five periods in single page introductions
and brief captions is a daunting composition assignment. But Morgan's text
aggravates the problem. For example, he cites Caribbean and Mexican
connections and German roots of brass band music as influences on early
jazz, but the word "blues" does not appear. Later he writes that "only a few
musicians in the city were interested in modern jazz," unaware of the early
underground activity of dozens of modernists. 

Introductions aside, there are 198 pages of photos available to tell the
story. One might expect that this could be done through careful selection,
thoughtful sequencing, and knowledgeable captioning. Things look dicey,
though, when Morgan notes that the materials are from "one major source: the
Louisiana State Museum's Jazz Collection," inheritors of the New Orleans
Jazz Museum photos. About 171 are from the museum, ten are from Morgan's
collection and 17 from elsewhere. The book bears out Morgan's further
acknowledgment that "there are musicians from all eras of New Orleans Jazz
who are not included." 

The disclaimers are admirably honest, but they don't make for adequate
history. The museum's holdings lacked the range to be the source for a
representative collection. Numerous other sources exist, like the Tulane
Jazz Archive and local musicians and collectors of jazz photos. Hunting down
materials and information and acquiring permissions can painstaking and
expensive. But absent this homework, Morgan's book suffers from obvious
omissions, curious inclusions, and needless repetitions; and there are
factual errors and judgment gaffes that cannot be attributed to the museum. 

Odd choices are rampant. Most puzzling are the multiple photos of certain
artists. I bow to no one in appreciation of Louis Armstrong's genius, but
twenty-five shots with Louis seems excessive. Only a dozen or so could be
called indispensable by any reasonable measure. A sampler of other
repetitions: eight photos include Sharkey Bonano; Pete Fountain and Pops
Foster are in seven; three shots show Ray Bauduc, Jack Teagarden, Louis
Cottrell, and Billie and Dede Pierce. Numerous others appear in two or more
photos. The differing time frames and performance settings sometimes justify
this, but judicious mix-and-match work to root out overlapping materials
would have cut redundancy and made space for unrepresented artists.

Some photos are in the I-wonder-why-they're-in-this book category, e.g., a
huge banquet table with five musicians barely distinguishable; a Police
Department Dixieland group, with no one identified (though we're informed
that a police jazz band also exists in South Australia); drummers Leslie
Milton and Alonzo Stewart. There are pictures of Dixie's Bar of Music, the
Blue Room, the Pickwick Club, and the Chess, Checkers and Whist Club. 

I intend no disrespect to the formidable talents of these musicians or the
general significance of the sites. But their presence dramatizes the
conspicuous absence of figures like Peter Bocage, John Robichaux, Kid Rena,
Sidney Arodin, Raymond Burke, big bands led by Dooky Chase, Sidney
Desvignes, Herbert Leary, and Lloyd Alexander, and a host of modern jazz
artists. Morgan's preface forewarns that photos of local modernists are
scarce in the Louisiana Museum archive. Here, a few phone calls could have
yielded rich results. As for historical jazz venues, surely Mahogany Hall,
Tom Anderson's Cafe, Luthjen's, Manny's Tavern, Lu and Charlie's, and Snug
Harbor are more relevant candidates for inclusion.

Many of the photo captions provide insight and perspective, but others do
little more than string out lists of players and bands an artist worked
with, resulting in a blurry aggregate of factoids. Some captions contain
outright errors. Drummer Phil Zito's band is misidentified as its successor,
the Basin Street Six. The Pinky Vidacovich band, placed in the 1961-1975
section, is clearly of much earlier vintage. Two photos cited as
Preservation Hall, one with Orange Kellin and another with Billie and Dede
Pierce, bear no resemblance to the Hall. The former is in the 1946-1960
section, but the Hall wasn't founded until 1961. Dixie's Bar of Music is
mistakenly equated with the Absinthe House. And so on.

Nevertheless, I'm glad to have Morgan's book because of the photos of the
local postwar revival and personal favorites like Irving Fazola's trio, the
underrated Dixieland drummer Freddie King, the Crawford-Ferguson Night Owls,
Danny Barkers' young Fairview Church Band, and a fine portrait of Harold
Battiste. Indeed, I suspect that every jazz lover will find something of
interest in the book. But caveat emptor: it is untrustworthy, visually and
informationally, as a representation of the years it attempts to portray. 

(Note: A longer version of this review appeared in the November 2010 issue
of American Rag.)

 

 

Norman writes:  Thanks to Charlie Suhor and Steve Barbone.  Their e-mails
from me are blocked by my server but are able to receive from DJML.  It's an
ongoing, unsolved mystery!

Fortunately, I can receive messages from them.

fnv