[Dixielandjazz] Blake's Wake

[Don Kirkman]

On Mon, 14 Feb 2011 09:00:36 -0500, you wrote:

> From the Berkeley Daily Planet. The band at the wake, Spirit of 29,  
>is run by an old banjo playing buddy of mine, Elliot Kenin, who spent  
>some time gigging in Philadelphia before moving back to the left  
>coast. Folks in the San Francisco Bay area may well have visited Larry  
>Blake's joint in Berkeley near the University of California there. It  
>was relatively famous.

>I visited the joint in the 1960s when we lived first in Sausalito and  
>then moved to the Oakland hills.

>Berkeley's Blake Wake Revives Memories
>as Telegraph Braces for Another Closing;
>Bona Fide Hippies Dance to Dixieland
>By Ted Friedman
>Saturday February 12, 2011

Picking and choosing some points.

>Reporters and cameramen outnumbered dancing (historic) hippy  
>celebrants as Larry Blakes on Telegraph Avenue was laid to rest  
>Saturday. Cause of death may have been suicide.

Sorry to hear that; I walked by  nearly every day while at Berkeley
1946 - 1950.  I lived a few blocks south and a couple blocks uphill,
several blocks off campus in those days when UC reached only as far as
Sather Gate.  Larry Blake's Restaurant and Rathskeller was about the
busiest business in that area.
[. . .]
>Blake's survived several ownership changes in three decades. But  
>recent changes, perceived declines in food and service, and a south of  
>Market nightclub scene may have contributed to its own three-strikes  
>demise.
 [. . .]
>Blake's, founded in 1940, is survived by such elder businesses as the  
>Med,'56; Moe's,'56; the Print Mint,'65; Lhasa Karnak, '70; Bill's  
>Clothes,'61; Annapurna,'67; Jim the Tailor, 62; and Fondue Fred's  
>circa '70 at the former C.J.'s Garage.

All newer than my memories.  We had all the off-campus book stores,
King Pin doughnuts, and, especially, Art Music which had a stock of
records  from all over the world.  I bought both Japanese (folk music)
records and Good Time Jazz 78s there.  I have recently re-acquired
Vol. 3 of West Coast Recordings'  "Ragtime," featuring Brun Campbell
[Maple Leaf rag , Chestnut St. Rag, and Essay in Ragtime]  and Lu
Watters' YBJB [Original Rags, Easy Winners, and Maple Leaf Rag] to
replace the one I bought back then.

The university has absorbed much of that area into its campus now, but
it used to be all businesses, boarding houses, fraternities,
sororities, and apartments.

I'm beginning to feel old after reading this elegy to the late Larry
Blake's.  :-)

>As the Spirit of '29 Dixieland band drew on-lookers, the wake swelled  
>to as much as 20 at its peak. Lynn Danielle, 67, the wake's organizer  
>recalled her parents taking her to Blake's when she was only eight.  
>She noted that U.C. alumni visiting campus from afar would first stop  
>at Blake's before "setting a foot on campus."
[. . .]
>According to the S.F. Chronicle, the "rathskeller" was Larry Blake's  
>trademark, a subterranean beer hall where some of the Bay Area's best  
>blues, jazz and R&B bands performed over the decades. The whole  
>Berkeley clan gathered there, from Abbie Hoffman to Joe Kapp, from  
>graduate students to campus janitors."

Joe Kapp was later than my time, too; we had Jackie Jensen and three
straight Rose Bowls under Pappy Waldorf (but couldn't win any of
them).   We also had the YBJB [Hambone Kelly's version] live at a
bonfire rally one of those years.
-- 
Don Kirkman
donsno2 at charter.net