[Dixielandjazz] Dick Ruedebusch From Milwaukee

[Robert Ringwald]

This from John Knurr who lives in Milwaukee.  He came out to Sacramento and taught school for quite a while.  Had a heck of a high-school Dixieland Band named the Bell Street House Wreckers.  One of his students was Mike Pittsley who went on to play for years with the Jim Cullum Band.  Mike is currently back with the band.  


Dick's band was called the "Underprivledged 5" - He played at the Tunnel Inn in downtown
Milwaukee.Went to see them many times. I had a band called the "Beer City Six" (
I was 21 at the time) I took a reel to reel tape recorder to the Tunnel Inn and played
a tape of my band for Dick and said we could sub for his if he got double booking
calls.(mind you we were good but not in their class in any way - plus we played 2
beat and I had a lot of guts for sure) Well - guess what?  He not only liked the
band but booked us into the Tunnel Inn as they went on a short tour. Talk about a
break and panic too. We all ran down and joined the union. (had to in those days)
Our banjo player Bill was up in arms about that (he was a poor graduate student)
but he did something unique for the time.He went to the black musicians union (yes
there was one) and asked them if he could join.(was much cheaper than AFM) They let
him in and I'm sure that was a first for Milwaukee.(which is still the most segregated
city in the country as to where people live) Well the gig was 5 hrs and we knew people
were coming in expecting to hear Dick's band. I watched to see if people left when
they saw us there. They didn't. We ran out of tunes that we knew about the middle
of the 2nd set and started over. In the end we must have done well because the bartender
paid us at the end with more money than we ever saw before - well over the contract
fee. Turns out the people gave us lots of tips and we didn't even have a tip jar
out! Dick used us a few more times in different venues after that. He was a great
guy and a truly great player and could play very sweet also. He played with Woody
Herman for a time too. He died in '68 undergoing open heart surgery I believe. Very
sad. I believe that's Chuck Hedges on clarinet on the Limehouse Blues cut.Regular
band guys were Al Praefke on drums, Ron Martinson on piano, Sonny Sievert on trombone,
Lee Burrows on bass. Hope this wasn't too boring - John


--Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
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"All the problems we face in the United States today can be traced to an unenlightened
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