[Dixielandjazz] Red & Miff's Stompers

[Eric Holroyd]

> If you are not familiar with Vic Berton, then you probably are not 
> familiar with Red and Miff's Stompers, a talented New York small jazz 
> ensemble that made some wonderful records in the mid to late Twenties. 
> The most notable lineup is Red Nichols (cnt), Miff Mole (tbn), Jimmy 
> Dorsey (reeds), Arthur Schutt (pno), Joe Tarto (tuba) and Vic Berton 
> (dms).  You can catch these recordings on the Red Hot Jazz Archive.  In 
> particular try Stampede, Alabama Stomp and Hurricane.

I AM familiar with VIc Berton, and his book on Bix is on my bookshelf, along 
with a few other favourites.

I'm also familiar with the wonderful Red and Miff's Stompers, who - as Dave 
so rightly says - made some wonderful records in the mid to late Twenties.

I was a jazz cornettist for very many years, and Red Nichols was on my short 
list of favourites.

So much so that when I was 'on the road' for a couple of years I took along 
my laptop and a tape player with many Nichols recording in order to 
transcribe the arrangements and some of the solos wherever possible.

This I did, in airport lounges, ships cabins, motel rooms and anywhere that 
I could work.

The result was that I realised a life long ambition to field a Red Nichols 
tribute band, which I called Eric Holroyd's Five Pennies.

The excellent Miff Mole was a great partner to Red, and I've always viewed 
him as the first of the great jazz trombonists, even allowing for Bill Rank 
on Bix's recordings.

Our band's very first gig was at a Canberra jazz festival, and on trombone 
was the equally excellent Tom Baker - who had a large number of worldwide 
fans for the great jazz that he played on all of his instruments. (Tom 
played trumpet and cornet. Alto, tenor and baritone saxes. He played great 
tuba, and later on he was getting up to speed on string bass too. He was 
passable on piano accordion and on piano he could play The Minute Waltz in 
55 seconds).

He had taken up trombone, and practised many hours each day to perfect his 
technique, and was very much of the Miff Mole school.

Only yesterday I was searching for a particular track in my largely 
un-catalogged collection, and came across 'Hurricane', in which I attempted 
to emulate Red Nichols and Tom played as wonderfully as he always did.

Unfortunately for his many friends and fans, Tom passed away in Breda, 
Holland on the 23rd of October 2001, during a major tour with the Swing 
Cats.

I built a Tom Baker Tribute website, which interested parties can visit at 
http://trombaker.checkoutmypage.com/

Incidentally, it was me who gave him the Trombaker nickname - which he 
loved!

If anyone is interested in getting that Hurricane track as an MP3 by email 
just let me know.

Anyhow, the Five Pennies band lived for a couple of years, and the multi 
instrumentalist Geoff Power too over the trombone chair and did a fine job. 
Yet another multi instrumentalist, the 21 year old Michael McQuaid played 
clarinet and saxophones - including his vintage bass saxophone.

The band was recorded by B & W Music, and a very fine CD was the result.

As the principals of B & W Music have now retired, their quite extensive 
list of Australian and International jazz recordings are now being handled 
by Jazzology Australia, and you can visit their website by clicking <a 
href="http://www.jazzology.com.au/"> HERE</a>.  Their email address is right 
there too, so you can email them for stock availability etc.

Tom Baker's San Francisco Jazz Band of Australia was an excellent band in 
the US West Coast tradition of Lu Watters, Bay City Jazz Band etc etc, and 
two exciting albums of the original band were recorded in the 1970s on the 
Australian label 'Jazz & Jazz'.

These have now been transferred to one CD which can be purchased on line 
from Bilarm Music by clicking <a 
href="http://www.bilarm.com.au/default.htm">HERE</a>

Click on the Catalog button, then scroll down through the impressive list of 
Australian recordings </p>

Apologies for the apparently blatant plug, but I've had quite a few emails 
over recent months from people wanting to get recordings of that band.

Kind regards to all

Eric Holroyd
Sydney, Australia