[Dixielandjazz] Smokey Stover

[Robert Ringwald]

I sent Jim Maihack the email asking about Smokey Stover.  When I first started playing intermissions for Turk at Earthquake Magoons, Smokey was on drums.  Turk wasn't using a banjo.  I used to sit in the last set on banjo with the band.  

Here is Jim's reply.  


"""
I worked with both these guys.  Smokey the trumpeter died still owing me $150 but
I know he owed other guys more than that.  He was really a hot powerhouse player
who never got the recognition he deserved.
Smokey the drummer (he also played flugelhorn) was a good guy and a good drummer.
I worked with him on Turk Murphy's band until Turk (predictably) fired him.  Turk
just didn't like drummers.  Smoky appeared in the 1951 movie
The Strip
playing with Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, and others of that caliber.  He always
complained that MGM made William Demarest introduce him as "The terror of the tom
toms, Harold 'Smokey' Stover."  Just Smokey alone wouldn't fly, according to MGM,
because it wasn't copyrighted or something.
Jim Maihack
"""


--Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
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916/ 806-9551 Cell
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