[Dixielandjazz] showmanship

[Marek Boym]

> If you'd listened to the prewar Jimmy Lunceford band or many of the
> mainstream records of the 40s you'd have heard
> him playing much better.

I have several Lunceford records in my collection.  And I beg to disagree.

> He had to coarsen his style to play with Louis,
> which is why nobody ever matched Teagarden in that job.

Now that's for sure.  But hardly in any other job either.  Vick
Dickenson, Dickie Wells, et al - they were all great, but matching JT?
 I wonder.


>
>  When Trummy Young was in the Jimmy Lunceford band and for some years after
> that, he didn’t pay his income tax and the IRS pursued him relentlessly.
> To avoid them in 1947 he left to live in Hawaii. He became homesick and in
> any case, there was talk of Hawaii becoming part of the US, which would have
> enabled the IRS to get at him. In 1952 Joe Glaser offered to settle all his
> tax bills if he joined Louis Armstrong’s All Stars and stayed until he’d
> paid Glaser back.
> By the time Trummy made the trip to Europe in 1956, as he told me at the
> time, he wasn’t fit to travel because of a bad stomach ulcer. However, he
> had no option.
> He’d been worn out and wanting to get away from the All Stars for many years
> before. By the early ‘60s, he’d repaid all his debts. But Glaser declined to
> find a
> replacement for him. Trummy took what he saw as the only way out. When the
> All Stars arrived at New York airport on January 1, 1964, Trummy
> announced ‘I’ve got a ticket on the next flight to Hawaii,’ and he returned
> to the island without giving any further notice.

I've heard young after the All Stars.  But taht was in 1982, and he
was but a pale shadow of his old self.  He could still play, but he
was frail and nowhere as good.

Cheers