[Dixielandjazz] Bennie's From Heaven

[Ken Mathieson]

Marek wrote:
I'm surprised none of our listmates from the Edinburgh-Glagow area has
commented on this, in particular Ken who both drummed and arranged for
that band.
Fat Sam doesn't play anything - it is (or was) the name of a big pizza
restaurant in Edinburgh, which featured a swing band.  Not sure the
place still exists, but the band was still playing in mid-2011.  At
least when I last saw the band (1996), the leader, Hamish McGregor, ws
not fat.  And he played mainly the alto sax (and sang a lot like Louis
Jordan, at least to my ears.

Hi Marek et al,
I didn't respond to the original post for reasons of probation. I was imprisoned in Fat Sam's Band for 15 years but was released after 12 for outrageous behaviour and wasn't sure if there was still some confidentiality or probationary clause applicable!

Marek is right: there is no Fat Sam. The band was formed and was playing before the pizza joint opened and (if I remember correctly) the owner was looking for a good name for his restaurant. He was an ex-muso himself and had retained Tommy Sampson, a wonderful veteran arranger and bandleader, as the restaurant's Musical Director. Tommy had written the charts for all the band's early repertoire (they were all transcriptions of Louis Jordan recordings), so Tommy recommended the band to the owner and some sort of a deal was done to use the band name and artwork for the restaurant. That was a smart deal for the band as it effectively guaranteed a weekly residency gig, which in turn meant stable personnel and a developing band sound.

I started writing for the band when the jazzers in it started to grumble about playing the same charts every gig and getting little solo space to stretch out, so I brought in some reductions of Henderson, Goodman, Ellington and Basie pieces and started to write original charts on some Jelly Roll Morton things. When I left I took all my charts except for a few which Hamish McGregor wanted to buy, and these Jelly things became the cornerstone of my own band's repertoire when it was formed in 2004.

I left Fat Sam in 1996 to work in Germany and the restaurant closed some years thereafter. The site has now been redeveloped as a massive office block. 52nd Street went the same way, but at least the music was better there while it lasted! There was a spell in the early 1990s when the band had a few old pros in it, so the standard was pretty high and the band toured widely in California, BC, Europe and the Middle East. It still exists today, with a vastly changed personnel, but, like most 9-piece bands doesn't work as much as it once did.

To answer Steve's question about Hamish's clarinet: yes, it is plastic. They have an intrinsic problem: they don't burn as easily as wooden clarinets and, when they do, the fumes they give off are even more noxious than their sound! 

I'm not on the clip linked by Steve: I had long gone by that time, but when I started my band, I invited a couple of Fat Sam's sidemen to be in my band too. Billy Hunter (trumpet) and Tom Finlay (piano) are still in both bands and are on that clip. Right now Tom is in Adelaide accompanying a girl singer from Scotland in the Festival there, so if any Oz listmates are in the region, look him up - you're guaranteed some good laughs.

Now I must get back to writing for my own band: I'm writing a chart on Bechet's Old Stack o'Lee Blues and have just finished transcribing Albert Nicholas gentle filigree solo to be used as a passage in my chart and have voiced up a second part . Next up I'm going to transcribe Bechet's slightly fiercer solo to be used as a set-up to the out chorus. It'll be fun to play and kepp my two fine clarinettists on their toes.

Cheers,

Ken