[Dixielandjazz] Bennie's From Heaven

[Marek Boym]

Hello,
VEry informative and interesting.  When I was ilast in Edinburgh -
1996 - Fat Sam's was srill going strong, and I only ate there because
of teh band.
I don't know the 52nd Street, except in NYC.
Cheers

On 15 February 2012 15:28, Ken Mathieson <ken at kenmath.free-online.co.uk> wrote:
> 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