[Dixielandjazz] All Star Put Down

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

How many people heard of Geezil Minerve and Norris Turney before they became Ellingtonians? 
O don't include Hal Ashby because with an interest in Blues I knew of him as a sideman with Otis Rush.
If we were into big bands and competitions we could compile a dream band personnel of considerable past potential applying a strict rule of exclusion on the grounds of this or that musician being too well known. 
If we also exempted  musicians called Joe Thomas and included them regardless, we might also find there had been a glorious unknown from Swansea or Cardiff. Then again, when the sometime great trumpeter Joe Thomas was engaged by Albert McCarthy for a session not too far away in date from the BIG EIGHTEEN, lack of gigs restricted him a bit. He was still more than good enough, and on recordings from when he was working he's even better to an extent which encouraged one listmate to refer to his work as a revelation. 
For some reason, when decades ago I gave a friend a Christmas present of a blues LP by a performer known well to blues fans but hardly beyond their circles my poor friend thought I was overdoing it a bit. Why a musician with no widespread reputation? 

If you want a reed section of names famous among jazz fans, why not Coca Cola on lead alto, and of course Fox Television on baritone, at the far right of the section trying to keep everybody in tune with...? (I confess, I did adapt this line from an acute comment about Herbert von Karajan)

Robert R. Calder 


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