[Dixielandjazz] non-tragic jazz hero

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

There was of course Benny Waters, though of course he had rather a bad centre to his career, between "Boy in the Boat" with Charlie Johnson, and various solos with performers from King Oliver to Lips Page and so forth -- and a huge alcohol problem interfering between him and respectively Fletcher Henderson and Cab Calloway -- until he transferred his allegiance to non-alcoholic Ginger Beer,  at an age (69) lots of people didn't reach.  


Then there was Doc Cheatham, whose problem wasn't drink but breath -- he damaged himself for want of the technical command which kept him going into his nineties. He did of course have to play in Latin bands, but the association seems to have brought him together with his wife.  And not a tragic alliance there. 

There is of course the extremely sad case of his recording career as a saxophonist, which as he observed later was severely marred by a tuning problem,  or just the fact that on those half dozen sides with Ma Rainey there was also a saw, which various people have deemed an unmusical one.  Doc was one of these people, and he also nominated Louis Armstrong as among all the people he had encountered in a long life the one most gifted in engendering hilarity.  Even in a letter!

here's laughing with you!
Robert R. Calder