[Dixielandjazz] Cathcart on Welk

[Charles Suhor]

Dick Cathcart got several years of exposure to general audiences when he was featured on the Lawrence Welk show both as a Dixieland trumpeter and as part of a vocal group. There was something of a tradition by Welk of featuring a jazz instrumentalist after the success of Pete Fountain in 1957-59. I didn't follow it closely, but I recall that N.O. trumpet prodigy Warren Leuning followed Pete, though without gaining traction as a "star". As a kid Leuning sat in at the Sunday Partisian Room sessions with Tony Almerico. Like the young Connie Jones before him, his conception and drive surpassed Tony. Warren went on to have a fine career in versatile settings. 

It had long fashionable to dismiss Welk's music as cornball, Mickey Mouse. etc. I wouldn't pay dough to hear him, but in my view he always hired good players and the band was always precise and disciplined. When playing swing charts, it was kind of "Swing Era Lite." Pete played well with Welk but didn't have the space or context that he enjoyed with Dixieland bands or his later his quartet (with the brilliant Jack Sperling on drums). 

A little known remote N.O. connection with Welk. One of his featured vocalists, Andra Willis, married Larry Muhoberac. Larry was a boy genius--modernist on piano and trombone, played with Connie Jones as a kid, went with Woody Herman at age 18, etc. etc. I played some jam sessions with him at LSU when I was at Loyola. Cripes, what gifts!  Anecdote: At a gig with a N.O. dance band, someone requested a song that wasn't in the book. During intermission Larry dashed off parts for the whole band, without a score. I was jealous of Larry, not because I was ridiculously out of his league as a musician but because he was adored by the girl is was mad about, pianist/vocalist Theresa Kelly. Larry continued to move in many circles and, I learned only in recent years, became Elvis' pianist for a while under an assumed name. Life's surprises and ironies, they just keep coming.

Charlie

On Nov 26, 2014, at 7:06 AM, Marek Boym wrote:

> Nick Fatool is a well known name, but Cathart isn't very well known outside
> the jazz coterie, even that - mainly people who lived on the West Coast and
> heard local bands.   And hardly over-recorded, and his participation in the
> Kings of Dixieland series didn't do too much to boost his reputation.  I
> came to know him through the film, but even that - some years after I had
> seen it   Although I loved the playing in the film, I did not remember the
> name of the excellent trumpeter.
> Cheers