[Dixielandjazz] Elvis

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

At a Christmas party in the home of one of my German jazz musician friends his uncle somehow revealed that he had known Elvis Presley when the young man was on military service. 

Uncle had been a cab driver at the time. He remembered that Elvis never understood the German practice of tipping, every time he took a cab he paid the exact fare, never a pfennig more.  No "keep the change" from him. He was strict about the exact sum. 

That was all. Nobody wanted him as a passenger. 

And of course on "My Baby Left Me" the main thing was the imitation of the New Orleans bassist Ransom Knowling's bass part (tradition of Steve Brown, Pops Foster etc) from the original and better recording by the composer, Arthur Crudup,  


and before I get any non-ironic  "my God, you're bitter!"  I would point out the foundations of this mail in traditional jazz tradition. 

Robert R. Calder