[Dixielandjazz] Jazz Downunder

[Charles Suhor]

Roger, it's good to have a New Zealand jazz zealot among us. I was in your lovely country a quarter century ago with my sister, adding NZ to a trip to Sydney to visit our cousins with a common Croatian heritage. I'm a native of New Orleans, first and forever hooked on traditional and Dixieland jazz as a teen in the local postwar revival, opening to swing and bop when I took up drums under the influence of my brother Don, who was a versatile reedman in the city. I've haven't lived there for decades but have visited often and keep contact with old friends there.

Stan Brager, I was a fan of Martin Block's radio show, also. The theme, as I recall, was "Without Music," sung by a Pied Pipers-style vocal group.
 
Charles
Charles Suhor

> On Nov 3, 2018, at 7:59 PM, Stan Brager <stanbrager at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Thanks, Roger... I like stories like yours with the thrill of discovery of the music which peaked our interests and put us on the path of more music and other styles of Jazz and classical as well.
> 
> That sounds like preaching to the Dixielandjazz Choir.
> 
> My mother told me once that I used to jump up and down while she listened to Martin Block's radio show. Come to think about it, my younger sister used to do the same when in her crib.
> 
> Stan
> Stan Brager
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Roger Strong [mailto:roger at nikau-nursery.co.nz] 
> Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2018 6:07 PM
> To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Jazz Downunder
> 
>      Thanks for allowing me in the group.
>      I have been interested in jazz for most of my 77 years and started out as a 13 year old in 1954 when my older brother won a table top record player in a cycle race. Friends of his gave him some 78 records  and one of which was 
> Jelly Roll Morton’s ‘Black Bottom Stomp’ backed with ‘Grandpas Spells’.     At the end of  the 1950’s a friend of my brother won an essay competition with the prize being a complete set of the 12 LPs of Morton’s Library of Congress
> recordings. My tastes in jazz currently range from  King Oliver up to about Zoot Sims with a liking for big band, Ellington and Basie as well.  As long as it swings then its for me! 
>      Finding jazz wasn’t easy in New Zealand in those days and records came mostly from the UK because of the restrictions which applied to overseas currency- especially US dollars and in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s it was illegal to have $US even in your possession. I recall being nervous as I had a US $10 note. I grew up in Christchurch and Operation Deep Freeze mission to Antarctica was based there so there were some dollars around.
>      A lifetime of collecting has given me a large collection but I am interested in exchanging with anyone. 
>     There has never been a lot of jazz of any sort in New Zealand but jazz flourished in Australia after WW2 and I am interested in the traditional jazz from there. As I said it was much easier to get jazz from the UK than from anywhere else and I have a reasonable collection of jazz from there.
>      I live in a New Zealand town of about 25,000 – a tourist town in a scenic part of the country beside a large lake. I doubt that there is single traditional or indeed jazz fan of any sort in the area and so I rely on the internet for jazz contact.
>      As many of you of similar age will no doubt have noticed many of my jazz enthusiast contemporaries have a habit of dying and so I look forward to hearing from anyone with similar interests.
>     I was teacher for most of my working life and have an interest in history and New Zealand native plants as well.
> 
>                 Roger Strong
> 
> 
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