[Dixielandjazz] Uncle Yoke's Black Dogs

[Ken Mathieson]

Hi Bill et al,

When I was with the Edinburgh-based Fat Sam's Band we used to run into 
the Dogs on a regular basis in California, British Columbia and all over 
Europe, so they all became good pals. Bandleader/trombonist Steve Yocum 
was a great entertainer and communicator with audiences and the band was 
full of excellent players. Drummer Ed Metz was (and still is) a knockout 
player and we became good buddies (indeed I'm still in occasional touch 
with him). They had an excellent hot trumpeter/cornetist whose name now 
escapes me, but he was a hard-swinging lead and a strong soloist. There 
was also a sousaphone player who had rigged his horn with low-grade 
blasting powder wired up to a foot switch which detonated it. The climax 
of the act was Tiger Rag taken at a lick and when they reached the "Hold 
That Tiger" trio part, he'd fire off the charges under the trombone 
glissandi. Of course, as well as startling explosions, there were also 
vivid flashes and lots of smoke, so it always brought the house down. 
Don't ask me how he got the explosives and detonators through airport 
security! No doubt Bill will do his usual professional discographical 
magic and conjure up their names.

At one festival in Holland I remember them asking about various local 
drinks and we inducted them into the Sinbad Society, which was a great 
sanity preserver for Fat Sam's musicians on the road. Sinbad stood for 
The Society for the Investigation of Novel and Bewildering Alcoholic 
Drinks and its rules were very simple: if you encountered a drink you'd 
never seen before, you were honour bound to try it and report back to 
the other members. We encountered a stack of mysterious drinks like A 
Walk in the Woods (vodka, Curacao liqueur and angostura bitters), which 
we were introduced to by a Dutch musician in a bar in Amsterdam. It 
tasted great, was cheaper than beer and got you there in no time. 
Another was a Danish speciality Swarze Svin, or Black Pig (vodka and 
dissolved licorice), which had the dual benefit of being "strong licor" 
and a laxative.

Does anyone know if the Black Dogs are still working?

Ken