1957 Good Time Jazz Records L-12019 MonoSide One:Sharkey Bonano and His Kings of Dixieland:
1 Second Line
2 Look What You Missed
3 Panama
Paul Barbarin's New Orleans Band:
4 Too Late
5 We'll Meet Again
6 Dooky's Doing His Dance
Side Two:
Bill Matthews & His New Orleans Dixieland Band:
1 Bugle Call Rag
2 Walk Thru the Streets of the City
3 Maryland, My Maryland
George Girard and His New Orleans Five:
4 Doctor Jazz
5 Liebestraum
6 San
Liner Notes:
In 1956 the Good Time Jazz label travelled to New Orleans and recorded eight different regularly working bands for three songs apiece, releasing the results on two LPs. The musicianship is quite high throughout this series and there are many fine soloists in addition to spirited ensembles. Vol. 1 has music from trumpeter Sharkey Bonano's Kings of Dixieland (a sextet that includes a young Pete Fountain on clarinet) along with bands headed by drummer Paul Barbarin, trombonist Bill Matthews and the late great trumpeter George Girard.
This album is one of a series documenting the New Orleans style, produced for Good Time Jazz by the New Orleans Jazz Club, a non-profit organization, to which royalties on sales will be paid. The recordings were made in New Orleans under the supervision of Dr. Edmond Souchon, who combines a career as one of New Orleans' leading surgeons with a deep interest in New Orleans music. Lou Wachtel was the recording engineer. Cover: A Midnight Race on the Mississippi from the original 1860) Currier & Ives lithograph.
SHARKEY BONANO and His Kings of Dixieland
SECOND LINE
By Paul Barbarin
LOOK WHAT YOU MISSED*
By Roy Montgomery
PANAMA
By Will H. Tyers
SHARKEY BONANO, trumpet & vocal*
JACK DELANEY, trombone
PETER FOUNTAIN, clarinet
JEFF RIDDICK, piano
ARNOLD "DEACON" LOYOCANO, bass
PAUL FERRARA, drums
Recorded in New Orleans March 24, 1956
"If Tom wins the fight tonight, we'll call the little tike 'Sharkey'." The time was 1902, the place was Milneberg, Louisiana, a stone's throw from New Orleans. "Tom" was the famous boxer Tom Sharkey, and the speaker was the brother-in-law of the little man, with the big bowler (made to order by Cavanaugh) and the golden (18 karat) trumpet, we know as Sharkey Bonano. "I grew up to the tune of jazz," says Sharkey, "and ever since it's been my life."
Since the '20s his playing and singing have been part of the jazz scene in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, as well as New Orleans. He has been a leader since 1925. After service in the Coast Guard during World War II, Sharkey made New Orleans headquarters once again.
With him in the front line Sharkey has two comparative youngsters, Pete Fountain and Jack Delaney, both born in New Orleans in 1930, and both representative of a new generation of New Orleans musicians carrying on the tradition.
The interaction of younger and older musicians is found in the rhythm section, too. Arnold "Deacon" Loyocano goes back to the early 1900's. In 1915, he played with Tom Brown's band, the first white group to take New Orleans music north to Chicago. Early in 1957 Sharkey & His Dixielanders were working at the Dream Room on Bourbon Street.
Paul Barbarin's New Orleans Band
TOO LATE
By Paul Barbarin
WE'LL MEET AGAIN*
By Paul Barbarin
DOOKY'S DOING HIS DANCE
By Paul Barbarin
Compositions © 1957 by Contemporary Music
PAUL BARBARIN, drums & vocal*
JOHN BRUNIOUS, trumpet
WORTHIA THOMAS, trombone
WILLIE HUMPHRIES, clarinet
LESTER SANTIAGO, piano
EDMOND SOUCHON, banjo & guitar
RICHARD ALEXIS, bass
Recorded in New Orleans April 21, 1956
Paul Barbarin, one of the best known New Orleans musicians, was born there May 5, 1901. He has been famous among jazz collectors for his many recordings in the '20s and '30s with King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Red Allen, J. C. Higginbotham, Luis Russell and Louis Armstrong. From 1918 when he went to Chicago with Oliver to 1939 when he left Russell to return to New Orleans, much of his time was spent in Chicago and New York. He makes an occasional trip North to play a special engagement, but New Orleans is once again "home."
The New Orleans Jazz Club's magazine The Second Line said (Sept. 1953) of him: "Altho master of all phases of the art of drumming, we are particularly impressed with two phases: his mastery of the press-roll, and the strictly N.O. 'parade beat. (It's hard to describe, you've simply got to hear it to get the feeling!)"
Barbarin has also composed a number of popular jazz works. Years ago he wrote Come Back Sweet Papa which Louis Armstrong recorded. More recently he wrote Bourbon Street Parade and in 1953 Second Line. (which Sharkey plays on this album.) For his own session, Barbarin recorded (for the first time) three new originals.
Like most present day New Orleans bands, Barbarin's is a mixture of older and younger musicians. John Brunious is his nephew. Worthia Thomas is a newcomer while Santiago and Alexis are veterans.
Bill Matthews and His New Orleans Dixieland Band
BUGLE CALL RAG
By John Pettis, Billy Meyers & Elmer Schoebel
WALK THRU THE STREETS OF THE CITY*
Traditional
MARYLAND, MY MARYLAND
Traditional
BILL MATTHEWS, trombone
ERNIE CAGNOLATTI, trumpet & vocal*
ALBERT BURBANK, clarinet
OCTAVE CROSBY, piano
RICHARD McLEAN, bass
GEORGE WILLIAMS, drums
Recorded in New Orleans April 28, 1956
Trombonist Bill Matthews, one of the New Orleans originals who has been playing jazz for over forty years, is still (1957) going strong.
He was originally a drummer; it was at Alphonse Picou's suggestion ("You can't lug those around with you.") that he switched at 19 to trombone. But before that, he had played for five years with some of the legendary early jazz figures including Frankie Dusen and A. J. Piron.
Both as drummer and trombonist, he played with the Onward Brass Band and the Excelsior Brass Band, leading funeral and parade bands of the day.
Except for a three year trip to the North in 1921 (with a vaudeville show, and briefly with Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong) and a job with Sidney Desvigne in 1925 on the riverboat Island Queen (between New Orleans and Cincinnati), Matthews has played in and around home.
"Music is my life," he says, and he's never had a job other than playing jazz except during the depression when he was forced to work in a bank. It was in the post-depression period that he joined the late Papa Celestin's band, and played with Celestin for a number of years.
In recent years he formed his own band, and has been working steadily at the Paddock Lounge on Bourbon Street.
George Girard & His New Orleans Five
DR. JAZZ*
By King Oliver & Walter Melrose
LIEBESTRAUM
By Franz Liszt
SAN
By Lindsay McPhail & Walter Michels
GEORGE GIRARD, trumpet & vocal*
BOB HAVENS, trombone
HARRY SHIELDS, clarinet
BOB DISCON, piano
BOB COQUILLE, bass
PAUL EDWARDS, drums
Recorded in New Orleans April 14, 1956
George Girard, one of the most popular figures in New Orleans jazz circles, died of cancer January 18, 1957 at the age of 26. He had undergone major surgery less than three months before this session. According to Dr. Souchon, "He made an all-out effort, probably because he knew it was his last session. He even bought a brand new trumpet for it."
Girard was born in New Orleans October 7, 1930 and graduated from Jefferson High School in 1946. He began his professional career the next year, touring the country with Johnny Archer's Orchestra. On his return to New Orleans he joined Phil Zito's Dixieland Band, and in 1950 helped organize the Basin Street Six, one of the best known traditional groups of the early '50s.
He formed his own band in 1954, and until his illness forced him to stop playing in mid-1956, held forth at the Famous Door on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter.
Writing in the New Orleans Item the day of Girard's death, the New Orleans Jazz Club's Bob Morris (a regular contributor to The Second Line) said, "Girard's style on the trumpet was known for its clear, bell-like tone and keen penetrating drive.
Always modest, always eager to improve his playing, he was a devoted disciple of New Orleans' pioneer jazz musicians. Studying the older men's musical methods, he sought to perfect his own."
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