original Dukes of Dixieland

[bloke]

I refer to this band quite often, as they were unquestionably the greatest band of the first “Dixieland revival“ – the one from the 1950s through the mid-1960s.
(Arguably, the Jim Cullum Jazz Band was the best band of the second revival, but really didn’t ever quite equal the excitement of this band - primarily/bluntly because the trumpet and trombone playing just wasn’t quite as exciting.)
This is a fairly concise summary of the history of the band, and you can find most of their stuff on YouTube.
When they recorded with Louis Armstrong, Rich Matteson was their tuba player, and one of our own members - here - is a direct descendent of the patriarch of this band.

https://syncopatedtimes.com/the-dukes-o ... es-in-jazz

[Rick Denney]

I have maybe eleven Dukes of Dixieland albums from the period before 1967.

And I lived in San Antonio when Jim Cullum was playing at the Landing.

Rick “yes” Denney

[Nworbekim]

i have several of their recordings found at flea markets and yard sales. no matter how bad a day i've had at school, listening to their music on the way home brought me out of lots of foul moods. i don't think anyone can listen to them and NOT have their happy level improved...

[bloke]

For those NOT YET familiar...

I'm specifically choosing a very TRITE (ie. played way too often, no interesting 2nd, 3rd or 4th strains, no catchy chord changes, no signature "licks", etc.) song that they basically played here (to a packed house at Carnegie Hall, fwiw) as little more than a "head chart"...just so some (again: the unfamiliar, here) can witness their raw musical prowess.

Obviously this was the final number of this legendary concert. I have to believe that (on this same trip to NYC) they made one of their three appearances (in one year) on the Ed Sullivan Show, and (last few words spoken to the audience as part of the "thanks for coming") apparently, they were booked into the Algonquin Hotel's lounge, as well (ref: " ' see you at the Round Table").

The family patriarch (dressed in the white "long coat") is Jac Assunto. @tubadude, here, is his grandson - who (due to the band, etc. working) most grew up in Las Vegas.



fwiw...Notice how everyone was dressed (up), back "during the day"...



tubadude:

[Rick Denney]

I think you meant “patriarch”, New Orleans notwithstanding.

Rick “gotta clear off the turntable” Denney

[bloke]

Thank you.
I feel fairly certain that I actually typed “patriarch”, went back to fix it, fixed it, and it (phone) changed it back to “matriarch“ right before I resubmitted… Dang!
==========
WARNING!!! REALLY OFF-TOPIC AND SELF-INDULGENT:
OK… I’m about 1% of the musician that Bach was.
That should go without saying, and anyone who mis-rates me as more than one percent of Bach has never heard any of Bach’s music. Further, I’ve never even tried to compose, but have only arranged and transcribed.
The lopsided analogy, though, is this:
Bach learned how to improvise and compose by copying scores.
I learned how to play in this style by painstakingly dissecting dozens of these recordings and writing down all of their parts (which were always a combination of improvised and rehearsed) note-for-note played by each player - including their grace notes and filigree.
Needless to say, it also strengthened my ability to listen to things live, pick out who was playing what, dissect chord progressions, etc.
——————-
I regularly work with (fwiw: often black) musicians who are about ten times faster at pulling things off of recordings than am I, and can remember them far more succinctly than can I.
One example who immediately comes to mind is my drummer/pianist friend, James Sexton - an unassuming genius. (I have posted about him before.)
———————
continuing to talk far too much about myself:
Later in my life – when I decided that my tuning ability was only “good for a tuba player“ and decided that it needed to be a great deal better than that, I really worked on tuning (still do, as it is still a huge weakness - particularly with a tuba, as its big phat resonance can lure one into “buying into“ its own predetermined intonation tendencies) but I am now not only able to pick out which players are playing which pitches, but which pitch(es) needs to be fixed. That having been said, I also have learned (at rehearsals, etc.) to bite my tongue.

bloke “an old man”

[tubadude]

Thank you Bloke for this great thread. Papa Jac was indeed my grand father and Frank and Freddie were my uncles. Papa Jac was a music educator down in New Orleans, and taught countless musicians through the school system. There's even a story of him giving some tutelage to Pete Fountain on a chart in the restroom on a break at one of the popular TV shows of the time. I remember when I was a teenager asking Papa to teach me trombone, I was already an accomplished accordion player, but Myron Floren already had the jazz accordion thing tied up in L.A.. I received exactly one lesson. I was not the best student. I soon picked up the trumpet and eventually moved over to tuba. The one thing I did learn from Papa Jac was always have a plan B, don't just rely on music to provide for your family. This has been my "mantra" throughout my career. I have been a software engineer most of life, but I've also had the opportunity to play music touring Japan for 3 months, be an entertainer in Orlando for several years, be in the Chicago Cubs band for a few years as well as numerous groups in the Chicagoland area, hold down the tuba chair in one of the west coast's best trad band for a few years, and even do a show in Branson for a while. While all of those were fantastic events in my "musical" career, I think the two best experiences were back in the 80's my father and I drove from L.A. to N.O. to spend a week with Papa Jac and Mama Jo. During that trip the N.O. Jazz Club had it's monthly meeting and we had a three generations of jazz set with my grandfather, my dad, and myself where we played some of the original Dukes' material. It was a blast and the audience really dug it. A few days after that Papa Jac, my dad, and me were picked up by a local trumpet player and we headed to a nursing home in the garden district. We played a few sets and brought a lot of joy to a bunch of folks. The breaks between sets were spent consuming massive amounts of milk and cookies and sharing musical stories. That was a great gig. A few days after we left, Papa would slip in the shower, and a few days after that he passed away. I was so glad that I got to play his last couple of gigs with him, and they will be very special gigs in my book of gigs.

Tuba content of my post, after a recording session I did yesterday, I now know why Rich Matteson played helicon on that Louie and the Dukes session. The recording session was in the same studio that I recorded in a few years back using a Holton TU331S. The sound of the tracks were pretty good. Yesterday, I used a 1909 King helicon, these tracks the sound engineer, who did the first session also, said the helicon had more presence and depth.

[bloke]

MY MAIN POINT BEING
(drawing myself into the thread)
that those gentleman and their colleagues taught me an awful lot, simply from studying their recorded performances. The only one of the bunch that I ever met – and I really believe I am qualified to have called him a “friend“, because he remembered who I was a couple of years later, and called me by my first name - was that amazing drummer, Norman “Red“ Hawley.
I believe Mr. Hawley left the band to go do the weekly Jackie Gleason television broadcast in Miami, beginning in the fall of 1964.

[tofu]

.

[JESimmons]

I’d been playing trombone about a year and knew the Dukes from Ed Sullivan and records. My father was on a sales trip to Atlanta, and they were playing in the hotel lounge. He came back home, got me, and took me to Atlanta. He talked the lounge manager into letting me in, even though underage, for the Saturday afternoon matinee. Thus my first concert was The Dukes. I was maybe 10 so didn’t appreciate it as fully as I might have later, but that concert is still an enduring memory. Since I was kind of hidden in the back of the bar, I didn’t get to meet them.

When I took up tuba four years ago, I sought out some Dukes recordings for listening. I wondered how the tuba player switched between tuba and string bass so quickly. Now he would multitrack, but then everything was largely live to tape. Thanks to YouTube, I see he had a stand to hold the tuba a playing height while he stood so he could just turn from one to the other.

[bloke]

I have never been able to move from tuba to bass without missing a beat. (I didn’t use a stand for either instrument, because I was afraid of the bass getting knocked over, and playing the tuba on a stand is just something that I’ve never done.) When we would perform this, I would usually miss the first measure playing the bass, and the piano player would go heavy with his left hand until I was set…
… but when we recorded it at Ardent Studios, I just came back and filled in the first bar, of course.
Several of our tunes (unwritten “arrangements”) featured muted cornet/banjo, clarinet/tenor guitar, trombone/piano (only) or drum solo choruses, so those gave me opportunities to switch instruments (if the music benefited from it).

[York-aholic]

These have been up on a Craigslist an hour and change away from me for quite awhile. Price seems high.

https://orangecounty.craigslist.org/em ... 19752.html

[bloke]

It seems to me that it would completely depend on their condition.
These are very fun to listen to, and most of them that are encountered have had the crap played out of them.

These have been up on a Craigslist an hour and change away from me for quite awhile. Price seems high.

https://orangecounty.craigslist.org/em ... 19752.html