Jazzletter P.O. Box 240Ojai, Calif.93023

July 1989 . V01. 8 N0. 7

Letters

Though your knowledge of the record industry is diverse andrelatively thorough, you seem to believe and perpetuate aparticularly damaging myth -- that distributors somehow cheatthe record labels they represent. In your April Jazzletterdetailing the story of Mosaic’s success, you state: Y

"The reasoning underlying this exercise in folly was that whilethey might not sell in vast quantities, at least Mosaic would

Q:-:ive the full retain price and the money would not vanishong the way through the prestidigitation of distributors and

other virtuosos of the sticky finger." 5Realistically, most labels can not dispense with the services

performed by wholesale distributors and retail stores, and whileMosaic deserves plaudits for creating what they did via directmail, it was truly a unique situation. Both Cuscuna and Lourieworked for Blue Note; Cuscuna still does. Because bothfounding partners had -full-time jobs, Mosaic was able to belaunched as a part-time endeavor; almost a hobby. Cuscunaand Lourie are expert Blue ‘Note discographers, and with therecent passing of Alfred Lion, know more about Blue Notethan any living person. More importantly, they had unimpededaccess to the Blue Note/Pacific jazz master vaultaat a timewhen the parent EMI had little interest in jazz reissue projectson a grand scale and probably encouraged and welcomedMosaic’s emergence as an extra source of rqyalty revenue.The partners were able to start Mosaic as a labor of love -andallow it the necessary five years in which to become a self-sustaining viable business. These unusual circumstances do not

' stores, which is provided to them by wholesale dis-utors;

I m a former distributor, having owned and managed Califor-nia Record Distributors in Los Angeles from 1957 to 1971.Among the many labels we distributed were the greatestindependent jazz labels: Blue Note, Prestige, Riverside, Fantasy,Contemporary, Pacific Jazz, Atlantic, Mainstream, etc., and wealways paid. California Record Distributors ceased to exist (wesold the business in 1969) but the name was since adopted byour current West Coast distributor,’ George Hocutt. He pays.Our New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Atlanta, Washington/Baltbmore, Texas, Memphis, Kansas City, Hawaii, distributors pay.All of our current distributors pay.

There is no doubt that there were some world-class pres-tidigitators among independent distributors -- in New York,Miami, Chicago, New Jersey; in almost every major market.But they prestidigitated themselves out of the business, and thebusiness is better off for it. Distributors who are in thebusiness today are more fmancially stable, more ethical andpragmatic, better able to compete with major label distribution,and understand the needs of the labels they represent. '

Let me try to explain a key circumstance under which a labelcan reasonably expect payment from a distributor. First and

afiply to most labels who cannot function without exposure in

foremost the “product” has to sell. There has to be in-storedemand. Distributors will not pay unless product is selling andcreates cash flow for them, nor can they be expected to. Themark-up they work on (15-20%) does not leave them muchafter overhead to pay for dead inventory. The unsold recordsdo not disappear but are returned to the labels for credit.Most of the "horror stories" involve new labels with unrealisticexpectations and unknown artists who do not sell at the retaillevel and consequently do not get paid as well as they ex-pected. On the other hand, many new labels with hotemerging artists grew and prospered in the last five years, andin some cases were financed in whole or part by their dis-tributors.

In short, it’s time independent distributors got credit forwhat they do well. .

Regards, V *-- Ralph Kaffel, Berkeley, California

Ralph is president of the Fantasy complex of labels.

Birdland

I missed most of the fun on 52nd Street. When I was just outof high school in 1945, I visited New York for a week. Iheard all the big bands playing in Broadway movie theaters,but didn’t find the block on 52nd-' Street between Fifth and

' Sixth Avenues where all the small groups“ were playing. WhenI came to New York again in 1948 on a three-day pass fromthe Second Army Band at Fort Meade, Maryland, there werestill a couple of jazz clubs left on 52nd Street. By 1950, whenI moved to New York for good, most of the Swing Street clubshad switched to girlie shows, with only Jimmy Ryan’s stillfeaturing traditional jau. The Hickory House interrupted itslive jazz policy that year and installed a disc jockey in...de itsfamous oval bar. Later it went back to jazz, and I playedthere for several years with Marian McPartland’s trio. But in1950, Birdland was the best place in Manhattan to hearmodern jazz. It became my musical alma mater.

When the army let me go in 1949, I went back to my homein the Seattle area but stayed there less than a year. BuzzyBridgford, a drummer from Olympia, Washington, had spentsome time on the music scene in New York. He took meunder his wing in Seattle and convinced me that I shouldreturn to New York with him. Buzzy said, "If you want to bea musician, you’ve got to go where the music is." We crossedthe country together on a Greyhound bus in January, 1950, andchecked into the Hotel Bristol on 48th Street. 1 -

Forty-eighth Street was at the center of the musical actionin Manhattan, but the Bristol was too expensive for more thana couple of nights. The $8 daily‘:-ate would have -quicklydepleted the small stack of ten-dollar bills that, along with twosuits, an overcoat and a valve trombone, were my total assets.

c°PY"59h‘l 1939 by Gene Lees

L —‘~;..‘:._~,_.=e~ _ _ .

Buzzy. moved to a Brooklyn Heights apartment with a girlfriendandadvisedme to lookforacheapfurnishedroomontlrewestside. So,onmyseconddayinNewYorkIwentwalking up Broadway, looldng for a home. ; ,_

_ Just north of 52nd Street I by the Birdland marquee.A board in front ofthe door announced that Charlie

and his quintet were playing there, opposite a housebaud of other famous jazz musicians. After” memorifing the

I circled around the neighborhood, looking for signsrooms for rent. Such a sign was in aground floor

windowatthecornerof53rdStreetandEighthAvenue,anext to the fireexit of the Gay Blades

(Therinkwasconvertedtoaballroominlate1956, when Roseland, one jump ahead of the wrecker’s ball,moved,-.from its old 52nd Street location between Broadwayand Seventh Avenue.) IThe room rented for-$8aweek_. Thatwasitsonlyvirtue.

The dim hallway was painted aslick, gloomy greenand thestatrway to my second floor room was rickety andsteep. The pervasive smellof roach spray was overwhelmingtomebutmottothermches. Theroomwasjustbigenoughfor a aflimsy dresser, athreadbaregrug, and afaded,.shapeless easy chair. The single window overlooked adarkairshaft. Imovedinbecauseitwascheap,andonlyablock from. Birifland.

Iliad alot-oftime to kill every dayuntil the club opened.I would walkover-to_the old Roseland building, where Pd

around.-in Charliels _Tavern_ hoping to meet one of theor four-jazzmen Pd‘--met through Buay. I couldn’t afford

tobnyanything,butsinceIdidn’tdrink, Ididn’tmindaslongas Charlie didn’t. Coffee was more my speed. A block southof Charlie’-s, on the Seventh Avenue side of 1650 Broadway,between Hansen's Drug Store and the Winter Garden Theater,was the B 8:: G lunch counter, called "the bug and germ" bysome of its denizens, that featured “the bottomless cup." Anickelwonldbuyacupofcotfeeandasmanyrefillsaslhadthenervetositthereandacceptputfingoffaslongaspossmle my return to the cold weather outside.

I-lansen’s had ca lunch counter and booths where night clubcomics and musicians gathered to swap stories. I’d sometimes

and a slice of pound cake, which wouldentitle me-tositandlistenforanhourorso. lfIneededrealsus-tenance, two or three uickels would buy enough food at theHorn and Hardart Automaton Broadway to stave ofi theworst hunger pangs. _And there was Jimmy the Greek’s lunchcounter, tucked into the back entrance of the Brill Building,behind the Turf Restaurant. At one of Jimmy’s six counter

could get a large plate of lentilsoup and a slice ofbreadforfifteencents,withalltheketchupyoucaredtoaddfr“ 01 dwsr-» .

Eventually day would turn to evening. When eight p.m.finally arrived, Birdland started letting in its customers Pdwalkdownthe carpeted stairway, stop atawindowonthelmdingtopaythe15centsadmissiondiarge,andgoondownthelasthalfdozenstepsintotheclubitself. Atthedeskatthebottomofthestairwaycustomersweregreetedbyeither

_ 7.. .-1-_.__ ._____ _ ___i______ A

-€

Drayton, the headwaiter, or Pee Wee Marquette,master of ceremonies, a fixture of the place who isbered by musicians with a certain nostalgic affection. _

Birdland provided its clientele with three choices oflocatirm.At the right were tables directly inlfront of thealong the far left wall was the bar, and between theand the left side of _¢tl1'e bandstand, cordoned off by lowwooden railings, was asection we called "the bleachers,‘ witha long wooden bench at the rear and two or three rows ofchairs infront ofit. That sectionwas alsoreierredtobysome as "the bull pen" or “the peanut gallery.“ At the tablesthere was a cover charge and a food and drink menu. Youwere expected to drink if you stood at the bar,*hut inbleachers you were entitled to occupy a seat withoutobligation, once having pmdlytour-admission.

The club had only beensopen‘ a month when I arrived inNew York, so the decor was still fresh new. There werelive birds in cages behind the bar, and the walls were coveredwith huge photo murals done by Herman Leonard in the high-contrast black and thatwere so characteristic of hiswork. Out of jet black the life-size im'ages..ofCharlie Parker, Lennie Tristano, Gillespie, etc. stood instark illumination. Photographed trailsof cigarette weresharply lit against the blackness. The atmosphere the- photomurals created was mysterious, mythical, modern. Just thething for the home of modern jazz.

One of Birdland’s assets was the radio wire. that ‘connected -theclub to listeners in twenty or thirty states. Once a-week anhour of live‘ music was broadcast over station WJZ. and“Symphony Sid" Torin played modern jau over that stationnights a week from midnight until 5:30 A.M., plughig therecords of the current bands at Birdland and repeatedlyannouncing the location of ‘The Jazz Corner of the WsomSid’s program originated from Birdland for a while, in a gthat had once been a checkroom. The Birdland broadcastsattracted a lot of business to the club. . _ s ;

InthebackofmymindduringmyfirstweeksinNewYorkwas the awareness that my funds were finite, and that Iwouldeventually have to find some sort of job, but I concentrated oneBirdland until starvation forced me to think of other matters.For some time after I arrived the club?s namesake, CharlieParker himself, led aiquintet included Buds Powell, RoyHaynes, Tommy l’otter, and Miles Davis. The band thatplayed when Bird’s quintet was off the standhad Max Roach,Curley Russell, and Al Haig in the rhythm The hornplayers were usually Howard McGhee, r Sonny Stitt, LuckyThompson, and J.J. Johnson. Other musidans would sit infrom time to time. I heard Red Rodney, Charlie Ventura,Slim Gaillard, Alan Eager, Fats Navarro, Tiny Kahn,Blakey, Arthur Taylor, Buddy Rich, George Wallington, TaddDameron, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy, Roy Eldridge, CharlieRouse, Gene Ammons, LeeKonit1, Tony Jackson.Kai Winding, Johnny Hodges, Milt Buckner,-RaySimmons, Teddy Kotick, Thelonious Monk, John Lewis, WalterBishop, Dick Hyman. and more. c "

D

p well-known musicians came to listen. Sittinginkl.recognized Jo Jones, Young, Gount

Bert, ArtMardigan, Billy Eekstine,Al Leeman, Pee lwee Erwin, Tiny

Cootie Williams. I couldn’tget over being among all“ musicians and hearing all thatmusic. I was in heaven.

0

OnenightabuzzofrecognitionranthroughthebleachersasArtTatumslippedintoachairbesidethebandstandrightunder the piano. He listened carefully to Bud Powell and was-contplimentary when asked how he liked Bud’s playing. Thensmneoneinthereliefbandaskedhimtositin. Asheslid*0Il§0thc})i82!obeuch,those ofussittingbehindhimoouldseethat,~asifby accident, Artsat down on his left hand. It stayedthereumderhisamplerearendforitheentireset. Heeompedandtookseveralbrilliantsolos,allwithjusthisright»hand.Art may on Budge spa;-sense Qfrhisr

left han_d,:or he been "reminding_hi1nself"that'stridewasnotbeingmixedwithbopthatyean Wltateverhis reason,heleteveryoneseethathe couldsitononehandandstillgivethe rest of the piano players a run for their money.

When the contents of got down to a single ten-bill, I gave it toanjemploymentagency that found me

aday job feeding a hand press inia printing plantinstheBronx» Salary: $30perweek. IstillspentasgmanynightsasIacould afiord at Birdland. I moved into a bigger room in aWest Eighties brownstonewithA.C. Bannister, a drummer whowas studying painting at the Art Students’ League, We splitthe $12 weekly Afterpaying l_.;e1im'e -Tristano $10 for amusielesson every week, -I had about $14 left for food, carfare,and Birdland. - On by home -from work

Harlem and Central Park, I saved the nickel subwayfare. (The fare is now a dollar.) Ace and I cooked inexpen-sive meals on a hotplate in our room. Even so, I wasn’t ableto afford the admission at Birdland on a nightly basis.A if

That didn’t keep me away from the place. When I, lackedthe price, l’d stand where I couldhearthe Imusiceven if I couldn’t see the band. Between sets there

5

musicianson the sidewalk outside. Sometimes theword<w’ouldispread that a session was underway at Nola’s

or at someones loft, or at a barsomewhereIwould go anywhere to listen and hope for a

In now a well-known saxophonkt in Loswith two or three other fundless

in front ofBirdland. Joe hadjust arrived in town.I-lee asked if we were going downstairs to hear the music, andwe said we didn’t have the price. I-Ie was astonished. ,"Youmean they don’t let jan musicians in free?" When we toldhim about charge, he shook his head. “Comeon,” he said, "I’ll get-us in.“ He strode down the stairs, andwe followedonhisheels, wondetingwhatkindofmagichehaduphissleevc. Joemarcheduspasttheticketwindowanddown the last of steps, where Pee Wee Marquettegreeted him with, "Yes,eGentlemen?“ and held out his hand for

Joe hrnshedthe hand aside and growled brusquely, "It’s

Q

cool!” Pee Weelooked, butmade no protest as wewalked inand downain bleachers. Joe soundedsoZbgolutely surethat-itwas cool thatil guess Pee Wee believed

Untill finally quit my job atthe $l?°P~bew toeke out a living with Tavernwere the centers of my musical world. was where Iheard the giants Play; and Charliefs viherel met othermusicianslike myself, trying to survive. .

Ifound a summer job in the where I learnedto play the bass. As soon as I New York Iheaded for Birdland, where Charlie, was breaking in hisnewgroupwithstrings. Everyonethoilghtitwassomesortofpackaging but Bird was really enjoying the possibilitesof the new sound. g He enjoyed the dignifieidiattitude of theclassical he had. hired, and became very grandhimself as he oonducted_the- introductions to the arrangements.

Some of my first New York figs on string bassjwere Mondaynights at Birdland. Mondays the regular show took thenight off and lesser known groups‘ were hired. On one‘Monday I played therewith George Wallingon and ArthurTaylor. (Someone Pd played with at a jam session hadrecommended me to George.) -,

I knew George wrote hard tunes and played themaat fasttempos, so I prepared myself as well as I could by tohis records. On the big night I got ‘there early and metArthur. We set upand waited for George -to arrive. Hetame.injust before time me a few.-sheets ofmanuscript paper. them..d'¢er and saw that he hadwritten-out the tunes and chord intinyscriptwith ared ballpoint pen. I used the lidless ‘grand piano as a musicstand, putting the music inside beside the A I

George kicked oil‘ the first tune, Liberty Bell, at a very fasttempo. I had to follow his sketch carefully because the melodyand the chords were unusual. 1 Halfway through the firstchorus, Pee Wee Marquette decidedato improve the abandstand

He turned on .a bank of red lloodlights overhead,which turned my music paper. the same color as the notes.Thereiwas nothing to be seen on thepaper but blank musicstaves! I don’t know what I played for the next five minutes,but Pm sure it wasn’t what George hadin mind.

Ittook me a while to get booked into Birdland for a wholeweek. During most of 1952, I workedsporadieally with TeddyCharles’s trio, mostly out of. Teddy taught me somegoodchords, gave me a lot of experience fast temposwithout ea drummer, got me a Gaillardand a night with Diny they were caughtshorthanded out of town, and introduced me toxtimmy Raney,who joined Teddy's trio fora Jimmy and I becamegood friends, andhe took me when he went back towork with Stan Getz’s quintet. I joined Stan at the Hi-Hat inBoston in October, 1952. Our next job Wu a week atBirdland. g

Ihadbeenplayingbassaveryshorttime,soIwasfeelinga mixture ofeelation at being in on some wonderful musiciand

aboutgbeing the least. experienced musician on the

-.¢.' I e — , ;' --'._ , . . ' .

band. "As I pulled the cover off bass on the Birdland band-stand, I looked over toward the bar. There stood OscarPettiford talking to Charlie A farther down JohnSimmons chatted with Curley Russell. In the bleachers satTeddy,;Kotick, Tommy Potter, and Al McKibbon. Thereseemed to be nothing but bass players, waiting to hear ourfirst set. , " p rI felt my knees weaken, but I said to myself,"Well, this is

me. Ican’tplayaswellasanyoftheseguys,soI’lljusthaveto do the best I. can. If that’s not good enough, it’s too lateto do anythingabout it tonight.“ I got through the firstnumber without being denounced as a charlatan by theassembled bassists. And we did have a good band. I stopped

and relaxed a little. I never faced any audiencetougher thantllat one, so I guess it was good to experiencethat kind of extreme pressure all at once and get it over with.

V In.-the summer of 1952, Birdland made a deal with CountBasie to book his band several times a year. It was Basie’sfirst "appearance in New York with a big band in four years.To make the sound of eighteentmusicians a little less over-whelming in the small room, Morris Levy, the owner, hiredsomeone to redecorate, adding more sound-absorbent surfaces.Curtains were hung behind the bandstand and HermanLeonard’s photo murals were replaced by acoustic panels.Then someone cut the photo murals into a lot of geometricshapes, tacked them here and there on the acoustic panels,

parts of them with pink and yellow shellac, and con-nected them with lines of colored twine, making a grotesque"modern art” collage with the chopped up photographs.I When Leonard heard what hadbeen done to his murals, hethreatened to sue. "I don’t mind if you take them down," hesaid, "but you can’t take‘ my work and mutilate it like that."Rather than go to court, Morris Levy ordered the photosremoved and a little later replaced them with framed portraitsof jazz stars painted on black velour.

- One afternoon I took my bass through the back entrance toBirdland for a rehearsal with the Terry Gibbs Quartet. Wewere appearing opposite the Basie band. Tucked behind a rowof garbage cans in the alleyway, I saw one of the photo cutoutsthat had been discarded. It was a life-size head and shouldershot of Charlie Parker wearing a plaid suit jacket and a stripedbow tie, ‘playing with closed eyes and a slight frown ofconcentration. I couldn’t believe my good luck. I hurrieddown to the bandstand with my bass, ran back upstairs, andsniffed the photo, mounted on heavy cardboard, into theModel A Ford I had borrowed from a friend to transport mybass. That picture has been on the wall of every home I’vehad since then.

During one redecoration of the club, someone sold Morrison a "stereo" sound system. A pair of speakers

was hung, one at each side of the bandstand. Only the frontmicrophone was connected to both of them. The piano mikewent only to the left speaker, the bass mike only to the rightone. ,Whe_n more mikes were added for large groups theywere split between the two channels. The music soundedbalanced to anyone at a table between the two speakers,

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but at- the bar and in the bleachers only the left one could beheard. Since the speaker that carried the bass mike Wasacrossthe bandstand from where bass players usually stood, it tookme a while to discover that whenever I played, a low A,something in that speaker enclosure vibrated in sympathy,causing a loud buzzing -noise. When I reported the problemto Morris I..evy, he said, "Don’t play that note."

A few years ago, Connie Kay and I were playing at Strugglesin New Jersey. We began reminiscing about Birdland. Theconversation inevitably turned to Pee Wee Marquette, anindelible part of everyone’s memory of "The Jan Corner of theWorld." Pee Wee -- William Clayton Marquette, three feetnine inches tall -- was usually nattily dressed in a brown pin-stripe vested suit and a floral tie or a dark green velvet suitwith a large bow tie. On special occasions he wore tails witha white tie. His suits were fairly moot, with his beltline at hisarmpits, his trousers pleated and tightly cuffed, and his box-back jackets featuring extra wide lapels. A long silver key-chain usually hung at his side. ,

Pee Wee wore one of two facial expressions while perform-ing his duties as master of ceremonies: _a lofty disapprovingfrown that indicated the importance of his office, and,.anexaggerated toothy smile that he usually reserved for, solicitingtips. Not just from customers: Pee Wee expected money fromevery bandleader who worked at Birdland, and since heannounced the name of each musician before each set, onpayday he let it be known that he expected a dollar permusician for the publicity. _ . j __ I I

When Terry Gibbs first led a group at Birdland he was toldthat Pee Wee expected to be taken care of. Feeling embar-rassed about offering him money and fearing Pee Wee mightbe offended by such crassness, Terry bought him a nice pairof cufflinks and had them gift wrapped. When Terry gave himthe package at the club, Pee,Wee said suspiciously, "What’sthis?‘ He ‘opened it, and frowned. "Cufflinks!" he snortedloudly, pushing the box back into. Terry’s hand. "Man, I gotcufflinks! Don’t give me no cufflinks, GIVE ME. THEBREAD!" , e e

When Bob Brookmeyer took a quintet into Birdland," hedeclined to tip Pee Wee and instructed his musicians topdorthesame. Pee Wee retaliated by refusing to announce the band.Morris Levy, the boss, fmally laid down the law. Pee Wee hadto announce the musicians, tip or ‘no tip. His subsequentannouncements of Brookmeyer’s group dripped with disdain.

Pee Wee had one of the first adjustable butane cigarettelighters on the market. He used it to light the large cigars hesometimes smoked, but he carried it mainly as a servicetopatrons at Birdland. To compensate for his height he wouldadjust the lighter for maximum flame length. It was anunnerving experience in a dark night club to put a cigarette inyour mouth and have a two-foot flame suddenly shoot up frombelow your waist, with Pee Wee grinning hopefully at the otherend. ‘ P ,_ _ .

Pee Wee’s voice was high and brassy. Though he did hisbest to enunciate carefully, he frequently slipped into thedialect of his birthplace, Montgomery, Alabama. He would

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climb‘-onto-the Birdland bandstand, pull the microphone standchin and shout: "AND NOW, LAYDUI-IS AND

BIRDIAND, THE JAZZ CORNAH OF THEw0RI-D. IS moon TO PRESENT, run one ANDONL-AH...." After laboriously naming the bandleader and all

and asking for a "large round of applaw‘ for theband, hewould climb back down to floor level, admonishingthe band in a piercing aside that carried to the far corners ofthe room, "Alli right, now, men, let's get right up heahl. Wedonlt want no lulls ‘roun’ heah! No lulls!"-Pee Wee always left the mike adjusted to his ownheight,

is about three feet from the floor. When Dizzy Gillespiewaged the club, he would sometimes crouch behind the large

atthe*endofth,ebandstanduntiltheendefthea_nn-ouncement, then walk knees to speak into themicrophone rifltt where PeeWe,e had left it. W

Pee Wee often had trouble with the names he announced.I-Ie usually consulted hisgnotes, but that didn’t prevent himfrom announcing Washington as Ruth Brown on one

Most musicians counted themselves fortunate if hemerely made their names TeddyKotick wouldgrind his teethwith fury every time Pee Wee announcedCharlie Parker-’s quintet: "...and on the bass, Teddy KO-TEX!"

With the Stan Getz quintet, Pee Wee did fine with "on thepiANo, Duke JOEdan, on the GIT-tah, .IIMmuh RAYnuh, onthe BASS, BEAL CROW," and then, frowning at the piece ofpaperin his he continued, "and -on the DRUM..." Hepuzzled _a "moment Frank-Isola"s name. We whispered the

to him, and "Pee. Wee ‘with supremeconfidence," "and on the DRUM, ...PI-IIL BROWN!" Phil hadbeen Stan's drummer at a previous appearance at Birdland.

Connie Kay told me, "That little motherfucker was the causeof me changing my name." Connie's natal name was Kirnon.

Qleuphlayed at Birdland frequently with Lester Young’s quintet.en I was working therewith Pres, Pee Wee never could

say my name right. In the back room, Pres would laugh andsay, ‘He’s fuckin’ up your name again, Lady K!’ I finally toldPee Weejusttousetheinitial,_and I stayedwithit.”p Lester, wanted everytlfing peaceful and pretty, oftenfeundgPee Wee a little much to take. Once whenPee1Wee

afhard time, Lester assailed him in his own mysteri-

he accused. "Y-ou’re a motherfuckin’refined the insult, referring to

Pee ‘aihalf-a-motherfucker." gThe was once part of a Birdland jan tour that

used Pee Wee; as emcee. Benny Powell, then a member ofBasie’s section, played me a tape of one of theconcerts on that tour. As the applause waned following anumber, Pee Wee’s voice began with strident importance:"And NOW, -ladies and gentlemen, befo’ the band play thisnextNUMBAH, Ijust want to SAY, how HAPPY we all areto BE‘ in, uh..." His voice dwindled. Loud

from thesaxophone section prompted, ”Topeka...Top-eka!" Pee Wee surged back to full volume:

"I-Ieah in PoTEEka!"

Pee Wee’s tongue often fell prey to spoonerisms andmalapropisms. He once announced the presence in Birdland’saudience of Mr. Marlo Brandon. Another he announcedthatDukeEllin.gtcnhadwon theD0wnBeatpoll,iandthat"the man from Down Beat now step up here toaward the PLAGUE to Duke Ellington!” ’ _ '

After afewyears absence£romthebandstandatBirdlandIreturned for a weekin 1961 with I0fl1Es' PeeWee met me at the doorwhen "BealCrow! You used to work here in‘ the days! With StanGetz!" He talked about Stan’s quintet-,’and as he named theother members of the group, somehow Raney‘sname became embedded in his When‘ he announcedQuincy*s band, he included in the roster, "andJimmah RAY-nah on the bass!" I asked t_he*other not to sayanything to Pee Wee so we could see hows long he’d continuewith the mistake.

Atthe endofthe weekl was stillbeingannouneedon everysetasJimmyRaney. Aslgotoffthebandstandafterthenext-to-last set, Jerome Richardson, the band manager, wasreadywiththepayrollinthebackroormandhehandedmemy money. I went out into the howeand sat d0'W.n-at atablewith some friends. Soon Pee Wee began rounding up theband for payday. ' p

He came by my table twice to announce, "Say. Jimznah,Jerome’s paying Off in the back room." Pd say, “Okay, PeeWee,“ andgo back to my conversation. It was nearly time-forthe last set, and Pee Wee was getting "Say,""Jerome wants to see you in the room!" I said, "That’sokay,-Pee Wee, he ah-eady saw me." Pee Wee’s eyes wentround with concern. "Well, you know, when he sees you, YOUSEE ME!” I

I pretended innocence. "What for?” I asked. Pee Weebegan to fawn. "Now, Jimmah,'you remembah in the old days,you always took care of old Pee Wee at the end of the week!"I leaned across the table and looked him in the eye. "What’smy name?”

Pee Wee’s face was a study in confusion. He gaped at mefor a minute, and then trotted over to Drayton, theThere was a whispered exchange between them, then Pee Weehcurriedbacktowherelwas sitting.iI-Iewasallsmiles. "B.ealCrow! Why‘d you let me keep name?‘ Tocorrect matters, and to earn dollar, he hurried to thebandstand; He announced Quincyandthe entire band, savingme for last. Then he gave me the full treatment: "...AND, onthe BASS, one of the GREATest1 of ALLTIME, a musician of GREAT renown, the GREAT, the ONEand ONLAI-I, ...BEAL...CROW!" V

As Pee Wee left the bandstand, I hurried to the mikebeforethe rest of the band took their places. ’ "Ladies andgentlemen,‘I said, em-actinga dollar from my wallet, "IwouId nowtike topresentthis one dollar. bill, legal tender, United States curren-cy, to our master‘ of ceremonies, Pee Wee Mar-quette. .Not because he has earned it. Not because hedeserves it in any way; But simply because he asked me forkl!

I yanked rhythmically on the ends of the dollar bill as I heldit up to themicrophone, making a loud popping noise over thespeakers. Pee Wee hastened between the tables and chairs,his hand stretched high over his head. "Don’t put yourbusiness in the street!" he cried as he snatched the bill frommy fingers and popped it into his pocket.

When jazz audiences began to thin out in the 1960s, OscarGoodstein, who managed Birdland for Morris Levy, decided totry to tap a different audience. He tried a few blues singerswithout much success, and caused great confusion for a timeby only opening on weekends. Customers and cab drivers whoarrived during the week and found the doors locked spread therumor that the club had gone out of business. In the Springof 1965 Goodstein dropped jazz completely. He booked rockand rhythm-and-blues bands into Birdland, but business neverpicked up again. The club closed for good in July of thatyear.

The closing- stunned many Birdland alumni. It was likehearing that Yale had gone outof business. The club hadpresented the major artists in the jazz world at affordableprices for fifteen years, educating and delighting jan musiciansand fans. Though the pay was low, the hours long, the bandroom ridiculously small, and the piano battered to death, themusic was wonderful. Bird brought his best music there, asdid Dizzy, Miles, Tristano, Basie, Mulligan, Blakey, Monk, Bud,Sarah, Billie, Dinah, hundreds more. '

Some time after Birdland closed, Pee Wee Marquettereappeared a couple of blocks down Broadway at the. HawaiiKai, a Polynesian restaurant in the basement of the WinterGarden Theater building. Dressed in a diminutive doorman’suniform, he greeted the customers there for years, until therestaurant closed this Spring. He usually gave short shrift toanyone who wanted to reminisce about Birdland, but hereportedly offered to help Clint Eastwood in his reconstructionof the club when the movie "Bird" was being prepared.E :twood’s Birdland was unrecognizable to anyone whoremembers the original, but he did include a short scene in hismovie in which a black midget emcee speaks a sentence or twoover the nightclub microphone. A

. Evidently Pee Wee wasn’t consulted or remunerated. He issaid to be highly displeased. i

-- BC

The Bill Potts BandA record you won’t find in your record store is 555 Feet Higi(that’s the height of the Washington Monument is) by the BillPotts big band- It has fme ensemble playing, some great solos,and the exuberantly fresh writing of its leader.

. Bill Potts is- better known in the profession than to thepublic; He almost acquired a big name when he won someawards for his Jazz Soul of Porgy and Bess in 1959, a beautifulalbum that featured the cream of New York’s jazz players.And then Bill slipped from national sight, returning to theWashington.DC area whence he had come, writing charts for

shows and various "artists" who were beneath the dignity of histalent, though sometimes turning out charts for Doc Severinsenand the Tonight Showband. For the last ten years Bill hasbeen teaching music at Montgomery College in Rockville,Maryland, which has given him the satisfaction of trainingsome excellent young jazz players, three of whom are in thisband. “ t

A The big band is a sound that just won’t go away, firstbecause musicians love to play in big bands and secondbecause there continues to be a market for such music, for allthe synthesizers and confusion about what jan really is caused

long time musicians who have had to make their breadother ways have voluntarily come together in "kicks bands" tomake this kind of music._ Frank Capp and Nat Pierce or-ganized one such band, Juggernaut, in Los Angeles. Themovement has extended beyond the borders of the UnitedStates. Two of the finest such bands were the brilliant mixtureof European and American players led jointly by Kenny Clarkeand Francy Boland, and the largely-Canadian (there were acouple of Americans in it) band led by Rob McConnell, calledthe Boss Brass. In a class with all of these is the Bill Pottsband, which has some special merits of its own.

It is made up largely of young players. This is not neces-sarily a virtue, but when the players are good, and the bunchPotts has assembled are far more than that, the enthusiasmof youth can make a band burn, and this band does. Thepersonnel is a mixture of civilians and musicians from variousof the military bands stationed around Washington. The bandis large -- it has six trumpets (with a split lead) and fivetrombones.

Vaughan Nark, who came up as a protege ofDizzy Gilles 'The next time you hear someone say that jazz is dying --dead -- tell him to go and listen to Tom Harrell or to Vaugh-an Nark. Nark vaguely reminds me of someone, but I can’tput my finger on it. Maybe it’s Fats Navarro. Or SonnyBerman. The comparison is only a compliment, and he isfirmly his own man. His playing has a soaring quality. Andhe has astounding chops. He has a vocabulary of smears andglisses that puts me in mind of Clark Terry. And he hasspeed combined with clarity to a dazzling degree. He plays afluegelhom solo on an original called Brazilville that is hard tobelieve. It should be noted that he doesn’t play only a jazzchair. He’s one of the lead trumpets. And that wouldn’t tellyou as much if the album had been made in a series ofsessions. It was done in a single session in a day. So thisyoung man has an iron lip. B L

The album consists mostly of originals, though _it includesgreat charts on C Jam Blues and Jelly Roll Morton’s DeadMan's Blues. ' p V

As is‘ so often the case with good music, this album hasdreadful distribution, If you want it, send ten bucks to BillPotts, 201 S. Washington Street, Rockville MD Z1850. Thatcovers pggtagfi as well.

There’s an extraordinary young trumpet player in this band

-- GL

by the largely sterile efforts to fuse rock and jazz. So liq