Frisco Cricket. Published by the San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation Spring Where We ve Been; Where We re Going.

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Frisco Cricket Published by the San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation Spring 2013 Where We ve Been; Where We re Going by William Carter Here is a bit of Foundation history; I would appreciate

We have always interpreted that to mean, first and foremost, traditional jazz in or from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Watters, Bob Scobey and others of that era. Jim placed the collection in an Oakland warehouse and donated it to Stanford, but then the whole matter went moribund for several years.

1 Frisco Cricket Published by the San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation Spring 2013 Where We ve Been; Where We re Going by William Carter Here is a bit of Foundation history; I would appreciate follow-up thoughts from any of you. Our mission statement is quite broad: to foster and support traditional jazz. We have always interpreted that to mean, first and foremost, traditional jazz in or from the San Francisco Bay Area. The Foundation was established well over 20 years ago by Jim Goggin around his archive of memorabilia, recordings, etc focused on, but not limited to, musicians associated with Turk Murphy, Lu Watters, Bob Scobey and others of that era. Jim placed the collection in an Oakland warehouse and donated it to Stanford, but then the whole matter went moribund for several years. About 20 years Contents Where We ve Been; Where We re Going by William Carter 1 From The Editor by Scott Anthony 3 Berkeley s Short-Lived Jazz Club by Earl Scheelar 4 Letter To The Editor by Scott Anthony 10 Membership Application and Product List 11 1 ago Chuck Huggins and Bill Tooley asked me to help revitalize this 501(c)(3) foundation. We expanded the board and identified key areas of interest: the archive contents; publications and recordings; live performances; other forms of outreach and public education and communication -- usually via partnering with related, larger organizations. Our available funding was only enough for internal operations; we recognized that any proposed project beyond maintenance costs would require project-targeted sponsorship. Stanford in those years was not set up to receive most of the already donated collection. The university did take some items, such as books and commercial recordings that could easily be integrated into its main collections. Meanwhile, SFTJF created a separate new collection, including extensive holdings of the Turk Murphy estate, donated by Turk s widow, and other gifts of tapes, memorabilia, instruments, etc. which came in over many years. In that first decade+ of my tenure, we searched for other destinations for our growing collection, including U.C. Berkeley and the Performing Arts A memento from the October 2006 Turk Murphy Tribute at Bimbo s 365 Club in San Francisco referring to long-time board member and local Traditional Jazz afficianado, Charles Campbell.

2 The Frisco Cricket Spring 2013 Library & Museum of San Francisco. Eventually, we returned to Stanford with a far richer and broader collection to offer, at a time when Stanford had enlarged its storage space and digitization program, and deepened its interest in jazz collecting. Agreeing to transfer our holdings to Stanford s Archive of Recorded Sound, we also to facilitated significant new donations such as the Lawless photographs and manuscripts. Closing our archive saved storage costs and essentially completed our initial assignment. Live performance is the essence of jazz, so we have found ways to seed and sponsor such activities over the years. Also in those years it was cost effective to make CDs from historic material such as previously unissued Turk and Lu recordings; we dug deep to find and issue such material, occasionally adding live concert recordings of our co-sponsored events. We utilized contacts with George Buck in New Orleans, and others, to issue CDs. We partnered with Heyday Books, the California Historical Society and others to co-publish books. But the later collapse of the CD and book markets left us with unsold items which we seek ways of distributing. Twenty years ago we could count on $15 thousand per year major donations for internal funding, but that has gradually shrunk to around $5 thousand a year, plus a recent major one-time gift part for operations and part for special projects. Membership remains steady as our outreach has expanded from the printed Cricket to the online Cricket and a website with historic depth for those interested in exploring it. Board attrition due to age causes a continuing fund raising need. Some of us are pushing 80, and we all do other things, and none of us are natural fund raisers, so there are leadership and practical issues, looking ahead. Live performance is the essence of jazz, so we have found ways to seed and sponsor such activities over the years. Smaller events such as at Pier 23 and Nick s Rockaway at the beach in Pacifica can be selffunding. Larger venues such as New Orleans 1900 The Frisco Cricket Issue No. 59 Published by the SAN FRANCISCO TRADITIONAL JAZZ FOUNDATION 3130 Alpine Road, #288 PMB 187 Portola Valley, CA Phone: (415) , FAX: (415) Website: info@sftradjazz.org Publisher: William Carter Editor, Layout, Webmaster: Scott Anthony Curator of the Archive : Clint Baker Special Projects Consultant: Hal Smith Office Manager: Scott Anthony Board of Directors John Matthews Terry O Reilly Margaret Pick William Tooley Honorary Directors Charles Campbell, Leon Oakley Board of Advisors John R. Browne, III William Carter Jim Cullum Philip Hudner, Michael Keller, Paul Mehling, Margaret Pick, Gregg Keeling, Bud Spangler Unless otherwise noted, all contents copyright 2010 San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation Advertise in the Cricket! In an effort to help defray the costs of maintaining all the varied programs that SFTJF supports, including The Frisco Cricket itself, we re going to begin providing limited advertising space here. We want to be fair to everyone, so there are a few rules we d like to follow: The advertiser should be in a music related (preferably Traditional Jazz related) business (band, club, cruise, radio station, etc.). No more than a total of 2 full pages will be used in any single issue of the Cricket, so ads will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. We need to be able to maintain the right to accept or reject advertisements at our discretion. Please send your ad to: Cricket Editor San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation 41 Sutter Street, PMB 1870 San Francisco, CA Or (preferably) by to: webmaster@sftradjazz.org or santh@comcast.net Advertising Rates per issue 1/8 Page $35, 1/4 Page $50, 1/2 Page $75 2

3 The Frisco Cricket Spring 2013 at Herbst Theater, starring William Warfield, Dick Hyman, lecturers from Tulane, and our house band, which I facilitated and wrote while serving on the board of Humanities West, require special funding and much time -- both in shorter supply now than in the days when See s Candies, for one, could be counted on. One great idea didn t work out: a train ride from Los Angeles to New Orleans accompanying the body of legendary trombonist Kid Ory to his final resting place. Despite much enthusiasm and planning, the train company kept adding conditions that forced us to cancel; only later did the company reveal that it had been planning to stop that service altogether, which it did. I.e., there are always more good ideas than we have the resources to carry out. We have a rule that if a board member, advisor or member has a passion for a particular great project, he or she then owns it both in concept and detail. Unlike big arts organizations, we have zero staff to implement all the aspects of event planning. While keenly regretting the loss of some major board members over the years, such as Phil Elwood, we remain deeply grateful for the faithful help of faithful advisors such as Hal Smith, and we wholeheartedly now celebrate the arrival of Jim Cullum s talented Riverwalk producer, Margaret Moos Pick. Thus a major strength has been our range of important contacts in the business, arts, education and other communities. The traditional jazz strain has always been widely infectious and communicable. Part of our agenda is to keep that epidemic going and hopefully expanding, which can be challenging now in an era when major festivals, jazz club venues, and recording sales are in decline, with complaints about the inroads of pop and world music to formerly pure jazz venues. SFTJF s era of archival and product development appears to be on hold. Educational outreach can happen as it happens but without any tangible plan for There are always unexpected arrivals of an archival treasure, like the Barbary Coast recordings of bandleader/pianist Sid LaProtti now held at Stanford, which help to put early San Francisco jazz on the map. Your Foundation s strength has always flowed from our our talented people, their specific interests and contacts with partner organizations and from loyal members like you. We have no real internal structure. We rarely do top down planning; our successes, our achievable goals, have seemed to evolve from the special enthusiasms of inspired individuals expressed in particular contexts as special situations arise. A jazz style. 3 From The Editor The last couple of months have been very busy around this office. For some unaccountable reason I began to think that our website was looking a bit dark and heavy and was not as easy to navigate as other websites. As a result, I completely re-designed and upgraded the SFTJF website to make it easier for you to use and for us to add and update content. Among other things, the new update includes: Brighter, cleaner look and feel. More logical navigation to all the pages with the new menu bar. Now able to view all collection images in full size in a Lightbox display. On the Articles page you can now view the table of contents for all available Cricket issues with links to pages in the pdf files. Also on the Articles page you can search for words in the Cricket issue titles. Members can listen to all tracks of CDs available in Member-Only store. In addition to the re-design of the website I have developed an audio database that will make it much easier for us to allow members and non-members to listen to audio from our collections, including tracks from all our CDs and other items such as interviews and concerts. On an unhappy note, we recently received word of the death of Turk s favorite drummer Wayne Jones. From his obituary in the Chicago Sun Times: Wayne was one of the most prominent swing and traditional jazz drummers in the country. Some of the bands he worked with included The Original Salty Dogs, James Dapogny s Chicago Jazz Band, The Red Rose Ragtime Band, Turk Murphy s San Francisco Jazz Band at Carnegie Hall, The West End Jazz Band, Sons of Bix, The Chicago Footwarmers Orchestra, The Neo-Passe Jazz Band, Terry Waldo s Gutbucket Syncopaters and Bob Schultz s Frisco Jazz Band. Wayne also toured with Phyllis Diller and the Gold Coast Jazz Band. Several venues were longtime gigs for Wayne. Jazz at Noon on the Showboat Sari S. and later at Andy s and the Don DeMicheal-Chuck Hedges Swingtet at Andy s. Wayne also wrote for Downbeat, The Mississippi Rag and other publications as a jazz writer and critic. We will have a page devoted to Wayne on the website soon.

The Frisco Cricket Spring 2013 Berkeley s Short-Lived Jazz Club Photo Scrapbook and New CDs from Earl Scheelar s New Orleans House by Earl Scheelar While operating a Volkswagen repair shop and

The original personnel in the band was: Bob Helm on clarinet and soprano sax John Farkas on trombone Karl Walterskerschen on banjo Peter Allen on string bass Peter Berg on guitar Earl Scheelar on

4 The Frisco Cricket Spring 2013 Berkeley s Short-Lived Jazz Club Photo Scrapbook and New CDs from Earl Scheelar s New Orleans House by Earl Scheelar While operating a Volkswagen repair shop and selling used VWs 6 days a week, I led a band at my club, The New Orleans House, on San Pablo Ave. in Berkeley, California. We played every Friday and Saturday night, for about 8 months in 1966 and 67. The original personnel in the band was: Bob Helm on clarinet and soprano sax John Farkas on trombone Karl Walterskerschen on banjo Peter Allen on string bass Peter Berg on guitar Earl Scheelar on cornet At one point, Karl left the band and was replaced by Burt Bales on piano. The recordings (Ed: on the CDs shown below) were made live, over a period of several months, and there were a lot of substitutes. I was extremely fortunate that Bob Helm was available at that time, as he was in his prime and I believe this is some of best recordings he ever made. Someone asked me why Bob had twice as many solos as anyone else in the band, and the answer is because he was Bob Helm! In my opinion, Bob was the Bay Area s musical genius. As it turned out, it was exactly the wrong time and place for a New Orleans Jazz Club, being the height of the rock era. As a matter of fact, after I sold the club, it was a rock club for about another 5 years. There was a lot of traditional jazz being played in the Bay Area during the 60 s. The Lu Watters Yerba Buena Jazz Band of the 1940 s planted a lot of seeds, bearing fruit, starting in the 1950s, and continuing to this day, inspiring many aspiring young musicians to play traditional jazz. I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in late 1950 to be part of the jazz scene, just in time to hear the Lu Watters band 3 times before they hung it up on New Years Eve, I developed my taste in jazz by listening to the recordings of the creators of jazz in the 1920 s. Above and right - Covers of the new Earls New Orleans House CDs from Earl Scheelar. They are available from Earl Scheelar directly or from Ted Shafer at Merry makers. The band members shown on these CD covers are Karl Walterskerschen - Banjo, Bob Helm - clarinet, Earl Scheelar - cornet, Art Nortier - Piano, John Farkas - trombone. 4

The Frisco Cricket Spring 2013 Editor s Note We have been thinking that it would be very interesting and fun to see if we can

The whole collection is available online at the New Orleans House Collection. Each photo is labelled with a number.

the photo number and the person you recognize (with some indication of the individual s location in the photo).

5 The Frisco Cricket Spring 2013 Editor s Note We have been thinking that it would be very interesting and fun to see if we can identify some of the folks seen in the photos that follow. The whole collection is available online at the New Orleans House Collection. Each photo is labelled with a number. If you recognize anyone or even better, if you recognize yourself, please let us know by going to our contact page and noting the photo number and the person you recognize (with some indication of the individual s location in the photo). Above and below: Bob Helm - Reeds, Dick Oxtot - Banjo, Peter Allen - Bass, Earl Scheelar - Cornet, John Farkas - Trombone, Peter Berg-Guitar. Photos courtesy Earl Scheelar. Right: same personnel as CD covers on previous page 5

6 The Frisco Cricket Spring 2013 Photo above: Band personnel is the same as CD cover photos on page 4. Photo right: same as above with Bob Short added on tuba. Photo courtesy Earl Scheelar. 6

7 The Frisco Cricket Spring

8 The Frisco Cricket Spring 2013 The Wine and Drink menu. Note the outdated selection and definitely outdated prices! 8

9 The Frisco Cricket Spring 2013 Some hand-lettered and hand-colored flyers for a number of events that were hosted by Earl s New Orleans House. 9

The Frisco Cricket Spring 2013 Letter To The Editor William Carter s Fundamentally in FC. 57. Fall 2012., brought back happy memories of our friendship with Dottie & Ed Lawless.

Almost like a blind date, Ed met us at our hotel, took us to their home where Dottie had prepared lunch. This was the beginning of a wonderful friendship.

10 The Frisco Cricket Spring 2013 Letter To The Editor William Carter s Fundamentally in FC. 57. Fall 2012., brought back happy memories of our friendship with Dottie & Ed Lawless. In 1992, we wrote to Floyd Levin telling him we were going to be in San Francisco and he passed the information to Dottie & Ed. Almost like a blind date, Ed met us at our hotel, took us to their home where Dottie had prepared lunch. This was the beginning of a wonderful friendship. Dottie Lawless, Steve Waddell (leader of Australia s Creole Belles ), Ed Lawless, John and Marjorie Neal, Photo by Marjorie Neal. About Your New San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation Created as a non-profit in 1981, the San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation stated, as its primary mission, the archival preservation of thousands of items related to the West Coast Jazz Revival that began in San Francisco about In 2009 SFTJF completed the transfer of the main body of those materials to the Stanford University s Music Library. Thereupon, your Foundation s Archive was closed; possible donors of jazz materials should now contact Stanford or other public repositories. SFTJF s wider, ongoing aim is to help foster high-quality traditional jazz, regionally and worldwide. That mission is now carried out primarily via electronic media. The Foundation s main window on the world is our website -- www. sftradjazz.org -- where visitors are invited to become members at $25 per year. Benefits of membership include insider information and discounts to special events and products, and a subscription to our lively newsletter, the Cricket, now available electronically. Those wishing to continue receiving the Cricket on paper in the mail should please contact the SFTJF office manager. Thank you for your generous support over the years. Contributions in categories beyond the basic membership level are tax deductible, and the names of those contributors are published annually (unless a contributor specifies anonymity). Donations welcomed The San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation accepts gifts and grants in many forms, including his tori cal items which shed further light on the history of traditional jazz on the West Coast, such as recordings, music, newspaper clippings, pho tographs and corre spon dence. Contributions of materials or funds are tax-deductible under IRS ruling status 501(c)(3). SF Jazz on the Web The San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation has an ever-expanding web site. The site includes sound files and photos of many San Francisco (and other) jazz figures from the 1930s to the present. Please visit us at Join (or rejoin) the San Francisco Traditional Jazz Founda tion today to begin taking advan tage of reservations to special events, discounts on selected jazz books and recordings, and a year s sub scription to The Frisco Cricket. If you are already a member, give the gift of Founda tion membership to a friend! Use the form at right. 10 Ed and Dottie Lawless and John Neal. In 1993 we stayed with them, visiting the N.O.J.C. of North California and also Clint Baker at Cafe Borrone.In 1994 we attended our first jazz festival in Sacramento-the first of many meetings with Dottie & Ed at various festivals. Ed gave us many photographs he had taken, one we especially treasure is of Turk Murphy & Lu Watters on Ed & Dottie s balcony. John & Marjorie Neal. Halifax. England.

11 The Frisco Cricket Spring 2013 Product Order Form & 2013 Membership/Renewal Application Name Address Phone ( ) Compact Discs ($13 for members, $16 for non-members) Quantity Amount El Dorado Jazz Band Live At Mr. Fatfingers...(BCD-510) $ The Sunset Music Company Live in Dusseldorf, (BSR-009) $ The Unheard Bob Scobey and his Frisco Jazz Band (BCD-285) $ Firehouse 5 Plus 2 Live at Earthquake McGoon s (BCD-450) $ Clancy Hayes Satchel of Song...(SFTJF CD-108) $ Turk Murphy Jazz Band Wild Man Blues...(SFTJF CD-107) $ Lu Watters Yerba Buena Jazz Band, Vol 2, (SFTJF CD-106) $ Lu Watters Yerba Buena Jazz Band, Vol 1, (SFTJF CD-105) $ Turk Murphy Jazz Band Euphonic Sounds...(SFTJF CD-104) $ Turk Murphy Jazz Band Weary Blues...(SFTJF CD-103) $ Turk Murphy Jazz Band In Hollywood...(SFTJF CD-102) $ Turk Murphy Jazz Band Live at Carson Hot Springs...(SFTJF CD-101) $ Turk Murphy Jazz Band At The Italian Village, with Claire Austin... (MMRC CD-11) $ Lu Watters Yerba Buena Jazz Band At Hambone Kelly s, (MMRC CD-10) $ Bob Helm with the El Dorado Jazz Band 1955*...(SFTJF CD-110) $ *Specially priced two-cd set. Members: $16; non-members: $20. More CDs online at Books Members Non-mem. Jazz on the Barbary Coast, by Tom Stoddard $4 $5 $ Pioneer jazzmen reminisce about old San Francisco and its role as a wellspring of jazz The Great Jazz Revival, by Pete Clute & Jim Goggin $10 $15 $ The story of the San Francisco jazz revival Jazz West 2, by K.O. Ecklund, published by Donna Ewald NEW PRICE! $6 $8 $ The A-to-Z guide to west coast jazz music; a unique source. Complete the credit card information below, or enclose check or money order for Total. Send to: San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation 3130 Alpine Road, #288 PMB 187 Portola Valley, CA Total Qty: $ California residents, add 9.0% sales tax (1 April 2013) $ Everyone add shipping (Total Qty X $2.00 per item) = $ If outside U.S., Canada and Mexico, add $5 per order. $ New or Renew SFTJF membership, add $25. $ Donation* $ Total $ *contributions to SFTJF, above the basic membership level, are tax deductible Credit Card MasterCard Visa American Express Name (as appears on card) Account Number (16 digits) Expiration Date (mo/yr) Cardholder Signature 11

12 The Frisco Cricket San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation 3130 Alpine Road, #288 PMB 187 Portola Valley, CA Anytime is a good time to renew your Membership! Join or renew online at Support Traditional Jazz! The Frisco Cricket Spring 2013

Frisco Cricket. Published By The San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation. Bill Usually Does This. by Scott Anthony

Frisco Cricket. Published By The San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation. Bill Usually Does This. by Scott Anthony Frisco Cricket Published By The San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation Summer 2014 Our page 1 article is most often a thoughtful, inciteful piece by William Carter about some element of San Francisco