[Tradjazz] Sing Along

[Don Mopsick]

Bruce:

You're right, it probably doesn't do anyone any good to put down ol'
George after lo these many years. 

BUT the conversation sure got me to reminiscing about the old days! 

And, it also got me thinking: there's always been a certain tension
between the worlds of Trad Jazz and Sing Along. Kind of the old Art vs.
Commerce dialectic. Deacon Jim Lawyer (may he RIP) always cautioned me
to make the distinction between the two genres to avoid confusion when
speaking about the relative merits of a given musician or entertainer. 

I started in 1975 as a 24-year-old tuba student. The only time I ever
set foot into Your Father's Mustache in Sheridan Square was at the
invitation of the (even younger, I think he was 18 at the time) tuba
player Brian Nalepka, who was playing sousaphone there. Brian, of
course, has gone on to fame and fortune with the Manhattan Rhythm Kings
and before that spent some time playing bass sax with Jim Cullum, my
current boss.

By 1975, it turns out, the Sing Along movement was near the end. Here is
an interview with Joel Schiavone I found:

http://www.jazzbanjo.com/vol4no5/schiavone1.htm

Also see 

http://www.jazzbanjo.com/vol4no5/covervs4n5o.htm


How is it possible for you, Bruce, to write about George French and Herb
Gardner in the same message? Because you and successful businesses like
the Mustache, Shakey's, Red Garter, etc. gave a lot of employment to
first-rate mouldy-jazz artists during the height of the Sing Along
movement of the 60s and 70s and afterward. In fact, you could say that
you guys were enablers for trad jazz during this period. So this time I
give you a non-sarcastic thank you. 

My understanding is that the very first Landing in San Antonio in 1963
had Sing-Along characteristics. There was cheap beer. Peanut shells on
the floor. A nightly sing-along, a projection screen with bouncing-ball
lyrics. Silent films. 

But there was also the Happy Jazz Band, which sounded kind of like the
Watters band but had its own musical identity. I'm not sure exactly when
Jim dropped the sing-along, but in the early 70s, after the passing of
Jim Sr., the band morphed into the Jim Cullum Jazz Band with bass fiddle
instead of sousaphone. The addition of guitar (doubles tenor banjo) came
in 1979 with the addition of Howard Elkins who is still with the band.
At the present Landing, Sing-Along repertoire is on the "Sorry, don't
play that one" list unless the tune was played by Louis or Bix. For
example, "Somebody Stole My Gal" stomps along with many ensemble and
solo choruses, no vocal, ala Bix.

Every once in a while, a Landing patron will complain that the band
plays tunes he doesn't know, and why don't they wear uniforms like
striped vests and straw hats? This used to happen a lot more when I
first joined the band in 1991. If these guys come in at all now, they're
usually somewhere north of 80. 

I should also mentioned that I worked for about a year or so with Mike
Gentry aboard the fake riverboat "Empress Lilly" at Walt Disney World in
Orlando. So while I never worked in a Mustache or met Joel Schiavone, I
became all too familiar with the Sing-Along routine of the Mustache Show
Band. 

I also payed some dues at Rosy O'Grady's in Orlando which featured a
(very loud) "God Bless America" type show set every night with
Charleston dancers and Uncle Sam on stilts. 

So, in my work experience there has always been a continuum between
"pure" jazz and ragtime Sing-Along entertainment/hokum. But I am
learning that this was always true, even with the very first jazz
record, "Livery Stable Blues" by the Original Dixieland Jass Band.
Certainly the great Armstrong was not one to shy away from entertaining
his audiences. 

What about today, decades after the last Shakey's and Mustache have
closed forever? Probably every musician working today in the old-school
style has had a similar history and experience as I did. All of us have
varying degrees of ambivalent feelings about What We Did For Love. Some
are very comfortable with hokum, others can't tolerate it. Most are
somewhere in between. Some of us cringe at the memory of
repertoire-challenged banjoists encouraging us to drink beer in order to
"get into the spirit of the job."

Only with the advent of post-war bebop did a "pure" artist consciousness
develop in jazz. In my opinion, younger fans of complicated
bebop-inspired and modal-based jazz don't have a clue about where that
music is coming from, and they really don't understand what it is
they're hearing; all they know is that their college Jazz History
professor told them it's really "hip." And that's the only reason I can
see that that music today has an audience.

While I was at Manhattan School of Music, I took a composition class
with John Carisi, composer of "Israel" and other bop classics. He
referred to Mustache banjo players as "straw hat amateurs." 

Consumers of music want and need to be entertained, but more of them
than you might think are always asking "Where's the beef?" The proof of
THAT is the rabid, loyal (and by the way growing, ever-younger) fan base
for our public radio show. 

But even then, schtick creeps in: the great trombone man Bob Havens
played with us for a short time and still does ocassionally. One thing
he loves to do is play "Tiger Rag" while lying on his back, working the
slide with his foot. He also will bend down resting the end of the slide
on the floor and work it by bobbing his head up and down. It's quite
impressive to see a tall, well-preserved 76-year-old do this with such
agility. People go nuts for it! And yet there is simply no finer
trombone player today on this planet in any jazz style than Bob Havens. 

I would like to write an article for our newsletter Jazz Me News on the
Sing Along movement and its impact on trad jazz. Has anyone written a
book yet? Any other sources? 

And Bruce, what exactly was your role? I knew that you took over the
Mustache booking business after the NY club closed. Where does the
business stand today? Is there still an audience for "Salvation Army"
and "I've Been Working on the Railroad?"

By the way, I knew that Your Father's Mustache on Sheridan Square was
Nick's in the Village, and that after the Mustache closed it became a
gay disco and later an Italian restaurant. What is it today? There's
another potential fascinating story for us. Any sources on that?

mopo

Don Mopsick, Riverwalk Webmaster

> Don,
> 
> Don't hold back now.  Tell us what you really think.
> 
> I've tried to not knock the guys I've worked with and perhaps that
means
> that I'm a wimp.  On the other hand, I have never complimented anyone
whom
> I did not care for (playing or otherwise).