Have You Ever Used A Stage Name?

[Big Wheel]

Never used a nom de guerre in a musical or radio setting. However, in a previous job I was essentially a corporate spy, crank-calling secretaries at companies large and small and sweet-talking them into blabbing the names of the companies' executives. For obvious reasons, we always blocked caller ID and almost always called under assumed names. I figured that the more "non-generic" the name, the more plausible it was to a secretary. So before long "Joe Perkins" and "Brian Stevens" began to assume much more interesting heritages. Suffice it to say that some of America's largest and proudest banks never knew what hit them when "Carlos Martinez" and "Deipanjan Chandrasekhar" started calling in...

[Dan Gould]

Never used a nom de guerre in a musical or radio setting. However, in a previous job I was essentially a corporate spy, crank-calling secretaries at companies large and small and sweet-talking them into blabbing the names of the companies' executives. For obvious reasons, we always blocked caller ID and almost always called under assumed names. I figured that the more "non-generic" the name, the more plausible it was to a secretary. So before long "Joe Perkins" and "Brian Stevens" began to assume much more interesting heritages. Suffice it to say that some of America's largest and proudest banks never knew what hit them when "Carlos Martinez" and "Deipanjan Chandrasekhar" started calling in...

Did you have the accents to go with those names? Or were you the assimilated immigrant spy?

[jazzbo]

I was introduced the one time that I did a gig as a bongo accompanist to a poet (a bass player I had worked with) as "Bad Buckeye Slim." I WAS slim in those days. . . . No longer.

[RonF]

Leon "Big Spider" Beck

What was the occasion?

Blues singer.

Despite your best efforts, do tapes survive?

Absolutely not.

[Christiern]

I used to do a radio show in NYC as "Uncle Chris." David Amram still addresses me as such.

When I didn't like the music but needed the money, I used to write liner notes as Fred Nurdley. If there happened to be a good track on the album, Fred would write that he played it for Chris Albertson, who said this about that...

[Larry Kart]

I used to do a radio show in NYC as "Uncle Chris." David Amram still addresses me as such.

When I didn't like the music but needed the money, I used to write liner notes as Fred Nurdley. If there happened to be a good track on the album, Fred would write that he played it for Chris Albertson, who said this about that...

Uncle Chris ... I love it. And they let you use Fred Nurdley?

[JSngry]

The only thing that a quick search for "Fred Nurdley" turns up is a Montego Joe thing. Would it be inappropriate to ask what else might be included in the Fred Nurdley ouvre?

Edited September 7, 2006 by JSngry

[Christiern]

Yes, Larry, and I was not the only one--we all had nom de plumes to avoid embarrassment. If I recall correctly, Dan Morgenstern was "Michael Morgan" and Ira had one, too, but it escapes me.

Jim, there were only about half a dozen--Byrdie Green comes to mind.

Edited September 7, 2006 by Christiern

[WD45]

I once posted on a jazz BBS under a moniker other than my real name.

[jazzbo]

I once posted on a jazz BBS under a moniker other than my real name.

OH MY GOD WHO WOULD HAVE KNOWN!

[WD45]

[Big Wheel]

Never used a nom de guerre in a musical or radio setting. However, in a previous job I was essentially a corporate spy, crank-calling secretaries at companies large and small and sweet-talking them into blabbing the names of the companies' executives. For obvious reasons, we always blocked caller ID and almost always called under assumed names. I figured that the more "non-generic" the name, the more plausible it was to a secretary. So before long "Joe Perkins" and "Brian Stevens" began to assume much more interesting heritages. Suffice it to say that some of America's largest and proudest banks never knew what hit them when "Carlos Martinez" and "Deipanjan Chandrasekhar" started calling in...

Did you have the accents to go with those names?

Only on very rare and very special occasions. Deipanjan Chandrasekhar's voice is like a cross between Apu on The Simpsons and the angry South Asian terrorist-type character on The Jerky Boys CDs.

[scottb]

I recently assumed the personna of "Louisiana Shorty" to perform a couple blues tunes at an office party recently. Probably more than half the people in attendance didn't know it was me until told later.

[GregN]

I recently assumed the personna of "Louisiana Shorty" to perform a couple blues tunes at an office party recently. Probably more than half the people in attendance didn't know it was me until told later.

That was my porn handle back in the day.

[GregN]

Later it was Blind One-Eyed Willie

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

what do u mean chris albertson: u guys would review bad weird lps and then use a psyudonym on it. why would you have to use a fake name n stuff

[Big Al]

I used to do a radio show in NYC as "Uncle Chris." David Amram still addresses me as such.

When I didn't like the music but needed the money, I used to write liner notes as Fred Nurdley. If there happened to be a good track on the album, Fred would write that he played it for Chris Albertson, who said this about that...

Can we start calling you that around here?

[Christiern]

what do u mean chris albertson: u guys would review bad weird lps and then use a psyudonym on it. why would you have to use a fake name n stuff

Liner notes, not reviews.

[catesta]

I used to do a radio show in NYC as "Uncle Chris." David Amram still addresses me as such.

Any relation to Cousin Brucie?

[Chuck Nessa]

I conducted the Swedish Radio Orchestra under the name Folding Walbord.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

yea but why the fake name to write lp liner notes?

[Christiern]

yea but why the fake name to write lp liner notes?

I thought that would be obvious. Liner notes tend not to criticize the performer--ergo, if one has reservations about the music on the record, one should decline the assignment. On the other hand, if one isn't exactly rolling in dough...

Remember, too, that most liner notes written 40-50 years ago were little more than shallow blurbs, often written by disc jockeys whose knowledge of jazz came mainly from reading silly notes written by other disc jockeys who, in turn.... well, you get the picture.

[robviti]

some nights when the band members of the septet i played with outnumbered the people in the audience, we'd introduce ourselves as "Chuck Roast and his Prime Cuts, featuring the vocals of the lovely Clair Voyant."

just one of the many reasons i'm now a psychologist.

[GregN]

some nights when the band members of the septet i played with outnumbered the people in the audience, we'd introduce ourselves as "Chuck Roast and his Prime Cuts, featuring the vocals of the lovely Clair Voyant."

just one of the many reasons i'm now a psychologist.

I once did an ad hoc gig under the name of Johnny Large and The Johnsons.

John Large is a drummer from the west side of Michigan and it is his real name. The rest of us however, weren't really Johnsons.

Well maybe we were...

[Chuck Nessa]

some nights when the band members of the septet i played with outnumbered the people in the audience, we'd introduce ourselves as "Chuck Roast and his Prime Cuts, featuring the vocals of the lovely Clair Voyant."

just one of the many reasons i'm now a psychologist.

I once did an ad hoc gig under the name of Johnny Large and The Johnsons.

John Large is a drummer from the west side of Michigan and it is his real name. The rest of us however, weren't really Johnsons.

Well maybe we were...

When I was a student at Iowa I had a poet friend named George Lonesome. He loved it when his name was called alphabetically as Lonesome, George.