Lem Winchester

[Soul Stream]

Does anybody know what brand of vibes Lem played? Perhaps Chris would know?

[Soul Stream]

Sorry, SS, I don't have that info.

Hey Chris, any other memories of Lem you could share? Did you get a chance to see him play often at the time? Hard to imagine he was a full time policeman at the beginning of his recording career. That's a lot of after work practicing!

Speaking of vibraphonists Chris, wondered if you knew Freddie McCoy.... He seems to be someone who completely disappeared.

[Chuck Nessa]

Not certain but I think I remember Deagan ads featuring him.

[Christiern]

I read the AAJ posts and there is a lot of imagination there. Here is the NY Times item from the January 14, 1961 issue. It confirms what I heard at the time, Lem was playing Russian Roulette, which is something he was known to do and thought to have mastered. No nephew. Besides, from what I knew of Lem, personally, he loved kids too much to have even thought of having a gun around them.

[Christiern]

Just came across your last post, SS.

"Hey Chris, any other memories of Lem you could share? Did you get a chance to see him play often at the time? Hard to imagine he was a full time policeman at the beginning of his recording career. That's a lot of after work practicing!

Speaking of vibraphonists Chris, wondered if you knew Freddie McCoy.... He seems to be someone who completely disappeared."

Lem was still a policeman when I met him and, as I recall, he had been paying locally for some time. I only heard him in person on 3 or 4 occasions. As I recall, I met him because he called me several times when I was on the air at WHAT. He wanted me to meet his grandfather, so that's how he first came to my apartment. I think that's how it went down—it was a half century ago!

No, I never met Freddie McCoy.

[Soul Stream]

Thanks a lot Chris for the insight. It's amazing that he somehow seemed to know some sort of trick as to not get the loaded shell in the chamber of a certain make/model of pistol..., a trick that seemed to have cost him his life. When people say Russian Roulette, it brings to mind someone with a death wish. That's not the picture that you seemed to have painted. More of a gun trick gone bad. Anyway, thanks for the Deagan ad memory too. To me, he sounds like he's playing Deagans on those recordings as they have a certain ring to them. I know Freddie McCoy played Deagans as well and their recordings have a similar ring, although the playing is different. Lem was a real master and I love hearing him play.

Do you have/or have heard his recording at the Birmingham Jazz Festival?

[Late]

Lem's Beat

Some fine Oliver Nelson here. Curtis Peagler reminds me of Clarence Sharpe. I wonder if Milt Jackson ever heard Winchester, and, if so, what his impressions were.