Jazz Artists Who Have Nicknames

[BERIGAN]

....

Berigan, please tell us more about ISH KABIBBLE. Just saying it, makes me smile.

Sure, I'll tell you more...just call me Eugene Chadbourne! And stick around for the photo!

by Eugene Chadbourne

Born Merwyn Bogue, this versatile and amusing artist managed to come up with a stage name that was even weirder sounding than his real name. Or actually, his boss, Kay Kyser, came up with the name when the trumpeter joined Kyser's band in 1931. At first, "Ish Kabibble" was just the name of a trumpet feature that allowed Bogue a chance to do his thing. When Kyser became the host of the enormously popular '30s radio program kraftily kalled Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge, Bogue began to portray a perpetually silly and addled character named Ish Kabibble, serving as a comical sidekick to the leader. Why Bogue decided to take his character's name as his own might have had something to do with being named Merwyn Bogue, but the most likely inspiration for the Kabibble name itself was a humorous popular song by Sam Lewis entitled "Isch Gabibble" or "I Should Worry," published in 1913. The lyrics to this song connect the title with a relaxed, casual attitude about life: "I never care or worry/Isch Gabibble, Isch Gabibble/I never tear or hurry/Isch Gabibble, Isch Gabibble/...When I owe people money/Isch Gabibble, Isch Gabibble," and so forth and so on. A further presence of at least the "kabibble" part of the name was in a comic strip of that time, Abie the Agent by Harry Hershfield. This comic presented the adventures of a character named Abie Kabibble. Both the song and the comic probably helped popularize the expression "ish kabibble" as slang for "who cares?" in the early 1900s.

Defying this interpretation of his name, the trumpeter Kabibble remained one of the standout soloists in the Kyser group for nearly 20 years, minus a brief and unhappy stint with Spike Jones and the City Slickers. He often played the same sort of instrument as Dizzy Gillespie, a trumpet or cornet with the mouthpiece bent up at a 45 degree angle. He was a flashy soloist and handled the novelty vocals on numbers such as "Three Little Fishes," for which he is most famous. Yet it seems like what he was even more famous for was his haircut. His appearance was often compared to one of the Three Stooges, namely Moe Howard, and that is certainly no vision of loveliness. And although musical biographies should generally focus on music and not an artist's appearance, some of the following descriptions of the Ish-cut cry out for public awareness. "...It was extremely difficult to make out whether you were looking at the front or the back of his head." Or, Kabible's hair was "...like a brutal army haircut, put on the wrong way around. The result was that Ish Kabible looked somewhat like an Old English Sheepdog, but not half as pretty." Some musicians were even known to go around in Ish Kabibble wigs for a prank. The haircut seemed attractive in some way to Hollywood producers, as Kabibble was always given ample screen time in films in which he appeared with the Kyser band, including the horror comedy You'll Find Out, probably based on the comment Kabible's barber made to him before handing him the mirror, Swing Fever and Riding High. It is the horror production that remains the highlight of Kabible's haircut on film, as it manages to be more frightening than the combined efforts of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. The Kabibble character is also caricatured in the cartoon Hollywood Canine Canteen, directed in 1946 by Robert McKimson in which there is a dog character named Ish Kapoodle.

One of the vocalists who worked with Kabibble alongside Kyser in the late '40s was Merv Griffin, his talk show days just a twinkle in his eyes. Upon leaving the band in 1951, Kabibble vamoosed to the tropical climate of Hawaii. He wrote his life story, Ish Kabibble: The Autobiography of Merwyn Brogue, which was published by the University of Louisiana Press. He spent his final years in Palm Beach, CA, and died of respiratory failure. Meanwhile another Ish Kabibble had emerged. Jerry Penfound of London, Ontario, was nicknamed "Ish" or Ish Kabibble, and from 1961 on played horns in Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks. This Kabibble was usually part of that group's soul-band horn section along with Garth Hudson on tenor or soprano sax. Hudson, of course, went on to great later fame as a member of the Band. Not so for Penfound/Kabibble II. Maybe he just didn't have the haircut.

Dizzy ripped the man off!

You can just see that gears were always spinning, can't you?

[patricia]

OK "Eugene Chadbourne". Love it, especially the pictures. All I knew, previously, about Ish Kabibble was that it was a funny name, but none of the background.

Disturbingly attractive haircut.

A pox on Dizzy, for ripping off the horn idea.

Thank you Berigan.

Edited April 29, 2004 by patricia

[patricia]

Our next honouree is the great PEANUTS [Michael Andrew] HUCKO. His nickname was a childhood one, acquired due to his uncommon love of the legume.

Peanuts played smooth tenor saxophone, influenced by Bud Freeman and Eddie Miller. He played with trombonist, Jack Jenney and then later with Will Bradley, Joe Marsala Charlie Spivak and Bob Chester.

When Peanuts joined the Air Force he played saxophone, although he also played clarinet. He switched to clarinet, because, as he said, "we did a lot of marching in sand which was awkward with the tenor."

Peanuts joined Glenn Miller's Uptown Hall Gang and was featuring his new specialty, clarinet on "Stealin' Apples" at breakneck speed.

He reverted to tenor, occasionally, with Benny Goodman's band, where his section mate was Stan Getz, as well as with Ray McKinley. Peanuts then played clarinet with Eddie Condon's band, when he filled in for Pee Wee Russell from 1947-1950.

For the following five years he was a studo man for CBS and ABC and that was where he met Louis Armstrong and was with his All Stars for two years.

Peanuts was with Dick Gibson's Colorado jazz parties, playing with the ten greats Of Jazz, which later came became The World's Greatest Jazz Band.

When the 1970's came around he led the Glenn Miller Orchestra and played solos for Laurence Welk.

At the same time, Peanuts opened a nightclub, Peanuts Hucko's Navarre which featured Ralph Sutten and his wife, the singer, Louise Tobin.

In the 1980's Peanuts enjoyed renewed success with his Pied Piper quintet and with Syd Laurence's Miller-style orchestra. He also released several best-selling records.

The 1990's were busy for Peanuts, touring and recording with his own Dixieland band, which had among it's personel, trumpeter, Randy Sandke. He continued to maintain a link between Benny Goodman and the post-war Bob Wilber.

PEANUTS HUCKO died last year, at 85 years old.

Edited March 9, 2004 by patricia

[EKE BBB]

PEANUTS HUCKO

[patricia]

Thank you, EKE BBB. Terrific PEANUTS!!!!

Next up......MUTT [Thomas] CAREY, who was born in Hahnville Louisiana in 1891 and was the younger brother of Jack Carey, who ran the Crescent Brass Band in New Orleans.

Despite this musical connection, Mutt didn't take up his trumpet unit he was twenty-two years old. His first professional work was with Frankie Dusen, Joe Oliver, Jimmy Brown and Bebe Ridgeley in parades and in clubs.

Starting in 1914 Mutt began a partnership with the great Kid Ory and it was a thirty year path, often strewn with contention, but the partnership endured.

Mutt was acknowledged as one of the most popular New Orleans trumpetmen. His style is described as mellow-tone and mid-ranged. He had a special way of playing very softly, which reminded many of the muted techniques of King Oliver, who was a great friend.

Dubbing himself "Blues King of New Orleans", Mutt re-located to California in 1919 in order to work with Kid Ory. I was amused to learn that when King Oliver moved to California in 1921, to step in for Ory, audiences referred to him as a Carey imitator!!

King Oliver quickly went on to greater glory in his career in Chicago and in 1925 Carey took over Ory's small group, giving it the new name, the Jeffersonians. He then expanded it to big-band size and worked extensively in the silent film studios.

Interestingly, but not all that unusual for the time, Mutt, during the 1930's worked at a couple of regular jobs, as a Pullman porter and as a mailman as well as his music.

Then he got back to music, full-time again with the Standard Oil broadcasts which were narrated by Orson Welles and was a major part of the revivalism of Dixieland in the mid-1940's.

MUTT CAREY remained a very popular performer until his death in 1948 at forty-seven years old. A short, but productive life in which he brought beautiful Dixieland music to thousands of people. Not such a shabby legacy.

Edited March 8, 2004 by patricia

[patricia]

My bias once again evident, I will now talk about the fabulous drummer, SHADOW [Rossiere] WILSON.

Shadow was born in Yonkers, New York in 1919 and his first professional work was with Lucky Millinder. He then went to Jimmy Mundy in 1939.

The forties brought Shadow into the bands of the greats of the day. He worked with virtually all of them, from big bands to small groups.

Wilson worked with Benny Carter, Lionel Hampton, Earl Hines, Count Basie, Woody Herman, Illinos Jacquet, Georgie Auld and Louis Jordan as well as Billy Eckstine's band. Eckstine's organization had among it's satellites, Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie and Freddie Webster.

Shadow was also the drummer in Billy Eckstine's band in the forties, but was replaced by Art Blakey, apparently because Shadow did not want to tour in the south.

Blakey said of that time, "I had the band at the Tic Toc in Boston. Meanwhile, Billy had organized his band, and it had Shadow on drums, and they had a certain clique that hung out together: Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and Freddie Webster and Sarah Vaughan...Shadow left, and in the meantime they had to get somebody to take Shadow's place. So somebody told Billy about me. Billy knew me, but he didn't know about what I was doing, and he sent for me and I came round and joined the band, and that was the turning point of my life."

Along with his associations with all of the above, Wilson also kept himself busy freelancing. He was widely known as a quintissential drummer of great flexibility and versatile musicality.

As the fifties rolled in, Shadow was still going strong, backing Errol Garner from 1950-1952, then the great Ella Fitzgerald from 1954-1955.

Then came his stint with Thelonious Monk, from 1957-1958.

After his sojourn with Monk, Shadow continued to take jobs around New York, until his death at only forty, in 1959.

Edited March 5, 2004 by patricia

[patricia]

OK, now, a brief departure from strictly jazz artists, to somebody who captivated me when I saw him perform, live, several years ago. This man was pure magic!!!

His name was BIG [Clerence Heratious] MILLER. I still remember the impact he had on me when I was a teenager, although by then he was close to the end of his long career.

Big had begun his musical journey as a teenager in Kansas City, as one of the so-called "blues shouters". He also sang with Count Basie's band, as well as Duke Ellington's.

His career really took off with his involvement with Jon Hendricks' "Evolution of The Blues" revue in the 1950's. His powerful voice and charismatic stage presence served him well over the years and hadn't diminished by the time I saw him.

As his nickname suggests, he was a man of very large persuasion, but that only made him more compelling, with his by then silver hair and gorgeous eyes. Wow. When he opened his mouth to sing, the most beautiful, rich, smooth voice slid over you and you were hypnotized. The man could sing.

Big was doing a promotion tour for his album when the tour ran out of money in Vancouver B.C. He was totally broke, but decided that he would work his way across Canada and back home to the East Coast. To that end, he played every major venue in Canada, from Vancouver to Edmonton, right over to Toronto and Montreal. During this time Big had befriended Tommy Banks, an Edmonton jazz musician/promoter and decided, rather than move back south, he would make his home in Edmonton Alberta, which he did. He loved it there and made that his base, although he travelled all over Canada and the U.S. as well as to Europe. A few years after he settled in Canada, he became a Canadian citizen.

BIG MILLER was a well-respected musician who endeared himself to his new home and, after he died, a statue to honour him was erected in Edmonton.

Edited March 6, 2004 by patricia

[patricia]

HOT LIPS [Henry] LEVINE is next up and he was born in London, in 1907.

He had lived in New York from the time he was six months old.

Hot Lips learned to play the bugle, when he was in a Boy Scout troop. He then took lessons from Max Schlossberg and later played up the trumpet. He soloed in the Brooklyn Boys' High School, working from then on with bands from one end of New York to the other in the 1920's. One of his closest friends was Phil Napoleon.

By the time 1926 came around, Levine had replaced Nick La Rocca in the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. He played with Vincent Lopez and then joined Ambrose's Band in London in 1927.

Hot Lips then returned to New York, working for theatre orchestras and band leaders and, starting in 1940 he directed the Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street, which was an in-house Dixieland band. The band had it's own programme called Strictly Dixie and he recorded with Dinah Shore, Jelly Roll Morton and Sidney Bechet.

HOT LIPS LEVINE was the musical director for Radio NBK and NBC TV in Cleveland. He worked constantly as a bandleader in Miami a well as in Las Vegas.

As far as I know, Hot Lips Levine is still up and around.

Edited March 10, 2004 by patricia

[patricia]

J.C. [James Charles] HEARD was a fine drummer, who started his musical journey with Teddy Wilson's band in 1939 at twenty-two.

He followed that with periods with Benny Carter in the early forties and Cab Calloway after that.

Then, in 1947 Heard had his own sextet for two years.

As the fifties began, J.C. played regularly with Norman Granz's Jazz At The Philharmonic, before moving to Japan to lead his own band. This band, for a while, included Toshiko, the well-known pianist.

By the mid-fifties, Heard had moved back to New York. He resumed his work with Jazz At The Philharmonic as well as playing with Coleman Hawkins' quintet, when it was led by Roy Eldridge.

He also played with society leader, Lester Lanin, before joining with Teddy Wilson for a year.

Heard then had a short spell with Dorothy Donegan, the pianist, before leading bands in Las Vegas and Detroit.

J.C. HEARD continued to tour and he led an all-star band. Unfortunately, he never achieved the high profile of Jo Jones, or of Gene Krupa.

However, J.C. is remembered as a graceful and extremely elegant drummer, who knew everything there was to know about his art. After Jo Jones died, J.C. did everything he could to keep the flame alive.

But, in Sept of 1988 J.C. Heard died, at seventy-one years old.

Edited April 25, 2004 by patricia

[patricia]

And now, let's talk about HAPPY [Albert] CALDWELL, who played tenor sax as well as clarinet.

Happy was known as a trail-blazer in the early days of the advent of the tenor sax.

Rex Stewart said of Caldwell that he was "a great unheraleded influence on tenor saxophone".

Caldwell stayed very busy in the 1920's and 1930's and toured with Bernie Young's band as well as with Mamie Smith. He followed that with associations with a string of big bands, including Fletcher Henderson's, Vernon Andrade's, Charlie Johnson's as well as Tiny Bradshaw's.

I found it interesting that Caldwell and Rex Stewart regularly commuted from band to band. As Stewart described this time, "It was Happy and Rex against the world. Happy knew his way around. We spent part of each day finding a sheltered place to sleep and the rest of the time hustling hot dog money."

Louis Armstrong's 1932 sides with Jack Bland's Rhythmakers, which featured Henry "Red" Allen and Jelly Roll Morton's remake in 1939 of "Winin' Boy Blues" are classic records on which Caldwell was a part.

Many see a similarity between Caldwell's and Coleman Hawkins' styles, but Hawkins moved forward, while Caldwell didn't choose to relentlessly push forward with his career.

According to Kenny Clarke, by 1939 Caldwell was leading a tiny band in the back of Minton's, frequented by, as Clarke put it, "...old men".

Caldwell was certainly not old, at thirty-six, but his style, much like Prince Robinson's, just seemed to stay static and there are no records which exist to chart his reaction to the newly emerging BeBop.

Nevertheless, his name stayed well-known, at least around New York, leading a band at Small's Paridise and he stayed working until his death in 1978.

Edited March 8, 2004 by patricia

[EKE BBB]

MUTT CAREY

[EKE BBB]

J.C. HEARD

[patricia]

Once again, thank you EKE BBB. J.C. was sum punkins!! B)

And now, we have KANSAS [Carl Donnell] FIELDS, a fabulous drummer who was born in Chapman, Kansas in 1915.

Fields was known as one of the best and most versatile jazz drummers, who worked early in his career with Eddie Mullins and Horace Henderson, joining Roy Eldridge at the Capitol Lounge in 1940, staying until 1941.

He then went with Ella Fitzgerald, who had taken over Chick Webb's orchestra.

Work with Benny Carter, Edgar Hayes and Charlie Barnet followed, before he joined the military, serving in the Merchant Marine. During that time, he doubled concerts with Eddie Condon and also did club work at Minton's.

I've mentioned Sid Catlett's ease at bridging the stylistic gap between Dixieland and Bop, as well as Dave Tough's difficulty with the transition. Fields had no difficulty doing this and continued his career, unabated with varying artists, such as Dizzy Gillespie and Mezz Mezzrow.

In 1953, after a tour with Mezzrow in France, Fields settled in Paris and recorded with Sidney Bechet, Buck Clayton, Teddy Buckner and Benny Waters.

Then, in 1965 he moved back to Chicago, working there, as well as recording with Gillespie and playing studio sessions.

But, in later years, Fields seemed to have used all the arrows in his musical quiver and simply dry up. By the time he trudged to the end of his life in 1995, the great KANSAS FIELDS was working as a doorman in an apartment building.

But, in his prime, Fields was one of the greats.

Edited March 9, 2004 by patricia

[patricia]

A Canadian is our next honouree, the multi-talented DIZ [William Charles] DISLEY.

Disley was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1931, but spent his childhood in Wales and Yorkshire.

Diz Disley is mainly known as a jazz guitarist and as a bandleader. However, he was also a graduate of Leeds College of Art and was a gifted cartoonist. His art has appeared in Radio Times, Spectator, Melody Maker and Jazz Journal.

His early work was with the Yorkshire Jazz Band, after which he freelanced as both a soloist and as a sideman with the very best of the British jazz bands in the fifies, such as Welsh, Brown, Ball, Bob Cort and Nancy Whiskey. He also led his own hot-style string quintets.

During the sixties Diz was huge in the British folk clubs, as well as an occasional radio presenter. He introduced the Beatles at their first London Concert. He also re-introduced Stephane Grappelli to Britain. This was part of a folk tour that Diz organized and backed with his own trio.

He then was the guitarist partner to Stephane Grappelli, as well as leading bands of his own.

In 1985 he was consultant for a projected film about Reinhardt.

Diz is remembered as one of the charming eccentrics of acoustic music in Britain.

Diz Disley was busily working away in the 1990's, still free lancing, as well as drawing for the Walt Disney Studios.

So, a lifetime doing the two things he loved, playing music and drawing, both beautifully. Unless he's died recently, Diz is still up and around.

Edited March 8, 2004 by patricia

[EKE BBB]

DIZ DISLEY

Diz Disley, Nic Jones, Phil Beer (Norwich Festival)

[patricia]

Thank you EKE BBB. Very nice picture of Diz.

................................

And now we'll take a brief look at BLACK BENNY [benny Williams], born sometime, somewhere, nobody knows. But the legendary drummer was reputedly the loudest, strongest bass drum player in New Orleans, and played in the New Orleans Brass Band during the first glory days of Dixieland.

Benny is mentioned in Louis Armstrong's autobiography as one of his early timekeepers. He had a reputation as a total lowlife, who spent most of his non-playing time in jail. Apparently, the police used to let him out for important parades.

He carried a gun and at least once, he shot a bystander during a Canal Street march-past.

Black Benny's life was short, but I don't know how old he was when he died. His death was the result of a temper outburst by Benny, described this way, by Pops Foster, "Benny got killed. He hit this woman and then turned his back on her and she cut him down."

Edited March 8, 2004 by patricia

[patricia]

Thank you EKE BBB. Both great photos, expecially the one with "Tootie" highlighted alone and magnificent!!

[EKE BBB]

Help required! Couldn´t find a single photo of BLACK BENNY!!!

[patricia]

Help required! Couldn´t find a single photo of BLACK BENNY!!!

Don't feel bad, EKE BBB. I not only haven't been able to find a picture of Benny, but he, as I mentioned, seems to have burst into New Orleans, full grown. I couldn't find a date he was born, a birthplace, OR a check-out date. I just found him kind of interesting in that although nobody seemed to have anything good to say about him personally, he was a hell-damner of a bass-drum player!!

Because he is such an early jazzer, there may be group photos of the street bands, but it would be a guess whether he was the bass-drum player in any of them.

Photos were relatively expensive and the earliest ones were taken with wooden cameras which had manual shutters. I wondered, when I was a little kid, why all my early relatives were such sourpusses. Then I realized that in those old sepia-toned pictures, they would have had to hold a smile for MINUTES, not a second or two, as they do now.

As you say, help required. Back then, most photos were formal portraits, like the famous Buddy Bolden Band group shot. That picture is quite often thought to be a reverse, in that in order to show the guitarist as right-handed, everybody else appears to be holding their instruments as if they were left-handed.

You're a treasure, working so hard for us though. Thank you.

Edited March 9, 2004 by patricia

[EKE BBB]

You're a treasure, working so hard for us though. Thank you.

(blushed roboticon EKE)

I searched through many New Orleans / Brass Bands sites, did some Google research and found many pictures of early (very early) NO Brass Bands, but not THE NO Brass Band with Black Benny

[patricia]

All I can say is.................Damn. But, I'll keep looking. There must be at least one group shot with Benny in it in existance. But, the thought occurred to me that if he was mostly in the hooscow, let out for performances, he may have been "away" when any pictures were taken. I hope not, but it's a possibility.

Again, thanks EKE BBB.

[sjarrell]

Swell thread- I just found it, a bit late in the day. I have some catching up to do! But please, doesn't someone know where the "Bean" nickname came from? I've been wondering for months and have unearthed nothing...

[patricia]

Swell thread- I just found it, a bit late in the day.   I have some catching up to do!  But please, doesn't someone know where the "Bean" nickname came from?  I've been wondering for months and have unearthed nothing...

Hey sjarrell!!

WELCOME to the asylum!

I looked and looked also and, aside from Coleman's Hawkins' albums quite often using a pun involving his other nickname, "Bean" I haven't been able to discover the nickname itself's origin.

Now, I was just going to move on with my life, but I have to look for a picture of Black Benny AND information about Hawkins' being called "Bean". My guess is that it is a childhood one, but............who knows??

..........................................

In the meantime, let's mention PUD [Albert J.] BROWN.

Pud was part of a musical family, which toured the U.S. as the Brown Family Band.

He was born in Wilmington Delaware in 1917.

Pud was only five years old when he was billed as "The World's Youngest Saxophone Virtuoso"

The family band broke up in 1933, but Pud worked regularly around Chicago.

His band mates were Bud Freeman and Jimmy McPartland. He later worked with Phil Lavant and Lou Breeze, not to mention Jimmy Dorsey and Lawrence Welk.

Brown did not work exclusively in music. In 1945 he opened a motorcycle shop in Shreveport and was quite successful in that endeavor for about five years.

In 1950 he sold the chopper biz and moved to Los Angeles to work with Nappy Lamare. With Pete Daily, Pud recorded the best selling record, 'Johnson Rag" for Capitol records.

Brown also did some fine work with Rosy McHargue, Jack Teagarden, Teddy Buckner and Kid Ory.

In the 1960's he started doubling on the trumpet and cornet. In 1973 he returned to Shreveport and resumed performing fabulous Dixieland in New Orleans. Pud also worked with musicians from Britain, Les Muscutt and Trevor Richards in the review, "One Mo' Time".

PUD BROWN died at seventy-nine years old in 1996.

Edited March 9, 2004 by patricia

[patricia]

Surprise!!! Another drummer!

In East Orange, New Jersey, in 1909 the magical COZY [William Randolph] COLE was born.

Cole first moved to New York, hoping to pursue a musical career, but worked as a barber and shipping clerk in the meantime.

He took lessons with Charlie Brooks, who was the pit drummer at the Lincoln Theatre.

Cozy was always interested in furthering his knowledge and to that end attended Julliard and later opened a drum tuition school with the great Gene Krupa in New York in 1964.

But, going back to the beginning of his career, he built his reputation with bands which were led by Blanche Calloway, Benny Carter and Willy Bryant.

From 1936 on he was playing with Stuff Smith and Jonah Jones at the Onyx. The version of "I'se A Muggin' " that they recorded was a monster hit that year.

From 1938, Cozy was with Cab Calloway and he then worked with an "intergrated" band at CBS on the Carmen Jones show.

He was also with Billy Rose's Ziegfield Follies along with Don Byas and for a time with Benny Goodman in 1946 doing what was known as the "eight a day" at the Paramount Theatre in New York.

When 1949 came around, Cozy replaced Sid Catlett in Louis Armstrong's All Stars and stayed for three years.

The fifties found him playing studios and teaching drums.

Then, in 1957 he toured Europe with Earl Hines and Jack Teagarden.

There was a surprise hit record of his own, "Topsy" which was arranged by Dick Hyman and bankrolled by Alan Hartwel, who was a fan from the Metropole where Cozy regularly played.

From then on he toured with his own band, which featured George Kelly on tenor, even going to Africa in 1969.

In 1969 Cozy joined up with Jonah Jones at the Embers club in a successful residency.

By the mid-seventies he was still going strong and he played for a 1973 reunion with Cab Calloway at Newport. Then, in 1976 he played for Night In New Orleans with Benny Carter. That show toured the U.K.

There is a ton of recorded material out there, but one of my favourite tracks is on an el-cheapo compilation, Jazz Greats, which is "Back On The Street" a reunion of Earl Hines and Jonah Jones, recorded sometime in the seventies.

This is the writeup in the cover notes, by Hank O'Neill:

"The idea for Back On The Street was a reunion of Earl Hines and Jonah Jones. Just for fun we asked Texas tenor man, Buddy Tate and drummer COZY COLE [ed. caps mine] to help out, along with a punching rhythm section. The tune is an original, worked out in the recording studio by Earl and Jonah, in an attempt to recapture, through music, their memories of the small jazz bands that played on 52nd Street in New York City in the Thirties and Forties. The song is particularly noteworthy in that it shows all of Jonah's rollicking muted effects to good advantage."

Cozy anchors it magnificently. I've always felt that he was less aggressive than many drummers of the time, while still making his presence known. Magnificent.

COZY COLE died in 1981 at seventy-two.

Edited March 9, 2004 by patricia

[EKE BBB]

PUD BROWN...

...and his sticks in Pirate´s Alley