Percy France Memorial Website

[Dan Gould]

Just got permission from Ted Panken to use a quote from an interview he did with Charles Earland as a Remembrance on the site:

When I was coming up as a kid, Bill Doggett was someone I definitely admired.  I loved his group.  I loved him and I loved to hear that saxophone of Percy France.  Oh, man, those were the good days, especially when I lived in Atlantic City, and these cats used to come to town.  Oh, they used to just knock my socks off.

I loved Bill Davis and Bill Doggett.  You know what I liked about these guys the most?  They could groove!  Man, when I would come down Kentucky Avenue in Atlantic City, I could hear them organs screaming all the way at the end of the block.  As soon as you hit that block on Kentucky Avenue, you’d go into your bop walk!  You’d start to struttin’ with the groove, man, because you could feel the pulse all the way a block away. 

[Dan Gould]

On 6/13/2022 at 6:59 AM, Dan Gould said:

Well I am a day or two late (I was in Naples visiting Mom) but it's now one year since www.percyfrance.info launched, and I have some stats to share. In one year's time the site had:

923 unique sessions from 639 unique visitors. Most were from the US (568 sessions), and the UK (98). Visitors came from a total of 32 countries.

Traffic sources were 483 direct, Google 190, Facebook 88, Organissimo 45 and Marc Myers Jazzwax, 35 and many others of less consequence.

Average Duration per visit was 8 minutes, and there was a bounce rate of 42% ("hit" on one page, and left site immediately after).

Regarding bounce rates:

Non-profit sites average a 60-70% bounce rate. 41-55% is considered "good" and the site very nearly beat the bottom range of "good". So - yay.

But - that bounce rate left me wondering about its impact on length of average session. I calculated an approximate time of 20 seconds per bouncer, and recalibrated time spent for what I call "engaged" visitors.

Their average time is 13:35 spent on the site per visit. I think that's very very good.

So today marks the 2nd Anniversary since www.percyfrance.info went live ... I have not been doing as much to promote this year, with the last major effort being the November 2022 issue of the NYC Jazz Record.

Still I think the results are good.

Overall in two years:

1434 Unique Site Sessions by 941 unique visitors with an average session length of 7:22.

This year I went deeper into the stats available from the webhost and found 546 site sessions were 0 seconds long or under a minute average session length (those would be days when, for example, there were four sessions, 2 unique visitors, three pages viewed and average session duration under a minute - basically those were days when even people who didn't bounce immediately, they didn't engage, either.)

This is a slightly different way to calculate "engaged" visitors than I used last time but I am comfortable eliminating those site sessions as uninterested people driving down the average session duration. 

Recalculating for "engaged" visitors, we find an average site session of 11:54.

Year over year visitors are down but engagement among those interested is still strong, IMO.

Edited June 11, 2023 by Dan Gould

[Dan Gould]

On what would have been his 95th birthday, new youtube uploads from the Gaskin Papers plus a photo recently received from the Smithsonian of Percy at a surprise b-day party in 1989. Phil Schaap's copious head of hair can also be seen.

Leonard Gaskin Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

 

 

[sgcim]

9 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

On what would have been his 95th birthday, new youtube uploads from the Gaskin Papers plus a photo recently received from the Smithsonian of Percy at a surprise b-day party in 1989. Phil Schaap's copious head of hair can also be seen.

Leonard Gaskin Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

 

 

Thanks for posting all the Percy France stuff. I would have never heard of him if you didn't. I like the way he plays. He's got a lot of felling, and there's not a superfluous note in his solos.

As I mentioned before, I worked with  Leonard Gaskin in a band, and he had a friend who also played in that same band, and he tried to play in that same style, but he just couldn't pull it off. I never knew where he was coming from until I heard France.

Edited August 15, 2023 by sgcim

[Dan Gould]

1 hour ago, sgcim said:

Thanks for posting all the Percy France stuff. I would have never heard of him if you didn't. I like the way he plays. He's got a lot of felling, and there's not a superfluous note in his solos.

As I mentioned before, I worked with  Leonard Gaskin in a band, and he had a friend who also played in that same band, and he tried to play in that same style, but he just couldn't pull it off. I never knew where he was coming from until I heard France.

Glad you've enjoyed him so much.

I always thought Douglas Lawrence described him best, in the piece he gave me for the website:

 

"He deserved much more recognition than he ever got. No one deserves to be heard more than Percy France. Especially in today's world of playing notes just to play notes. Percy never played a note he didn't mean. He never played a solo he didn't mean. He was always for real."

 

[Quasimado]

Great site. Thanks for turning me on to a fine musician - only played half a dozen tracks so far but he has his own sound and phrasing - still a lot more to enjoy!

[Dan Gould]

1 hour ago, Quasimado said:

Great site. Thanks for turning me on to a fine musician - only played half a dozen tracks so far but he has his own sound and phrasing - still a lot more to enjoy!

Thank you so much for saying so!

I am going to be uploading more tunes on youtube in the coming weeks - I haven't really done updates on the website for the music samples. If you haven't, you should subscribe to my channel.  You can find me by searching Percy France - I am most but not all of the music uploads there.

 

[Dan Gould]

For my Organissimo friends not on FB, a just-discovered photo of Percy France and his daughter, sometime in the 80s at the West End Cafe.   Her name is Niomi Renee and she posted a podcast about "absent Dads." I haven't listened yet but I was able to secure contact info and have reached out to her, waiting and hoping that she replies and can answer questions about what she knows or has been told about her Dad.  Not to mention, more pictures if she has any.

 

 

[Dan Gould]

Two recent uploads to Youtube, Percy in a mellow mood.

 

 

 

[Dan Gould]

A lovely message received about my efforts to elevate Percy France:

        I’ve held the November 2022 issue of The New York City Jazz Record on my desktop all this time because Percy France was truly a dear friend. I first met him when Phil Schaap was running the West End.
         It means a lot to me that you have promoted Percy and preserved his music.I’ve always considered him to be an unsung hero.
        He was also the nicest man on the planet! His heart and soul were so special. Thank you!

 

A great pick-me-up I had to share.

[Big Beat Steve]

20 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

A great pick-me-up I had to share.

Well-earned ...

[HutchFan]

20 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

A lovely message received about my efforts to elevate Percy France:

        I’ve held the November 2022 issue of The New York City Jazz Record on my desktop all this time because Percy France was truly a dear friend. I first met him when Phil Schaap was running the West End.
         It means a lot to me that you have promoted Percy and preserved his music.I’ve always considered him to be an unsung hero.
        He was also the nicest man on the planet! His heart and soul were so special. Thank you!

 

A great pick-me-up I had to share.

That's awesome, Dan!  I'm sure it had to make you feel GOOD! 

 

[Dan Gould]

Thanks gents, it does make me feel good.

And, describing herself as such a close friend, I am hoping I can get insight, if only for my own edification, on anything Percy might have said or recalled about his own career, his seeming preference to just play in convivial circumstances in his hometown, and anything else they may share.

And drummer Alvin Queen responded to an email and has requested my phone number so he can call and we can talk about Percy.  I wasn't at all sure he even knew him, but that response is encouraging for sure. When Queen was young he played with Wild Bill Davis and Wild Bill employed Percy at times.  I am betting that is the connection but you'll forgive me if I fantasize that there is an unissued NILVA Records session featuring Percy that he is going to tell me about and offer for my enjoyment. 

[Dan Gould]

 

 

[Dan Gould]

 

[Dan Gould]

Got word of a nice short piece promoting the website at Flophouse:

HERE

Hopefully a nice surge in traffic will come in the next days and weeks.

[Dan Gould]

OK this isn't directly related to the website but today is Percy France's birthday, he  would have been 96.

So how about three links to wonderful shows broadcast from the West End and now available at Vanderbilt's Aviary page from the Phil Schaap Jazz Collection?

 

This is a great show, titled "Blue and Boogie" by Phil Schaap as the Two-Tenor Boogie (Percy and Eddie Barefield) play a program of bop standards with Sammy Price's boogie woogie piano. 

https://aviary.library.vanderbilt.edu/collections/2137/collection_resources/131148?u=t&keywords[]=two%20tenor%20boogie

 

More in a bebop vein: Phil told me directly that Percy would sub with Joe Albany's New Yorkers and here is proof.

https://aviary.library.vanderbilt.edu/collections/2137/collection_resources/132390?u=t&keywords[]=joe%20albany

 

And one more - Percy as leader with the great Bob Neloms on piano https://aviary.library.vanderbilt.edu/collections/2137/collection_resources/131313?u=t&keywords[]=percy%20france

 

PERCY FRANCE LIVES!

[Dan Gould]

Committed to more elevation of Percy France in 2025, and concentrating on the Schaap collection.

 

 

June 27, 1987, Doc Cheatham subbed for Eddie Chamblee, making the Sammy Price Two-Tenor Boogie a tenor/trumpet frontline. Cheatham (trumpet), Percy France (tenor sax), Sammy Price (piano/leader) and Wes Landers (drums). Paula Elliott, a teacher from Boston, was called onto the stage by Price for the Ida Cox blues "Wild Women Don't Get The Blues". 

 

Live! from The West End (6/26/1987): Two Tenor Boogie and Sammy Price, Phil Schaap Jazz Collection, Special Collections Library, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

 

 

 

I Want a Little Girl (Cheatham, vocal)

 

Tea for Two:

 

 

[JSngry]

https://chocolatechocolateandmore.com/old-fashioned-sugar-cake/

Never had one, would love to!

[Dan Gould]

30 minutes ago, JSngry said:

https://chocolatechocolateandmore.com/old-fashioned-sugar-cake/

Never had one, would love to!

I presume to go with the tea.

[JSngry]

Indeed!