Published by the San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation Winter 2015

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Professionalism and Creativityby William Carter

Professionalism & Creativity by William Carter 1 Celebrating Charlie by Michael Steinman 4 Preview of Upcoming CD and Cricket Article 7Special 4-CD Offer 8 Membership Application and Product List 9

Contents

Once in the late 1950s, when our friend, the bassist “Squire” Girsback, was on the road as a member the Louis Arm-strong All Stars, Squire in-vited us to his home on the San Francisco Peninsula to enjoy red beans and rice and meet the great man. Louis was sit-ting on the floor in a back bedroom with his pants legs rolled up and a big plate of the beloved New Orleans dish in his lap. He was glad to meet Squire’s friends but looked slightly sheepish at first because he was hiding from a road manager one of whose jobs was to prevent Louis, who was afflicted with stom-ach problems, from eating the wrong foods, includ-ing such good ole spicy n’owlins fare. I was not yet a photographer, but would soon become one, and would meet Armstrong one more time – in 1962, at Rutgers University – and photograph him there. The picture on this page was never printed until 2014, 52 years later. A print

of it is going to the unique Louis Armstrong archive in Queens, New York, and another will be donated

to Stanford University, whose Archive of Record-ed Sound holds important jazz collections. These include those of your San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation, the original Monterey Jazz Festival tapes, and the over 400 Jim Cullum radio shows which Stanford has been streaming free worldwide, 24 hours a day. Squire, in semi-retirement, sometimes regaled us with stories of those two years with Louis -- the highlight of the bassman’s life. Con-stantly playing one night concerts in huge auditori-ums on the road, the All Stars used a set routine, like most successful tour-ing shows. Squire told us the players mostly played the same notes, in the same places, with the same crowd pleasing

antics, every night. With some exceptions – espe-cially Satch. Now and then, Louis would seemingly

Louis Armstrong at Cornell University 1962 photograph © William Carter

Frisco Cricket

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Advertise in the Cricket!

In an effort to help defray the costs of main-taining all the varied programs that SFTJF supports, including The Frisco Cricket itself, we’re going to begin providing limited advertising space here. We want to be fair to everyone, so there are a few rules we’d like to follow:

• The advertiser should be in a music related (preferably Traditional Jazz related) business (band, club, cruise, radio station, etc.).

• No more than a total of 2 full pages will be used in any single issue of the Cricket, so ads will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

• We need to be able to maintain the right to accept or reject advertisements at our discretion.

• Please send your ad to:Cricket Editor

San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation 3130 Alpine Road, #288 PMB 187

Portola Valley, CA 94028• Or (preferably) by email to:

webmaster@sftradjazz.org or santh@comcast.net

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receive some message from outer space and blow – or sing -- a flurry of notes Squire never heard before or since. The band just kept the same routine going, but Squire would answer these flourishes with a special flurry of his own, which caused “Pops” – who heard everything happening in his band at all times – to turn and give his bass man a big wink. Squire car-ried those winks in his heart until the day he died. Professionalism in any field means producing, or reproducing, a reliable product. Careful preparation, good chops and perfect execution. Big bucks in the top echelon of the entertainment industry is no different in this respect from bands remaining stable, and staple enough to get invited back every year to established festivals. But is this middlebrow predictability not fundamen-tally in conflict with a premise of jazz, namely spontaneity? Many musicians will tell you that some of the great moments in jazz happen out of the limelight, in dim bars or backroom

Squire Girsback, outdoor gig on San Francisco Peninsula with Robbie Schlosser’s Magnolia Jazz Band, circa 1970’sphotograph © by William Carter

The Frisco CricketIssue No. 66 - Winter 2015

Published by theSAN FRANCISCO TRADITIONAL

JAZZ FOUNDATION3130 Alpine Road, #288 PMB 187

Portola Valley, CA 94028Website: www.sftradjazz.org

E-mail: info@sftradjazz.org

Publisher: William CarterEditor, Layout, Webmaster: Scott Anthony

Curator of the Archive : Clint BakerSpecial Projects Consultant: Hal Smith

Office Manager: Scott AnthonyTreasurer: Bunch Schlosser

DirectorsJohn R. Browne, III

William CarterJim Cullum

Donna Huggins

John MatthewsTerry O’ReillyMargaret Pick

William Tooley

Honorary Directors Leon Oakley

Board of AdvisorsPhilip Hudner, Michael Keller, Paul Mehling,

Margaret Pick, Gregg Keeling

Unless otherwise noted, all contents copyright © 2015San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation

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settings allowing for creative chemistry -- happy acci-dents. Which means leaving open the possibility for bands and players to depart from expected routines, even at the cost of the occasional wrong chord or creative “mistake.” Dimly lit Bay Area joints like Pier 23 and Café Borrone and Nick’s and Berkeley’s old Monkey Inn are and were the seedbed for such creativity. As were, in the whole history of jazz, a precious few record labels, and leaders whose DNA understands not only reliability but freshness. Louis’ crowd-pleasing was the opposite of a circus routine. It flowed directly from his heart in communica-tion with other hearts – from an understanding, in his personal DNA, which was inseparable from the DNA of New Orleans jazz, that this music is about a kind of inner and outer openness in which spontaneity is key.

Email Responses to Bill Carter’s Blog - Professionalism & Creativity

From Don Bull: There was a night, when I was playing for Rex Al-len. It was a Country Club Christmas dance. Rex was playing vibes and trombone. Noel Weidkamp was on trumpet, and there was a reed man from the Peninsula- great- I can’t think of his name. Every-one was taking a favorite tune chorus, and we were moving keys around per instrument. The reed man started playing, “Have You Met Miss Jones” in F. For some reason I usually play it in G. The bridge is tough with nice changes. The reed man started the bridge, and I hit one chord too high, as if I was in G to the reed players F, and Squire gave me the damnedest look! I recovered immediately and ev-erybody in the band laughed, myself included. After we finished, Squire said to me, “Where the hell were you- nobody plays it in G.” Then he said, “how did you recover so fast!?” Those days of playing with those people were so much fun. Dixieland was still popular and playing with Nabor and Carson and Leon was such a gas, along with Mike Starr! Eberle would try to play his C melody sax given to him by my wife’s father. I told Charley he was always a quart low! He couldn’t get it in tune! Your article just brought back years of memories. I never had as much fun than playing with those guys. When are we going to play again? I’m always ready!Donald

From Dick Shooshan:That is really a great picture of Louis. Perfect!I remember Squire was in the El Dorado band the first few times you brought them up to the house.That band changed my life as far as jazz was con-cerned. I’ll never forget watching Pete Fay and his unique style..it certainly had an impact on me.I’ll also remember the day you walked back to our littleshack in the back with several Oliver, Morton, and Louis LPs. You warned me that although they were a bit scratchy that I should listen to the music, not the sound of the old recordings. I can still see it..and hear it! Congrats on all you’ve done in the world of jazz and photography! You have really made a fine contribution.Best, Shoosh

Louis Armstrong at Cornell University 1962 - #2photograph © William Carter

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Celebrating Charlieby Michael Steinman (JAZZLIVES)

The very endearing Charles “Duff” Campbell was officially an art dealer. But we knew him as the best Jazz Enabler imaginable. Born on January 9, 1915, he died on October 3, 2014, peacefully, at his San Fran-cisco home. I only met him twice, so others have longer his-tories. But I think my Charlie-sightings are true to the man. Once, when enjoying an afternoon at the Savoy Tivoli in North Beach, listening to Mal Sharpe and the Big Money in Jazz, I became aware of an older man, neatly dressed, a slightly squashed soft hat on, seated as close to the bandstand as one could be without sitting

on it. Standing up would have been difficult, but he was entirely in motion, every note played getting a sympathetic bob and weave from this spectator. I introduced myself (we had a mutual friend in the art world as well) and got a deeply welcoming response. As soon as the music resumed, he was engrossed and pleased. In 2014, through the good offices of Leon and Brenda Oakley, I took my video camera to Charlie’s house, where Leon and I conducted an impromptu interview. Had I been there twenty years earlier, I would have captured more stories, but Charlie spoke of Nat Cole and Jelly Roll Morton, of Mary Lou Wil-liams, Art Tatum, Burt Bales, and Turk Murphy. But the real Charlie emerged when the camera went back in its case. Seated at the head of his long kitchen table, eating half a sandwich and drinking red wine (toasting us all with every small refill) he was a pas-sionate man, holding court, laughing, reminiscing, listening to “Blues Over Bodega.” Charlie was too joyously animated to pass up a party. In his final year, plans were made for a centenary celebration, with his favorite band, the Yerba Buena Stompers, to provide the appropriate sounds. (The YBS is John Gill, Leon Oakley, Duke Heitger, Tom Bartlett, Orange Kellin, Conal Fowkes, Bimbo’s 365 Club, January 11, 2015.

Photo by Scott Anthony

Photo of Charlie Campbell with Yerba Buena Stompers in the background on the guest sign-in table. Photo by Scott Anthony

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Clint Baker, Kevin Dorn, and their new singer, Miss Ida Blue.) Although he was no longer able to dance in his chair on January 11, 2015, his spirit certainly was at Bimbo’s 365, evident to us all. Just days before, there had been an attack on the Parisian satirical weekly CHARLIE HEBDO, and people in solidarity had been posting JE SUIS CHARLIE everywhere. The marquee at Bimbo’s read “CELEBRATING CHARLIE. “ I am sure he was amused by the global enthusiasm in his name. Inside Bimbo’s, old friends and new gath-ered – among them SF notables Vince Saunders and Robbie Rhodes, friends who told of meeting Charlie, being amused and inspired by him, being the recipi-ent of his generosities. While the band played (and how they played!) people only slightly younger than Charlie danced, and children wobbled and gyrated to the beat. When I went to the bar to order something mildly restorative, I asked the barman what I owed. “Oh, the drinks are on Charlie,” he said. Typical. In Charlie’s honor, the YBS played venerable pop songs (“Darktown Strutters’ Ball,” “You’ve Got To See Your Mama Every Night”), King Oliver clas-sics (“Dippermouth,” “Just Gone,” “Mabel’s Dream,” “Riverside Blues”), beloved music from the pioneers of San Francisco jazz (“Sage Hen Strut,” “Emperor Norton’s Hunch,” “Brother Lowdown,” “Antigua Blues”).

Charlie’s grand-nephew Jerry McCann spoke with feeling and wit about the time he was privileged to spend with Charlie, and told everyone that they could email stories of Charlie to him at celebratingcharlie@gmail.com. Early in the program, John Gill spoke of Charlie’s memory of the first jazz record he had ever heard – “Take Me To The Land Of Jazz – and the YBS did it beauti-fully. Where Charlie was, that was the Land of Jazz.[The last video-interview of Char-lie can be seen https://jazzlives.wordpress.com/2014/10/10/a-vivid-man-charles-duff-camp-bell-1915-2014/]

Photo of Charlie Campbell dancing at a previous Yerba Buena Event at Bimbos 365 Club. Photo by Scott Anthony

One of four portraits of Charlie Campbell hanging at Bimbo’s on January 11, 2015. Photo by Scott Anthony

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Obituary: Gallery owner Charles Campbell dies at age 99October 8, 2014with permission from the San Francisco Chronicle,by Kenneth Baker, Art Critic for the San Francisco Chronicle

Charles Campbell, a San Francisco gallery owner who represented major Bay Area contemporary artists for more than 60 years, died of natural causes Friday at his San Francisco home. He was 99. Mr. Campbell became famous locally for showing what he liked, irrespective of fashion or potential profit. He happened to admire and exhibit many artists later identified with the region’s signature art move-ment, Bay Area Figuration. They included Nathan Oliviera (1928-2010), Paul Wonner (1920-2008), Gordon Cook (1927-85), Theophi-lus “Bill” Brown (1919-2012), James Weeks (1922-98) and Joan Brown (1938-90). The back room at Mr. Campbell’s gallery was long known to locals as a treasure trove of artistic miscellany. There visitors might pore over an ever-changing array of works on paper and small paintings by American and European artists both famous and obscure, interspersed with Indian miniatures and the odd pre-Columbian or African artifact. Nothing comparable exists, or perhaps could exist, in the supercharged and economically polarized art market of today. Mr. Campbell began his art world career in San Francisco when he opened a frame shop in 1947 not far from the San Francisco Art Institute (then known as the California School of Fine Arts). The school staff had several members, includ-ing its president, who were capable jazz musicians. Mr. Campbell’s love of jazz led to friendships with them, including David Park (1911-60), Elmer Bischoff (1916-91) and Wally Hedrick (1928-2003).

Modest collection Mr. Campbell soon began to hang their work and that of other artists in his shop and began col-lecting modestly by purchase and trade, although he lacked the space to show their work properly until he

opened the Charles Campbell Gallery in North Beach in 1972. Mr. Campbell partnered in business with Paul Thiebaud (1960-2010) in 1990. The establishment changed its name to the Campbell-Thiebaud Gallery, and began to show a fresh roster of artists, including Wayne Thiebaud and Richard Diebenkorn (1922-93). The partnership ended on friendly terms in 2001, with the business becoming the Paul Thiebaud Gallery. Mr. Campbell later entered into a less happy

collaboration with a former gallery assistant, Steven Lopez, resulting in a legal dispute finally resolved by their friend in common and former San Francisco supervisor and mayoral and presidential candidate, Matt Gonzalez. Mr. Campbell’s absence from his gallery would often mean that he was off traveling the world. In 1988, he married longtime art-ist friend Glenna Putt in Nepal, some time after both had lost their spouses.

Raised in Shanghai Mr. Campbell was born in Santa Cruz into a family of second-generation gold miners on Jan. 10, 1915. His parents hitched their fate to that of a mine in Siberia and Mr. Campbell spent his early years there until the mine was expropriated during the Bolshevik Revolution. Mr. Campbell lived the rest of his child-hood with his family in Shanghai. After high school in Shanghai, Mr. Campbell moved to Los Angeles, drawn there by its jazz scene. He became deeply involved in it, working briefly as a driver for blind pianist Art Tatum and, with stenographic skills honed during service in the Coast Guard, recorded extensive conversations with New Orleans jazz eminence Jelly Roll Morton. Mr. Campbell’s involvement with jazz culmi-nated in San Francisco when he became manager of the great trombone player Turk Murphy. They briefly ran a club together, The Italian Villa, where Murphy’s was the house band. Mr. Campbell is survived by his wife; stepson Peter Putt of Santa Cruz; nephew Mike McCann of Se-attle; grandnephew Jerry McCann of Nairobi, Kenya; and grandniece Toni Burton of Aptos. Gifts or donations in his memory can be made to the San Francisco Art Institute.

Charlie “Duff” Campbell at Bimbo’s 2006. Photo by Richard Ressman

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Preview of Upcoming CD and Cricket Articleby Dave Radlauer

New CD Coming Soon...Frisco Jazz from Burp Hollow, San Francisco, 1958-62Dick Oxtot’s Stompers and Original Superior Jass BandBattle of the Bands: Two-beat vs. Four-beatExciting music from a legendary and colorful Frisco gig with Bill Erickson and Ted Butterman (trumpets), Bunky Colman and Bill Napier (clarinets) Bob Mielke (trombone).

Click here for the Burp Hollow Page and here for the Frisco Jazz Archival Raritieson Dave Radlauer’s jazzhotbigstep.com

For a decade beginning in 1956, jazz hounds and tourists alike were drawn to Burp Hollow by the lively sounds of Frisco jazz. Hearing its name, musicians cringe, recalling the bad pay, rank booze and unsavory wheel chair-bound former Mafioso owner, Millio Militti. The storied club is remembered ruefully by its former denizens for weak drinks, a ridiculous 4’ x 6’ dance floor, and confusing “Bob Mielke Bearcats Dixie Jazz” sign on the wall regardless of who was playing. Manage-ment required musicians to wear matching vests or blazers, which they hated. During the Burp Hollow years, 1956-66, a second wave of jazz revival musicians in and around San Fran-cisco was intensively engaged in reviving, performing and reinventing America’s most original art form. Bands, players and audiences flourished in an ecosystem supplied by joints like The Burp. Thanks to a handful of surviving audiotapes we can revisit a pure slice of old North Beach. Hosted by a shady operator, the best of Frisco Jazz was served up with a dubious cocktail at a crowded little gingham-topped table, presided over by a comely manikin at the infamous Burp Hollow.

Milio Miletti, Baby In June of 1965 an interview of Miletti ap-peared under the byline of Monique Benoit in a San Francisco newspaper. Between his “hi baby,” “dar-ling” and “say honey,” uttered in his “husky, hoarse voice,” very few facts emerged.

During the Depression the Sicilian had once been a contender for the welterweight title, but quit boxing. His story that he re-settled in his hometown of Omaha, but “was hit by a bullet in an accident that left him paralyzed” doesn’t quite add up. “Baby, there’s a bad page in everyone’s life, and that was mine.” Flee-ing to Frisco he’d managed to put Burp Hollow togeth-er.

Legend has it his shooting was mafia-related and that under the blanket he kept on his lap a firearm was handy. And he explained the manikin: sure, it was a draw for single male convention-goers, but he used it as a conversation starter to make friends. When the reporter referred to his tending bar in a wheelchair, he commented, “That’s right, baby, and I can move pretty fast. That place is my life, and people are beau-tiful.”

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About Your New

San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation Created as a non-profit in 1981, the San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation stated, as its primary mission, the archi-val preservation of thousands of items related to the West Coast Jazz Revival that began in San Francisco about 1939. In 2009 SFTJF completed the transfer of the main body of those materials to the Stanford University’s Music Library. Thereupon, your Foundation’s Archive was closed; possible donors of jazz materials should now contact Stanford or other public repositories. SFTJF’s wider, ongoing aim is to help foster high-quality traditional jazz, regionally and worldwide. That mission is now carried out primarily via electronic media. The Foundation’s main window on the world is our website -- www.sftradjazz.org -- where visitors are invited to become members with a tax-deductible $25 per year contribution. Thank you for your generous support over the years. Contributions in categories beyond the basic membership level are also tax deductible, and the names of those contributors are published annually (unless a contributor specifies anonymity).

Donations welcomed The San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation accepts gifts and grants in many forms, including his tori cal items which shed further light on the history of traditional jazz on the West Coast, such as recordings, music, newspaper clip pings, pho tographs and corre spon dence. Contributions of materials or funds are tax-deductible under IRS ruling status 501(c)(3).

SF Jazz on the Web The San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation has an ever-expanding web site. The site includes audio files and photos of many San Francisco (and other) jazz figures from the 1930s to the present. Please visit us at www.sftradjazz.org. Join (or rejoin) the San Francisco Traditional Jazz Founda tion today to show your support of Traditional Jazz. All memberships are fully tax-deductible. If you are already a member, give the gift of Founda tion membership to a friend! Use the form at right.

Special CD Offer!4-CD Package for $15 including Shipping!

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El Dorado Jazz Band Live At Mr. Fatfingers BCD-510 $The Sunset Music Company —Live in Dusseldorf, 1979 BSR-009 $Firehouse 5 Plus 2 Live at Earthquake McGoon’s 1970 BCD-450 $Clancy Hayes—Satchel of Song (only a few left!) SFCD-108 $Turk Murphy Jazz Band—Wild Man Blues SFCD-107 $Lu Watters Yerba Buena Jazz Band, Vol 2, 1946–1947 SFCD-106 $Lu Watters Yerba Buena Jazz Band, Vol 1, 1937–1943 SFCD-105 $Turk Murphy Jazz Band—Euphonic Sounds SFCD-104 $Turk Murphy Jazz Band—Weary Blues SFCD-103 $Turk Murphy Jazz Band—In Hollywood SFCD-102 $Turk Murphy Jazz Band—Live at Carson Hot Springs SFCD-101 $Turk Murphy Jazz Band—At The Italian Village, with Claire Austin SFCD-11 $Lu Watters Yerba Buena Jazz Band—At Hambone Kelly’s, 1949 –1950 SFCD-10 $Bob Helm with the El Dorado Jazz Band—1955 ($10 - 2 CDS) SFCD-110

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