Russell Kassoff "Viewpoint" commentary to Pensacola News-Journal

One of the featured headliners in the just-completed Pensacola JazzFest 2010, pianist Russell Kassoff, submitted the following letter to the Pensacola News-Journal, which printed it as a "Viewpoint" on the Editorial page of the May 27th issue. We were so pleased with how the JazzFest went, and to have an artist of Russell Kassoff's stature and reputation make the observations that he did was extremely satisfying to everyone involved in JazzFest!
Following is the text of Russell's letter:
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VIEWPOINT: KEEP JAZZFEST GOING STRONG

I'd like to thank the wonderful community of Pensacola for coming out to support the annual Pensacola JazzFest, at which I was honored to appear for the third time in the last six years.

Each appearance has been an absolute joy, as I have brought different combinations of groups from the New York area to play for the greatly appreciative folks who attend this festival. They offer the perfect complement to all the magnificent groups that come from many different places, some near and some far, selected by the Jazz Society of Pensacola.

For professional musicians like myself and those who accompany me it is extremely satisfying to feel the support of the local community, and in Pensacola we definitely acknowledge that. Folks in what might be called smaller towns are always more appreciative when the "big city" guys come through, and I must admit it is so special to be received so warmly and with such magnificent hospitality. It makes the experience memorable and just plain great! The community should know that it is ever increasingly important to continue to support Jazzfest, and all the arts especially, in these difficult economic times.

On behalf of all of the New York musicians, I'd like to personally thank the good folks who share responsibilities for the festival — including Jazz Society of Pensacola board President Roger Villines, JSOP Administrator Kathy Lyon, Pensacola JazzFest Music Director Crystal Joy Albert and JSOP Ambassador Dr. Norman Vickers, as well as all the folks who tirelessly volunteer to make the glorious weekend happen.

The community should be very proud, and we are all very grateful for the reception and the opportunity to perform for you. I know that this festival has been going on for 27 years. I hope that you continue to support it by keeping the community in the loop of all things involving the Jazz Society.

What is clearly different about Pensacola is that the local community supports this, as opposed to trying to bring these types of festivals into towns that do not — which is much more difficult if not impossible when support is not gathered.

Everyone in town should always know the festival is free, beautiful and extremely spacious and comfortable. Keep up the wonderful work! I look forward to returning one day soon.
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(PNJ note at the end of the letter) Russ Kassoff is a jazz pianist, conductor, composer, orchestrator and arranger. He is a resident of New York City.

Nimble Gimble

Here’s a nice story about Johnny Gimble, fiddle player now living in Austin, TX area.

Now a couple of local anecdotes—Background first: Johnny had a long gig with Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. Wills was fiddler who used saxophones and other instruments and played what was dubbed “Texas Swing” He’s been in every movie made by Willie Nelson but has never been a regular with Nelson’s band. One of the quotes from Willie Nelson about Johnny, “Johnny plays jazz, just calls it country!”

In the early 80s when Jazz Society of Pensacola was just getting started, we were having a jazz jam session on a Sunday afternoon, a handsome, smiling gentleman came in and introduced himself, “Hi, I’m Johnny Gimble!” My reply, after “glad to meet you” was “I certainly hope you brought your fiddle!” Reply” I’ve got it in the car. Johnny made the jam session a smash event and played for 1 ½ hours! In talking with him, he had discovered Pensacola and our Ft Pickens state park at Pensacola beach ( Ft. Pickens park is now part of the US National Seashore, under the National Park system) He and wife had driven over with their travel trailer from Texas to spend time at our beach.

Subsequently, Johnny played two Jazz Festivals for us in the mid-80s and was also invited to the Great Gulf Coast Arts Festival to perform. One of the tricks he does is to take the bow apart and reconnect so that the arm of the bow is below the neck of the violin, thereby allowing the hairs of the bow to touch all four strings. ( As normally played, because of the curvature of the bridge of the violin, hairs of the bow can only touch two strings , max, at the time.) So, if one is REALLY good, he can play certain songs in 4 part harmony in first position.

On TV I saw Joe Venuti do that trick when performing with Boston Pops. “What a Friend we Have in Jesus” is one song which can be played -4 parts, first position.

We were pleased to have Johnny to perform for the Jazz Society, summer a couple of years ago when he and family were vacationing in our area. We also made contact with nearby “Farmers Opry” and they did a show there, too. Other member of the Gimble family band were son Dick on guitar, granddaughter on piano and vocals and grandson-in-law on bass.

I’m pleased to be the recipient of Johnny’s record which is reviewed in the WSJ article below.

A Wall Street Journal feature on Johnny was published March 25, 2010. Follow this link to the article, which also contains photos and links to several clips you can listen to from the new CD.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704543804575065263393970980.html#articleTabs %3Darticle

MARCH 25, 2010

Nimble Gimble Hums Along

By BARRY MAZOR

It was 16 years ago that the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Texan Johnny Gimble a National Heritage Fellowship, the closest American equivalent to the "living national treasure" titles bestowed in Japan. He had already played singularly swinging fiddle for over 50 years by then, and for most of that time equally swinging electric mandolin.

Mr. Gimble, who will be 84 in May, has regularly been referred to as "the best American fiddle player, period" over the course of the nearly seven decades he's been at it—playing dances in east Texas before World War II, as a featured regular in Bob Wills's band beginning in the late '40s, as a Nashville session musician in the '60s, in Willie Nelson's band in the '70s, and as a frequent guest on the "Prairie Home Companion" radio show and "Austin City Limits" TV show since. He figures his musical dexterity and longevity have had something to do with humming.

"When I was 15," he recalled in a recent phone interview, "I was working for a radio band in Shreveport. Cliff Bruner, the hottest Texas fiddler of them all, was on the same package shows, playing for Jimmie Davis. I asked him, 'Cliff, how do you play that hocum?,' which is what we still called swing there. And he said: 'Can you hum what you're thinking? Practice till you can play what you can hum.'

"Later, when I was in the Army, in Austria, they didn't play any country music on the Armed Forces radio, just big band, and I'd hear Slam Stewart [of Slim & Slam] humming along with his bass, so I started practicing that—humming some hot licks and then trying to find them on the fiddle. When I got with the Wills band in 1949, Bob would let me hum along on the bandstand. My son Dick sometimes does that playing bass, too, and my granddaughter Emily Gimble can scat, humming along with her jazz piano solos."

While a multigenerational "Hums of the Swinging Gimble Family" CD has not yet been scheduled, a highly enticing new one, "Johnny Gimble: Celebrating With Friends" has just been released on CMH Records. Joining the celebration on lead vocals and instrumental back-up, too, are Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Vince Gill, Dale Watson and Ray Benson—front man of the Western Swing group Asleep at the Wheel and producer of the CD. The disc concludes with an on-air "Prairie Home Companion" tribute in which host Garrison Keillor notes that the "fiddler named Gimble, whose fingers were nimble...could play 'Daring Nelly' or Stephane Grappelli"—which not only rhymes but is an accurate description of the range of Mr. Gimble's career.

For the past decade, however, there have been some physical restraints on Mr. Gimble's playing. As he explained, "I had a stroke in December of '99, and it affected my left side—my fingering side. I played a gig with old Floyd Domino on the piano, and he said, 'Johnny, play "Fiddlin' Around," a song of mine that has a difficult fingering. And I had to say, 'But I can't reach the S.O.B. now.' A fiddler in Dallas heard that I'd said that and said, 'Now you know how the rest of us feel!'"

On the new CD, that challenging Gimble composition is played by Asleep at the Wheel's longtime fiddler Jason Roberts, a Gimble protégé since childhood. Mr. Gimble does play some fiddle on the album, and much jazzy electric mandolin, completely unaffected by the stroke, including "Mandelopin'," a hot mandolin duet with Mr. Roberts.

"That's a tour de force," producer Benson noted in a separate interview. "Any modern mandolin or guitar player would aspire to play that like that. Johnny Gimble's tone is still unmistakable; when he draws his bow across a fiddle, within four notes you know it's him. That's fundamentally unchanged."

Mr. Gimble also provides the lead vocal on another of his self-penned tunes featured on the disc, "(What Do You Do When You Just Can't) Do What You Did, When You Did?" which he admits has some self-mocking autobiographical edge to it at this point: "I got the idea for that one 20 years ago as we were driving up to Nashville at about 65 miles an hour. That led me to think that I was almost 65 myself."

Mr. Gimble had taken stabs at songwriting as early as the '40s, but he turned attention to it in earnest beginning in the mid-'60s, while living in Nashville and working as an atypically swing-oriented session musician. For someone who counts improvisation-heavy performances with Dixieland clarinetist Pete Fountain among his favorite musical memories, Music Row's factory-like production set-up was not always made to order.

"I tell my audiences today that I served 10 years in Nashville! That's a joke, of course; I was grateful for the work. Bob Ferguson, who produced Connie Smith, Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, started calling me in. When we did 'If It Ain't Love' with Connie, she asked to have my name put on the label as the soloist, which RCA wouldn't do, so she included a handwritten note with disc jockey copies that said 'that fantastic fiddle is Johnny Gimble.' That record was a major hit, so overnight every D.J. in the country knew who I was."

Today, "Johnny Gimble and Texas Swing," as his band of family and friends is called, is still very active, playing for hours, for example, the third Thursday of every month at Guero's beer garden in south Austin, not far from his home. And just what does the man, whom so many great performers have loved having on hand for his wit and warmth almost as much as for his legendary musical mastery, hope this new CD will accomplish?

"Well, I just hope it can pay for itself."

Mr. Mazor, the Nashville-based author of "Meeting Jimmie Rodgers" (Oxford University Press), writes about country roots and pop music for the Journal.

Jazz Parties Not To Be Missed!

JAZZ PARTIES NOT TO BE MISSED

Twenty-first annual Atlanta Jazz Party Friday-Sunday April 23-25, 2010.
Twenty world class musicians bring a weekend of entertainment.
Patron's badge $225. See www.atlantajazzparty.com for details. Many of our
Jazz Society people travel to Atlanta for a wonderful musical weekend
presented by the Carroll family.

Third Annual Arbors Records Invitational Jazz Party Friday-Sunday January
14-16, 2011 at Clearwater Beach, FL. Seven piano giants plus supporting
musicians including guitarist Marty Grosz and His Hot Winds, Bucky
Pizzarelli, Nicki Parrott, Jay Leonhart, Aaron Weinstein and many others. A
contingent from JSOP is already reserved for this event. Cost $225. See
www.arborsrecords.com for details.

Interesting info about Sidney Bechet

Here is a site, new to me, about Sidney Bechet. Hope this will of interest. I have also included some anecdotes about Bechet which may be new to most readers. I would be pleased to hear from you. E-mail: nvickers1@cox.net

Sidney Bechet's Lost Ballet « Gerbil News Network
By conchapman
In the annals of jazz there is no more strongly polarized musician than Sidney Bechet. A Creole–that is, a descendant of mixed European and African heritage–he came from a class that considered itself superior to pure descendants of ...
Gerbil News Network - http://conchapman.wordpress.com/

Jazz Pianist Art Hodes told me this anecdote—illustrating Bechet’s irascibility. Likely most of you know that Hodes, originally from Chicago, moved to NYC and had a radio show. This was in the 40s with BOP’s emergence. Hodes was in the “mouldy fig’ camp and was promoting the older style of jazz. Hodes invited Bechet to be on his show on a certain date. He never got an affirmative answer. Consequently, he hired another musician for that slot. When time for the broadcast, Bechet also showed up, pitched a fit, demanded payment ( which he, of course, didn’t get). Then Bechet stated that he was going home to “get my knife.” Hodes, knowing Bechet’s reputation for hot temper, laid low for a while until the whole thing blew over.

Another Bechet story which may not be generally known. Remember Bunk Johnson, trumpeter, mentioned by Louis Armstrong as one of the New Orleans pioneers? Search went out for Johnson. He was found in a remote part of Louisiana not having played trumpet in a long time. His teeth were in poor repair. So part of his musical rehabilitation was having dental work done. He was referred to Sidney’s brother who practiced dentistry nearby New Orleans. And, as the saying goes….”You know the rest…..”

While I’m at it—last one. British trumpeter, jazz historian and author John Chilton was a featured speaker at a New Orleans Louis Armstrong celebration—Satchmo Summerfest. He had spoken at the meeting about his early biography of Armstrong. I had read his biography of Sidney Bechet and, in private conversation, queried him about his research for the Bechet book. My question was, “ What surprises occurred in your research—what did you unexpectedly find or what information you were expecting to find, didn’t turn up?” He thought a moment, then smiled, and said,” I had a copy of Bechet’s passport and there was some Chinese writing in it. We knew he had never been to China. So, I went down to the Chinese embassy in London and explained my need for a translation. The lady took the passport copy, disappeared and shortly came back smiling. It was a menu from a Chinese restaurant. Apparently he had a favorite meal and wanted to be able to order the same thing again!”

Some history of JSOP's efforts for Jazz Education

I received a note from Betty Forrest. She’s longtime key person, executive director of the West Michigan Jazz Society. She and Crystal are long-time friends and she’s visited the Jazz Society of Pensacola on several occasions. Betty is also the widow of tenor sax great Jimmy Forrest.

Everybody knows his composition, “Night Train.” She’s editor of their newsletter and does great book reviews. (We’ve used some of her book reviews for our newsletters in the rare event that there was space for them.) They have adopted some of our ideas, such as Jazz Gumbo. They’ve also had some programs at their local zoo, to moderate success.

See her query about our efforts at jazz education, and my response below that.

I have given a longitudinal overview of our efforts. As I said in my reply to her, some of this may be new, or at least a partial review, for those have not observed the growth of the Jazz Society from the beginning.

BETTY WRITES:
I have never really heard much about it from the Pensacola society....do you guys have some type of education program, other than giving scholarships?

We had one going for several years, presenting programs about 40 min with a quartet at the middle schools, 6th - 8th graders , which I considered a total waste of time and money. They finally overbooked 2 yrs ago and spent our budget for the next two years,, so we have been in limbo. I want to get something started again, but don't know how we do it to benefit the organization and attract younger members....any ideas?

I know this is a problem for the the jazz societies that I hear from....we are an aging and dying breed, those of us from the swing era. The students playing in the HS and college jazz bands look at us as a bunch of old fogies, I think, and while we get good diversity at our summer jazz concerts at the zoo, we don't get it at our monthly gumbos....do you?

NORMAN REPLIES:

Dear Betty: Thanks for asking about JSOP’s efforts in jazz education of the youth

I’ll try to do this chronologically---

Early in the history of the Jazz Society, we gave some scholarships ourselves. Didn’t have an endowment so it came from the treasury.

It was a hassle because of: handling applications, determining criteria for scholarship, deciding how much money we could allocate for such a project, judging and follow up with the students. With the death of trumpeter Charlie Hardin, a key person in the Jazz Society and also an officer in the AFM Musicians local, we combined forces with the Union and, together, raised over $10,000 for an endowment at Pensacola Junior College.

That mercifully relieved us of the responsibilities enumerated above. Recently, there have been no additional contributions to that scholarship by the Jazz Society and the local AFM has dwindled into non-existence.

Some years back, Joe Occhipinti, another key player in the JSOP and AFM local, worked with the officials in the Escambia County school system. He would give programs, initially for the teachers so they would work material into their class-work, and then for the students themselves. As I recall, it was fifth-grade students. He would take a small group with him and they’d be paid a small amount for their efforts, funded by the JSOP and the national Musicians Trust-Fund. As you likely know, these were matching grants. That program also fizzled a few years ago, in part because of a change in the Escambia County school administrator in charge of music education. And, as above, would likely have died later due to the demise of the AFM local.

More recently—The University of West Florida has ramped up their Jazz program with hiring of Joe Spaniola. He was previously in charge of the band at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. He’s also a noted composer/arranger. He was a key person to bring in the Airmen of Note for a free concert tomorrow night at our recently refurbished Saenger Theater which seats approximately 1700. ( It’s also home to our Pensacola Symphony concerts) The Jazz Society is a sponsor of that concert. Although the “Note” are free, courtesy of the US Government and our tax dollars, there are expenses of opening the theater, advertising, ticket printing and all the incidentals that you are likely all-too-familiar.

Our able JSOP President, trumpeter Roger Villines has an appointment as adjunct music professor at PJC where he teaches some classes and directs the PJC Jazz Band. He and Spaniola at UWF work closely together on various issues. For the past couple of years, we have added a first-Monday Jazz Jam, in addition to our long-standing third-Monday Jazz Gumbo. Rhythm section is paid from receipts from the $5 admission/donation from each listener. Of course, performing musicians get in free. With the addition of the Jazz Jam, this has given the opportunity for young musicians to play alongside the more experienced musicians. We even get some high school students to participate in the Jazz Jam. Roger and others have been very encouraging of the young musicians to perform, and increasing attendance by that segment has been the result. This isn’t to say that there has been a large, significant increase in college-age listening audience. Sometimes the young musicians bring their friends as “cheering-section.” But, most college students are either home studying or working at their part-time jobs on weeknights.

I think I mentioned before, that there is a music appreciation course at PJC which requires, in addition to classwork, attendance at various live performances. Through Villines’ influence, the Jazz Society events have been on the list of approved musical events. For example, last Monday at our wonderful Jazz Gumbo featuring an outstanding New Orleans group, the PJC monitor was there with sign indicating that students needed to “sign up” to get credit for attending that event. Students play a reduced price for attending our events and JSOP student membership is only $5/year. Roger is working on a similar arrangement with UWF. That has not yet come to completion.

AS you likely already know, our JazzFest features educational jazz bands or combos from PJC, UWF, Northwest Florida State University at nearby Niceville. We also feature some of the best area high school and middle school jazz bands. We put them all on the main stage so the audience can appreciate their good work.

Second to the FREE Pensacola JazzFest, now in its 27th year, our library project is likely the second largest effort at jazz education for the entire community. Over 15 years ago, the Pensacola Library System approached us about helping them build a significant jazz collection. We were able to select the jazz materials—CDs, books, videotapes and, more recently DVDs—for the collection. The library system matched our contribution.

WE order the materials ourselves and sometimes are able to get significant discounts from suppliers for this educational project. The library matches our monetary contribution. This is housed primarily at our downtown library, but the other four libraries in the county system have access as well. It’s been a win-win situation for both groups as the Jazz Society members have access as well as the larger community.

We know, for example that 10-15% of the CDs are in circulation at any time and, surprisingly, almost 50% of the DVDs are in current circulation.

We also know that young people frequently use the jazz resources for their school papers and projects. The libraries, especially the downtown one, call on us from time-to-time for posters and other materials for display. We were called on a year or so ago to do a lecture-film series on jazz.

This was a series of six weekly events . The national library system had developed the video course and I was the lecturer for that event, It was well attended with a roomful, approx 70 attendees, each week. When we covered the Harlem Renaissance and the New York Scene, I arranged for Crystal Joy Albert to talk about her New York experience give a live performance – piano and vocals—much to the delight of the audience. Of course, the Jazz Society’s lecture and performance efforts were gratis.

Previously, I used to flagellate myself because we didn’t have a large contingent of younger persons in our audiences. However when I came to the conclusion about students having other priorities and part-time work, I stopped feeling so badly about. Also, parents with young and school age children, are either home caring for them or chauffeuring them to music lessons, soccer practice or other activities. In this age group, one has to have the children grown enough to be out of the house so that there is time, spare money, and energy to enjoy jazz and similar activities.

I did a “stretch,” some years back, of six years on the Pensacola Symphony Board and made similar observations about their audiences, too.

Betty, I hope this little overview of the Jazz Society of Pensacola’s efforts at jazz education will be helpful. I would be pleased to get your details about the efforts of the West Michigan Jazz Society in this regard. I am sending copy of this note to some on our JSOP Board and Key Committee chairs, as well as posting it my website "blog". Some who have not experienced the entire history of the local Jazz Society may not be aware of some of the events prior to their arrival on the scene.

One of the joys of the complimentary exchange of newsletters with your and other jazz societies is learning about the successes and failures of various efforts to promote jazz. Most of the editors are candid in their discussions. Sometimes we learn what-not-to-do from their experiences, thereby avoiding repeating failed efforts. I continually urge our key Jazz Society members to read the stack of newsletters, including yours with the wonderful book reviews you do, to learn how others do it.

Bless you. Good wishes. Keep those e-mails and newsletters coming.

Norman

With Love from "north of the border"

Here is a letter received by the Jazz Society from Nancy and Marty Holmes, recent visitors to Pensacola and the Jazz Society.
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Planning for our first trip to Northwest Florida,I searched for musical events that we might be able to attend while in Pensacola (April 13-24/09.) I discovered the Jazz Society and was immediately hooked!

In response to my initial e-mail inquiry, Kathy Lyon--the finest ambassador an organization would wish for--called me. She provided detailed information on all of the events taking place, and endouraged us to consider the annual bus daytrip to the French Quarter Jazz Festival, for which we immediately signed up.

Our New Orleans traveling companions gave us a warm welcome and we were particularly grateful for the extra kindness and attentionn shown us by Dave (Jenson) and Norman (Vickers.)

We then attended the thrilling Jazz Gumbo event on the following Monday night, and went to see Kathy and her band perform at Will Call Grill on Thursday. We also followed orders and took Huntley Johnson's exciting "more power" tour at the National Aviation Museum!

Unlike most vacations, when you might make brief, soon-forgotten acquaintances witgh people you meet, we feel that we made new friends; people we hope to spend time with on our future visits to Pensacola--hopefully next in Spring 2010.

To all the members of JSOP, we say from the bottom of our hearts, thank you so much for your genuine Sothern hospitality and friendship, and for making us feel like "one of y'all,eh!"

Nancy & Marty Holmes
JSOP Corresponding Members
Ontario, Canada

Norman Vickers Blog

Introducing The Jazzdoc: Norman Vickers is considers himself a serious amateur musician with proficiency on piano, chromatic harmonica and flute. He is one of the founders of the Jazz Society of Pensacola and the Pensacola JazzFest--1983. He served as President of the American Federation of Jazz Societies and edited their newsletter for nine years.
He is a retired physician. He served as Volunteer Executive Director of the Jazz Society of Pensacola for 20 years, stepping down from that position in 2006. He writes occasional book reviews and CD reviews, published elsewhere and sometimes on this website. He manages two e-mail lists, one related to jazz and the other related to H. L. Mencken, American newspaperman/ author/editor/iconoclast whose influence in American letters was most prominent in the 1920s and 1930s. "Jazzdoc" is an obscure reference to a Joe "King" Oliver 1926 tune, "Doctor Jazz." Contact The Jazzdoc at nvickers1@cox.net