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Bon Voyage, Ms. Audrey
By Charles Enlind, PRJC Vice President
August 2011
About 10 years ago a new face showed up at a PRJC venue, enthusiastically sharing the music. And she kept showing up until she became an old friend. That new face turned out to be Audrey Van Dyke. Sadly, now that Audrey has retired from federal government service, she has moved to far northern Michigan. In fact, to an island in the middle of Lake Michigan.
Shortly after that initial foray into the local trad jazz scene Audrey became involved with just about every function of the Potomac River Jazz Club.
Her contributions as PRJC president, Tailgate Ramblings editor, and selecting the bands performing for our specials have never been equaled. As an attorney for the US Navy she travelled extensively to areas that coincidentally had trad jazz and became familiar with the best bands nationwide playing our kind of
music. If you mention her name to a jazz devotee hundreds of miles away they'll probably ask to be remembered to their dear DC jazz fan friend.
As an avid sheet music collector. Audrey is the unofficial go-to librarian for bands and players all over the country who need some authentic old arrangement of a rare tune.
Her love of music also extended to the Northern Virginia Ragtime Society where she actively served in various capacities. We wish you well Audrey and
hope to see you come back to this area as often as you can. Until then, as the song says, PRJC has them "Beaver Island Blues."
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Audrey, under the gaze of Louis Armstrong, was feted by Mike Flaherty's Dixieland Direct Band with balloons, cake, and a serenade. The retirement/bon voyage celebration took place July 31 at DC's Zoo Bar during the band's Sunday night jam session.
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Street Talk in New Orleans
By Audrey Van Dyke, Editor Tailgate Ramblings, PRJC
“It’s hard to practice without my piano.”
“This cornet plays like crap.” (followed by a demonstration of valve action after immersion in water for several days).
“All my arrangements are gone. I made two decisions. Not to mourn anymore, and not to try to replace them.”
“Our lives are downsized.”
“A friend sent me a few of my favorite CDs. I can listen to music again.”
“Someone offered to send me a computer file with all my favorite old jazz records. But my computer is gone too.”
These were fragments of conversations by New Orleans musicians overheard by some of the 33 PRJC members who went to French Quarter Festival back in April 2006.
This was not another plea for money. Instead, the PRJC took action to address a specific need, at no out of pocket expense, and maybe just a little bit of pain on our parts. As a jazz club, we came up with a pile of CDs to send down to the New Orleans traditional jazz musicians, in an effort to return a little music to the people who have given it to us over the years following Katrina.
The two rules for the CD drive were: First, we only took CD’s, produced commercially and in good condition. A couple of the musicians still liked vinyl, so we also gathered good condition LPs. Second, we only asked for historic/classic/early jazz. Much as we all love our favorite hometown and festival bands, that was not the point of this mission. CD's included 20’s jazz, for Chicago and New York jazz of the 30’s and 40’s, and a little of the California revival in the 50’s.
The one exception to the two rules: we also collected cassettes or recent recordings featuring any of the contemporary New Orleans trad jazz musicians as part of our CD effort. It wasn’t just their collections of historic jazz recordings that the musicians lost. Also destroyed in the flood were their recorded musical histories of their own playing.
Dave Sager, a PRJC Board member and musician who once lived in New Orleans, found a great person to be our distribution point. Sue Fischer works in the archives side by side with the music collection at the Old Mint in New Orleans, is a dedicated traditional jazz historian, and previous recipient of a scholarship to an adult jazz camp. She has a list of all the traditional jazz musicians in New Orleans, and what they lost. Sue was delighted to act as our Santa Claus, and see to it that everybody received several CDs of their choice. Sue mentioned our plan to a few of the musicians who play at Fritzels, and reported they were really excited and pleased that we were doing this.
We also compiled short messages into one letter to be handed out with the CDs--something along the lines of “Hope somebody likes Fess Williams and Ted Lewis as much as I do.”
Sue brought the box of CDs to Fritzel's and the Palm Court, two places where most of the traditional jazz musicians frequent on a regular basis.
She first selected the few CDs that featured local musicians performing on them, and offered them first dibs on those.
She then presented the CDs to the musicians that had lost their homes and record collections. They were so thrilled to get them, and as no one took more than a handful, there were plenty to go around.
Audrey also sent two boxes of sheet music, which were distributed the same way.
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Jazz Clarinetist Wally Garner Dies at 77
Local jazz clarinetist Wally Garner, 77, died Wednesday, August 24, 2005, at Inova Fairfax Hospital. He had lung cancer.
Garner was born in Washington, D.C. and in the mid-forties attended Western High School (now the Duke Ellington School of the Arts) with other well-known local jazz musicians such as cornetist “Wild Bill” Whelan; pianists Gary Wilkinson, Charlie Howze and Walt Coombs; reed player Jimmy Hamilton and trombonist Glen Woodmansee. Whelan and Garner formed a band and played private parties before getting their first paying job at North Beach. Appearances at the Charles Hotel in Washington and the Bayou in Georgetown followed. Wally also played with pianist John Eaton at the Mayfair Cafe of All Nations in the Warner Building in downtown Washington, and at Mr. Smith’s in Georgetown.
Garner was a member of the house band at Georgetown’s Blues Alley jazz club along with Charlie Butler or Slide Harris on trombone, Eaton or John Phillips on piano, Bertell Knox on drums, the late Keter Betts or Billy Taylor on bass and Steve Jordan on guitar. For about 10 years, ending in 2002, he was the clarinetist with the Tommy Cecil Trio at the Four Seasons Sunday Jazz Brunch in Georgetown.
In recent years he had been the regular clarinetist with the Not-So-Modern Jazz Quartet playing Thursday nights at St. Elmo’s Coffee Pub in the Del Ray section of Alexandria, VA. He also played frequently with the Federal Jazz Commission at its weekly Tuesday night appearances at Col. Brooks Tavern in the Brookland neighborhood of northeast Washington and was a member of the recently-formed Washington Conservatory of Music Traditional Jazz Ensemble which plays as the house band at monthly PRJC jam sessions at the Calvert House in Riverdale, MD.
In his non-musical life he was a long-time employee of British Aerospace with an office near Dulles Airport. To read his obituary in the Washington Post go to www.washingtonpost.com and search “news” for “obit Wally Garner.”
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2008 & 2007 PRJC Picnics Available on DVD
If you missed
the 2008 PRJC Picnic or are nostalgic for the 2007 PRJC Picnic at Blob’s Park, or if you particularly enjoyed these two great events, you will want to order a three-DVD set of the picnic music produced by Ron Israel, a professional videographer and longtime jazz fan.
Both sets contain the full performances of all picnic bands (2008 Bands: Big Bertha’s Rhythm Kings, Hal’s Bayou Jazz Band, and Bob Thulman's Special Jazz Band. 2007 Bands: Fallstaff 5 +2, Federal Jazz Commission, Big Bertha’s Rhythm Kings, Hal’s Bayou Jazz Band, WCM Traditional Jazz Band and Jim Ritter’s New liberation Jazz Band).
These DVDs are bound to become collector’s items, and are wonderful not only for the great music, but also as great gift ideas for all your jazz-loving friends.
The DVD set is only $15 (plus $3 postage and handling). If sufficient copies are sold, PRJC will receive a portion of each sale.
To order, make out a check for $18 for each set, payable to “Behind the Scenes,” and mail to Ron at 7918 31st Street, Baltimore, MD 21237. For more information contact Ron at potchki@verizon.net or 410-866-6951.
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Order “Classic Jazz” by Floyd Levin
A book by the noted jazz writer Floyd Levin is now available
through PRJC. Titled “Classic Jazz, A Personal View of the Music and the
Musicians,” it is a compendium of Levin essays which have appeared over
the years in a variety of publications, many with only limited
distribution. They form a cross-section of articles about classic jazz written over a
period of fifty years. Most of them put the spotlight on a classic jazz
luminary whom Levin has known or interviewed (or both) -- such as Wild Bill Davison --
or an event he has experienced -- like a memorable Jack Teagarden record
date. The paperback book is generously illustrated and contains a
comprehensive index.
Dan Morgenstern, Director of the Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers
University, says “Floyd Levin’s dedicated and unselfish life-long work
for the cause of jazz has illuminated many a corner that would otherwise have
remained in the dark. All who care about the music are in his debt.
‘Classic Jazz,’ like Floyd himself, is a classic.”
The book can be ordered through the free on-line bill-paying service,
PayPal. The cost is $17, postage paid. A portion of the cost is retained by PRJC.
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Order “Bands of the Potomac River Jazz Club” CD
A special PRJC CD featuring many of the club’s top bands has been professionally produced to commemorate our 30th anniversary. They are now available for $10 each, postpaid by mail either online or by mail. Send mail orders to Stu Parcher, 1115 Fallsmead Way, Rockville, MD with a check payable to PRJC.
These are the bands and tunes:
BEALL STREET SEVEN “When”
BIG BERTHA’S RHYTHM KINGS “Drums of Fire”
BROOKS TEGLER BIG BAND “I’ve Heard That Song Before”
BUCK CREEK JAZZ BAND “At the Mississippi Cabaret”
DIXIE POWER TRIO “Limehouse Blues”
DOC SCANTLIN AND HIS IMPERIAL PALMS ORCHESTRA “Old Man Blues”
FALLSTAFF 5 + 2 “Black and Blue”
FEDERAL FOCUS JAZZ BAND “Oriental Strut”
FEDERAL JAZZ COMMISSION “Mabel’s Dream”
LA SALLE DANCE ORCHESTRA “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”
LAST CHANCE JAZZ BAND “Rose of Washington Square”
NEW COLUMBIA SWING ORCHESTRA “Jump Jump’s Here”
NEW TRADITIONAL JAZZ BAND “Blame It on the Blues”
PARAMOUNT JAZZ ORCHESTRA “Deep Hollow”
PEABODY RAGTIME ENSEMBLE “C Jam Blues”
WHITE LIGHTNIN’ WASHBOARD BAND “When the Saints Go Marching In”
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"Tailgate Ramblings"
send an e-mail to PRJC
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All That Jazz
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