The Young Man From Down Beat - Part 1

 There was jazz in St. Louis. Lots of jazz. I was a 28-year-old neophyte copywriter at a small ad agency. I had been in love with jazz ever since I got my first 33 1/3 LP…back in the vinyl days…Benny Goodman and the 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert on Columbia Records. I still know every note, every drum break, the next song. The music is still magic for me. And I have the album cover, framed and on my wall.

St. Louis had several jazz clubs, ranging from elegant down to  seedy. I liked the seedy clubs. Where people talked in low voices, occasionally laughed loudly, clinked their ice cubes in their watered-down drinks, smoked cigarettes and even cigars. Never saw a pipe, though. But it didn’t matter where I was as long as there were jazz musicians on the stand.

Most of the clubs had a low cover charge. I was short on money. I thought if I tell them I’m stringing for Down Beat I’d get in for nothing. It worked. And I would give them a good mention in my column. I was a king maker, like Walter Winchell or Earl Wilson (look those names up; they’re part of American cultural history).

This is Part 1 of a 3-parter, pulled from the pages of my March 28, 1963 Down Beat which I keep in an envelope in the basement. This happened to be the 7th Annual Percussion Issue, with a “Spotlight on Drums: Elvin Jones. Chico Hamilton. Barry Miles. Kenny Clarke.” 

There’s a full-page ad on page 1 for Ludwig Drum Company, with a terrific picture of Joe Morello. He was the incredible drummer for the Dave Brubeck Quartet for many years. Next time you listen to Dave and Paul, listen closely for what Joe is doing. 

There are ads in there for Horace Silver, Ahmad Jamal (the cat still plays!), Ellington, Roach and Mingus together, and a Blindfold Test with Shelly Manne. That’s where the cat tries to guess what artist he’s listening to. Shelly didn’t do well on the test, but he laid out an interesting quote: “I like to listen to music, not only with my ears and my brain and my eyes, but I have to listen with my heart too.”

 

 

Now I’ll tell you about St. Louis. My contribution was placed between Philadelphia and Chicago. It starts off like this:

“Name jazz in this area is currently headquartered at Gino’s, a west-end club open since Thanksgiving. The attractions have included Sonny Stitt, Dakota Staton, The Three Sounds, Stan Getz, John Coltrane, Roland Kirk, and Herbie Mann. Sonny Rollins is scheduled next….Buddy Moreno did a guest stint for a march of Dimes telethon that included Rosemary Clooney, Eddie Bracken, and Virginia Graham…The Dark Side led off the new policy with King Pleasure…Harry Frost, KADY radio, did an unprecedented two-hour interview-with-music with Stan Getz.”

I met Stan Getz one night, with his young son, Steve, who had accompanied him on this trip. I thought the two of them would enjoy seeing some of St. Louis, so I suggested to Stan that he and I and his son go to the zoo. The next day, that’s exactly what we did. A magical day, for me and I think for them. We had dinner, pizza I think. And, I hope I’m not imagining this, stopped at Ted Drewes. Happy to say, Stan and I remained friends for the rest of his life. I saw him in Malibu, many years later, when his cancer was in remission. He wanted me to go swimming with him in the cold Pacific water, said it was good for his health. I declined, not particularly fond of swimming in really cold water. Now, looking back from three decades, I wish I had plowed into the waves with him, cold or not. Sometimes you just have to grab it when you can. Stan died about a year later.

So that’s jazz ala Down Beat for March of 1963. I’ll be back with more. Stay cool. As Duke would say, “Love you madly.”