Cafe Jazz Society grew out of a quintet formed in 1985. Mike Lucas, Gary Potter, Ron Brashear, Terry Cook and I negotiated a series of gigs at a local saloon, thought about a repertoire, and then... We needed a name. Terry said Cafe Jazz Uptown; we settled on Cafe Jazz Society. The next year Terry left and we added both Karl Schuessler and David Pavolka. Soon we were working at Nicks in what became a dozen-year run.
The roots of Cafe Jazz Society extend back to an ad hoc ensemble called The Faculty Five. In the early 70’s, I was lucky enough to be asked to fill the cornet chair and so began playing with Frank Gillis (piano), Karl Schuessler (clarinet), George Bohrnstedt (tenor), Dean Fraser (helicon) and a local drummer, John Ream. We played private parties, for the most part, and also booked a few casual engagements.
We shuffled the group, added other musicians, and performed as The Jordan River Regulars. Then, in the early 80’s, Harvey Phillips suggested that he and I co-lead a band. We called it The Royal Garden Irregulars: Harvey Phillips - tuba; Frank Gillis (later Gary Wittlich) - piano; Gary Potter - bass; Ron Brashear - drums; Dave Pavolka - trombone; Karl Schuessler - clarinet; George Bohrnstedt - tenor; Jack Ost - cornet.
I assembled some arrangements (thanks to my friend Alan Kiger) and we began co-leading. Harvey got the gigs and, in performance, I kicked off the band. We opened for feature acts (including Dave McKenna, Roger Kellaway, Frank Gillis, and Marian McPartland) at concerts sponsored by The Hoagy Carmichael Jazz Society. We played, casuals, the Indiana State Fair, a few weddings, and some Departmental functions at Indiana University through the influence of Harvey Phillips. One of our more memorable gigs was a reception at the Kinsey Sex Institute when Director, June Reinisch, sat in with the band and belted “Won’t You Come Home Bill Bailey.”
Late in 1985 we played at Nicks for the first time, in cramped quarters using the back room. A friend, Bernie Simpson, was visiting town and I asked her to sing with us. Cafe Jazz Society continued the relationship with Nicks performing regularly in The Attic (mostly during the summers), from 1986 to 1996.
I bought a Sharp double-deck cassette recorder, a pair of Radio Shack PZM mics and began taping a few of our performances every year. Technology then was very basic and so was the captured signal. (Field recorders today are much, much improved.) The CJS selections presented here are an edited product of those recordings.
When Al Kiger noticed me recording one of the earlier performances he said tauntingly, sotto voce, “It’ll come back ta haunt ya.”
And here we are.
J. Ost