JACK OST 1938
I was bit by the jazz bug early and infected for life.
And so I played my horn, as much as any other reason, because I had to. Most of the time it was practicing - in my bedroom playing tunes. However, jazz is something which works better with two or more in my opinion; and one cornet behind a closed door is not an ideal situation. It was, in a word, confining. I had the good luck to perform, outside the bedroom, at least a few times every year over a five decade stretch; and lucked out again, meeting and playing with musicians more talented than myself. That skill disparity functioned as a learning opportunity. My Conservatory. (Albeit our music room was more often than not the dining room of some Animal Club or other, for their Friday night dance. And the song was likely Sentimental Journey, not Round Midnight.)
A couple years of lessons early on, with excellent trumpet teachers (the Northcutt brothers, Herb and Everett), helped set me up to play the cornet. A superb public school music program (Evansville-Vanderburgh County) gave me the opportunity to play in both concert band and orchestra settings. I found a ‘kid band’ in my freshman year of high school and played for informal student dances, reading stock arrangements and making a dollar an hour for the gigs.
At IU, although not studying music, I kept abreast of the local jazz scene through some of my jazz buddies who were in the Music School. I heard and met players who I would run into again decades later: Al Kiger, Al Cobine, Jerry Tyree, Roger Pemberton, et. al. A few catch-as-catch-can sessions kept me in the loop (barely). I enrolled in the initial IU Jazz Band - one hour no credit - and played in the trumpet section during the fall semester of ’59.
After returning to Evansville in 1961 I looked for, and found, places to sit in. Most fortunately, I met Nat Story and began working with his trio (Nat Story: trombone; Joe Macadoo: organ; Albert Stone: drums) when they booked an extra horn. The music was swinging and funky. Nat had performed on the river boats with Fate Marable's band, out of Saint Louis. Subsequently he moved to New York and worked with Luis Russell. After leaving Russell, Nat worked with Chick Webb at the Savoy Ballroom from 1935 until Ella Fitzgerald began fronting the band after Chick died in 1939. At the time I met Nat he worked for the US Postal Service and he played when/where he could with his Trio.
Another association was with Stanley Conover, a bass player. Stan was originally from Chicago; he had worked with Gene Ammons and Leo Parker before I met him in 1963. We formed a quartet, The Jazztronauts, and worked when we could. No money to speak of, but lots of fun at The Shangrila, Club Paradise, and other venues where we performed.
Those were the highlights. My usual diet was an occasional Animal Club gig in Evansville or the Tri-State area. Except for friends and good players on the stand, those gigs were eminently forgettable. In the late 60’s I returned to Bloomington, and began all over again looking for places to play and people to play with.
Jazz-wise, Bloomington was a much different place. David Baker had taken over the IU Jazz Studies program and his tutelage led to a rich mix of players and music. Also, I soon discovered many of the people I had met earlier were still living in Indiana and performing in Indy and Bloomington. I transferred from Evansville to the Indianapolis AFM Local and slowly began feeding my jazz bug affliction here.