[Tradjazz] Trad Jazz on the Radio

Tue Sep 26 07:47:35 EDT 2006

Back in the late '50's and '60's I became a real Jean Shepherd fan when I was playing "Willy the Weeper", as I recall by Bunk Johnson on the radio. Interesting what Bruce McNichols said about his preperation - I always wondered whether it was pure improv or not.
        Hey Bruce you forgot you guys were also on the Dr Dimento show more than once. And how you missed Long John Nebel (sp?) I don't know.
                                                     Bill Barnes
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Bruce McNichols 
  To: tradjazz at list.okom.com 
  Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 3:15 PM
  Subject: Re: [Tradjazz] Trad Jazz on the Radio

  Hey Rick, 

  Gladyer here with us.  Aha!  So you remember some of the same radio guys that I do, eh?  I like it, I like it.  Yerright, Al Collins was indeed, cool man, cool.

  By the way, somewhere, along the line, Al Collins changed the spelling of his name.  With typical cool-man logic, he said that he had always wanted to have a name with an "X" in it, so he changed it to "Jazzbeaux."  Al was a good buddy of ours (The Smith Street Society Jazz Band) and would often appear with us.  We'd always get him to do a Hip Fairy Tale (usually "Little Red Riding Hood).  

  Jean Shepherd (yes "Jean") took a shine to our parody of Bei Mir Bis du Schoen, which we called "The Bear Missed the Train."  He used to play that thing one time or more, every night on his WOR Radio program (NYC).  That led to us appearing on his PBS-TV program and to several "live" appearances of us, with him, at concerts etc.  Shep was a wonderful writer (books and articles) and of course, a successful film producer (A Christmas Story), but for my money (of which  don't have much) his place was spinning yarns on the radio.  He made it sound as if it was all ad-lib, but you can be assured that that guy put in some heavy prep-time (although he wasn't reading, when on the air).  I first stumbled onto his all-night program when I heard an old-time jazz tune.  It was followed by another one and I thought that I had discovered a DJ who played that stuff.  During the records, I heard some guy playing along on kazoo, and then thumping his head along with the music.  Yup.  That was Jean Shepherd.
    Shep and Beaux were two of the most unique fellows, in broadcasting.  I'm proud to have worked with them.
  I never actually knew Ted Johnson, but I sure did like his radio program.  I'm impressed that you had dealings with him.   

  McN

        To: tradjazz at list.okom.com  
        Subject: Re: [Tradjazz] Trad Jazz on the Radio  
        Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 11:42:51 -0400  
        From: RICK KNITTEL <knittelsportland at juno.com>   

        This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand this format, some or all of this message may not be legible. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Hello Bruce;

        I remember many of the names you mentioned in that I grew up in New Jersey and in my formative years, listened to Al (Jazzbo) Collins from the Purple Grotto because he was "COOL" man and featured all Christmas songs (some jazzy) on the 4th of July. It was the early 1950's and I was playing in a 12 piece swing/dance band formed by musicians in my high school in Union. Jazzbo also recorded bop versions of the fairy tales Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood that were originally written by Steve Allen.

        When as a freshman at Cornell, in 1953-54, in Ithaca NY, I discovered a program out of Cincinnati, Ohio that I could pick up at night hosted by the Gene Shepard of A Christmas Story fame. He did a lot of musing about his childhood but also occasionally played jazz recordings from the 20's and 30's. I think it was this program that influenced my musical preferences more toward Dixieland and away from modern jazz. I subsequently joined and later led a Dixie band which we called The Cornell Ivy Five + One, took it on a 3-month European tour and recorded an LP in September of 1959.

        The name Ted Johnson also is familiar to me in that I played a summer Dixieland gig in 1956 in a place in Belmar NJ called The Deck which was arranged for that band by Ted.

        Rick Knittel - The Maine Street Paraders
        37 Ship Channel Road; South Portland, Maine 04106-5136
        Bus phone; (207)-741-2407; fax 2409; Cell: (207)-233-3480; Home; (207)-799-6382
        E-mail; Knittelsportland at juno.com; Winter (mid Jan to mid April) Office; 
        7657 Bergamo Ave; Sarasota, FL 34238-4765; Phone/Fax; (941)-924-5186

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