[Tradjazz] Some random thoughts

[Bill Barnes]

Gee, Bruce, I didn't know Dick Rath had passed away. A very interesting 
character and a FINE player.                                     Bill Barnes
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bruce McNichols" <muskrat at bestweb.net>
To: <tradjazz at list.okom.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 3:47 PM
Subject: [Tradjazz] Some random thoughts


> In the 1960's, my band worked many nights a week, at various joints in 
> Manhattan.
>
>
> Thanks to drummer Chuck Slate, I was introduced to the Gaslight Club.  It 
> was supposedly a key club, accessible only to members.  The club was 
> located on various floors of a Town House.  To get in, you had to knock on 
> the door.  Then, a burly doorman would open a little door, in the door 
> (Speakeasy style) and you'd say "Joe sent me."  It took me many months to 
> realize that we could've said "Sam sent me" or said nothing at all, and 
> still gotten in.
>
> We'd head up to the top floor where one had to pick up an old time wall 
> phone, crank the handle and ask for admittance.  Once inside you'd be 
> faced with a speakeasy-type scene.  Drinks were served in coffee cups 
> (clever, eh?).
>
> They had a wonderful trio:  George Wettling on drums, Charlie Queener, 
> fine piano-man, and Clarence Hutchenrider (clarinet star of Glen Gray's 
> Casa Loma Orchestra).  Those guys made more music than most 6 piece bands 
> I've ever seen.
>  At a later time, clarinetist Sol Yaged had a group there.
> I loved their scheme to promote tips.  The bandstand was behind the 
> horse-shoe shaped bar.  They strung a clothes-line, pulley-type thing and 
> folks would clip bills to the line and the band would reel it in.
>  Years later, I worked with the Gaslight Club Road Show which played 
> private parties around the North-East.  That act consisted of 5 musicians 
> and 5 Gaslight Girls (as they were known) who would sing and dance.  They 
> were made up of waitresses from the club.
> Ah, the Good Old Days, or as Dick Rath (late great trombone man) used to 
> say:  "Things ain't what they used to be . . . and they never were!"
>
> McN
>
>
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