[Tradjazz] Some random thoughts

[JOE [n3wtv] E.]

great story.............joe

Bruce McNichols <muskrat at bestweb.net> wrote:  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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