Dixieland Jazz Society Announces 2012 Season

2012 Season Kicks off March 25 with Jazz Legend Ed Polcer

Columbus, OH – The Central Ohio Hot Jazz Society presents the kickoff to their 31st year of concerts series with a concert featuring world renowned cornetist and bandleader Ed Polcer on March 25, 2012.

1984 photo – Ed Polcer and a host of Jazz greats: (Top Row) Marian McPartland, Cab Calloway, Bill Simon, George T. Simon, Sammy Kaye, Benny Goodman, Ed Polcer. (Front row) Jimmy McPartland, Lester Lanin, Gerry Mulligan, Les Paul.

Ed Polcer is a master of Dixieland and traditional jazz as well as swing and big band.  He loves to entertain audiences with the music and stories of the New York City jazz scene during the 1930s and 1940s, when one could hear such greats as Louis Prima, Fats Waller, or Count Basie performing any night of the week at any one of the 38 night clubs packed into just 2 city blocks on 52nd Street. He has performed for President Bill Clinton at the White House, the King of Thailand in Bangkok and even as a young college student at the wedding of Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly. He played with clarinetist Benny Goodman on his 1973 American tour and also has toured extensively for the Columbia Artists label and performed numerous times at the Newport Jazz Festival. Ed was the resident cornetist and bandleader at the iconic Eddie Condon's jazz club in New York City between 1975 and 1985 and was also the manager and co-owner.

Like many jazzmen, Ed comes from a musical family. His father and uncle were prominent horn players in New Jersey, where Ed grew up. His son, Ben Polcer, is a talented trumpet player well known to the Lindy Hop dance community and performs regularly with jazz bands in New Orleans.

Ed Polcer at the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee 2011

Today, Ed splits his time between New York City and New Orleans and still loves entertaining and educating avid jazz fans from around the world. His March 25th COHJS concert will be the fourth time he has performed for the jazz society. COHJS board member Tom George said of a previous appearance, "Ed Polcer was just great as he drove the band and throughout the night one could hear echoes of Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke and Bobby Hackett in his wonderful playing."

COHJS concerts are held five to six times per year on Sunday afternoons at The Makoy Center in Hilliard, Ohio. With its art deco ambience and gorgeous hardwood dance floor, it’s the perfect venue for the cabaret style of the traditional jazz concerts. Many attendees are drawn to the dance floor to really enjoy the music as it was originally intended. Local dance clubs such as SwingColumbus and the Swing Dance Club at OSU promote the concerts to their members. “The quality of these concerts is really top knotch,” says SwingColumbus dance instructor Shannon Varner. “We were thrilled when we discovered the Hot Jazz Society. We have so much fun at their concerts.”

Polcer will be joined March 25th by a phenomenal group of musicians:  Jim Masters, trombone; Erik Greiffenhagen, reeds; Larry Nusser, piano; Gene Mayl, bass; and Tommy Swisher, drums.

The complete 2012 COHJS Concert Season:

• March 25 – Ed Polcer’s All Stars (New York City, NY)
• April 22 – Ragtime Rick’s Chefs of Dixieland (Toledo, OH)
• May 20 – West End Jazz Band (Chicago, IL)
• September 9 – The High Street Stompers, featuring Tom Battenburg and playing the charts of Robin Wetterau (Columbus, OH)
• November 18 – Fall Harvest of Jazz Festival

The 2012 concerts will be held in the Burgundy Room at The Makoy Center at 5462 Center Street, Hilliard, Ohio. All concerts are 2:00 to 5:00pm except for the fall festival which is 1:00pm to 7:00pm. Tickets are available at the door for $20 general public, $10 for students 18 and over, and free for students under 18 and music educators.

Central Ohio Hot Jazz Society
www.cohjs.org
www.facebook.com/cohjs

Ed Polcer
www.edpolcer.com

SwingColumbus
www.swingcolumbus.com
www.facebook.com/swingcolumbus

June 16-18 in Logan Ohio in the lovely Hocking Hills
Washboard Music Festival 
http://www.washboardmusicfestival.com/

• Arnett Howard
• Buffalo Ridge Jazz Band (Trad Jazz)
• Skeedaddle (Vaudeville)
• The Farnum Family (Folk)
• Rant Maggie Rant (Celtic)
• (and many more!)

June 24-26 in Elkhart, Indiana
Elkhart Jazz Festival
http://www.downtownelkhart.org/elkhart-jazz-festival/

• Alphonso Ponticelli Swing Gitan (1930s Gypsy Swing)
• Bill Allred's Classic Jazz Band (Jazz Standards)
• Dave Bennett Quartet (Swing)
• Original Salty Dogs (Trad Jazz)

September 23-25 in Strongsville, Ohio (near Cleveland)
EARLYJAS 2011 Fall Festival
http://www.earlyjas.org/Festival.html

• Northside Jazz Band (Marion, OH)
• Wolverine Jazz Band of Boston (Boston, MA)
• West End Jazz Band (Chicago, IL)
• St. Louis Stompers Classic Jazz Band (St. Louis, MO)
• Bob Schulz Frisco Jazz Band

Her long and dedicated career with the Chuck Selby orchestra at Valleydale and elsewhere in our region are well remembered by those of our COHJS members who were around at that early time, as are her more recent ventures with her own smaller groups in numerous local venues. Notable in our memory are the several years of Holiday Inn-on-the-Lane sessions with the Ann Young Trio alternating Tuesday evenings with Mike Evans' Toll House Jazz Band. In addition to performing with her own group on her own nights, as often as not she would attend the Toll House alternate Tuesday gig, even sitting in to sing a few tunes with the band, to the enjoyment of all present. Ann also was a member and frequent attendee at COHJS events, both before and after her marriage to Dr. Tennyson Williams, and she and "Tenny" were always very positive in their enthusiastic support of the COHJS mission.


We take this public opportunity to pay tribute and honor the life and memory of Ann Young.

The above article appeared in the May 2011 COHJS Hot Sheet Newsletter

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From the Columbus Dispatch, March 29, 2011

Passage | Anne Young
Jazz singer a local favorite
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 03:06 AM
By Amy Saunders, The Columbus Dispatch

Even as her health began to fade, Anne Young remained as dedicated to performance as she had been nearly all her life.

The jazz singer, with a career spanning almost seven decades, died last week.

Eight days earlier, the 83-year-old had used a walker to take the stage for the usual Anne Young Trio gig at Jimmy V's Grill & Pub in Westerville.

"She could hardly move, but, when she sat down at the stool, it was just like 'OK, it's showtime,'" keyboardist Andy Launer said. "She would never miss a gig."

Born in Marion as Ann Youngblood, she later adopted the stage name Anne Young.

She began performing while still in high school, singing six nights a week at a Mount Vernon club. In the 1950s, she was hired as the featured vocalist in the Chuck Selby Orchestra - the well-known house band at the Valley Dale Ballroom.

After the 1979 death of Selby, whom she had married, she assumed leadership of the band for a decade before starting the Anne Young Trio.

The group performed most recently at the Holiday Inn on Lane Avenue, then Jimmy V's.

With few groups still playing big-band music, the trio always attracted a regular audience, said Mario Nedefkoki, owner of Jimmy V's.

"They thought she had an unusual and great voice," said Tennyson Williams, who married Young in 2009.

"But I suspect the real clinching thing was her personality. It was her grace."

CHICAGO'S WEST END JAZZ BAND MAY 15!

New and old friends of ours will populate this fine 1920s & '30s dance band on stage at Makoy Center, as they stop in on the way home from their annual pilgrimage to the Coon Sanders Nighthawks fans bash down in Huntington. Interestingly, the affable and genial leader, cornet player and master of ceremonies, Mike Bezin, will double on drums for this performance and will rely on the very talented Andy Schumm, here with his own band last March, to handle cornet duties. Mike's wife, Leah (aka Leah LaBrea), a band leader on her own, will handle banjo, guitar and vocals, while our old friend and veteran tuba player, Mike Walbridge, pumps out the bass notes. Filling out the strong front line will be two fine Chicagoland musicians whose names will be familiar to most of us, John Otto on clarinet and alto sax, and Frank Gualtieri on trombone.

Past appearances here have been enthusiastically applauded by listeners and dancers alike as they expertly execute their arrangements of the hot jazz music that was all the rage as it developed in early 20th century dance halls, aided and abetted by the likes of Fletcher Henderson, Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke, Paul Whiteman, and countless other composers, arrangers and musicians that were very active at the time.
See related blog post

NEW ADDITIONS FINALIZE COHJS FALL SEASON!

NORTHSIDE JAZZ BAND - September 11 -- On their way to the EarlyJas Fall Festival in
Strongsville, by way of the Rusty Nail in Kent, for a preliminary performance, warm-up, and jam session
with Northeast Ohio musicians on the following weekend.

GLENN CRYTZER'S SYNCOPATORS - October 9 -- A special for our dancers, the touring house
band from Seattle, Washington

For the Fall Harvest of Bands and Holiday Charity Event - November 13, these ever-popular Ohio groups:

• DAVE GREER'S CLASSIC JAZZ STOMPERS from the Dayton area
• RAY HEITGER'S CAKEWALKIN' JAZZ BAND from the Toledo area
• BUFFALO RIDGE JAZZ BAND (as previously announced) from Cincinnati

Mark calendars TODAY! No excuses for non-attendance!
Full 2011 COHJS Concert Schedule

ANDY SCHUMM CONCERT REPRISE

We offer these photographic mementos of the March 27 COHJS Bix Beiderbecke-themed concert by Andy Schumm and His Gang in the hope that it may trigger both animated visual, as well as audio, memories of
the experience for the many who were there, and a wish that they had been there among those who were unavoidably absent that day. It was truly a great presentation -- of "the good stuff" as Andy himself calls it!

The West End Jazz Band has, for the past 34 years, recreated the classic music that typifies the twenties and thirties using original arrangements and instrumentation that is true to the style of the era. Featured are the pure jazz numbers, the nonsense songs, the up-tempo tunes and also the beautiful ballads. This was the type of music for dancing and for those zany times when youth ran wild and made whoopee; songs such as "Hop Off," "Stockholm Stomp," and "The Charleston;" and the beautiful ballads like "Whose Honey Are You" and "Stardust." Their book is full of great standards, obscure songs, as well as a number of straight dance medleys and waltzes that reflect the romantic and sweet side of that era. 

West End Jazz Band
Sunday, May 15, 2011
2:00pm-5:00pm
The Burgundy Room at The Makoy Center
5462 Center Street
Hilliard, OH 43026

Tickets
Sold at the door only.  
          $20 - Non Members
          $15 - Members
          $10 - Students and Dance Club Members
          Free admission to those 18 or younger accompanied by a paying adult.
          Music Educators free when accompanying students (more info)

We love seeing dancers on the beautiful dance floor at The Makoy! 
Bring your friends and family - this is a great concert for all ages!
Snacks and refreshments available at very affordable prices.

You can't help but smile when you hear this!

...As leading interpreters, cornetist Andy Schumm and His Gang arrive from the 1920s & '30s jazz haven, Chicago, to present a tribute to the legendary musician who, most authorities say, was the "greatest hot cornet player and most inspired jazz musician of his time".

Band Personnel:
            Andy Schumm - cornet
            John Otto - clarinet/alto sax
            Dave Bock - trombone
            Jim Dapogny - piano
            Rod McDonald - guitar/banjo
            Beau Sample - bass

A video preview!

Sunday, March 27, 2011
2:00pm-5:00pm
The Burgundy Room at The Makoy Center
5462 Center Street
Hilliard, OH 43026

Tickets
Sold at the door only.  
          $20 - Non Members
          $15 - Members
          $10 - Students and Dance Club Members
          Free admission to those 18 or younger accompanied by a paying adult.
          Music Educators free when accompanying students (more info)

More about the band members:

Andy Schumm

Andy Schumm is willing to do whatever it takes to play the good stuff.

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Andy began taking piano lessons when he was 6 years old. He dabbled as a trumpet player in grade school and high school until he found his true passion for jazz while studying with Mike Plog, a well-known modern jazz trumpeter. At the University of Illinois, Andy studied trumpet and cornet with Tito Carrillo and began arranging under the tutelage of program director Chip McNeill.

His fate as a ’20s musician was sealed one night after hearing Bix Beiderbecke’s transcendent recording of “At the Jazz Band Ball” on an authentic Victor horn machine. Andy started sitting in with Dixieland bands and, ironically, discovered that he could get more work as a ’20s musician than a modern player – yeah, man! While he is heavily influenced by Bix, Andy draws inspiration from a variety of musicians including Red Nichols, Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, Jabbo Smith and Tommy Dorsey (especially in his covert recordings as a trumpeter!). He also enjoys listening to Johnny Dodds and Herb Morand.

Andy is currently a full-time musician traveling the world and touring with various groups. One such group is the Archipelago Project which is a non-profit educational outreach group advocating musical arts for young students and their teachers through performance, residency and consultation.

John Otto

JOHN OTTO, reedman extraordinaire, is a full-time jobbing musician and piano technician who has performed and recorded with many well-known bands all over the country.

John’s mother was a soloist in church music, musicals, weddings and an accomplished jobbing musician herself. His dad played trombone for fun and liked listening to big bands in the late 1930s. He had swing and jazz records collected in the closet, which John found most enticing upon discovery at a very early age.

John started learning piano in grade school and changed to clarinet upon entrance into junior high school. In high school, his musical mentor was Wellington Schiller, a full-time musician and teacher. Wellington would loan John his Red Nichols records, which had quite a profound impact on him by grooming his ear for melody and rhythm. Some additional instruction from the late well-known Carmen Dello helped set him up for success.

John’s first job was working in Bolingbrook, Illinois, at an amusement park called Old Chicago (an enclosed shopping mall with circus bands and traveling acts such as vaudeville shows) while in high school, but he quit to enroll in college. Although John can play great jazz in many forms on clarinet and saxophone, his abilities in the hot dance category are supreme.  Some of John’s recent work has been subbing with the St. Louis Ragtimers, though you will find him about Chicago and its surrounding ‘burbs playing jazz, swing, Dixieland AND hot dance.

Jim Dapogny

Jim Dapogny - The stride and swing piano tradition of the early 20th century is preserved through the playing of pianist and musicologist James Dapogny. Together with his small combo, the Chicago Jazz Band  Dapogny has recorded seven albums of ragtime, New Orleans and Chicago jazz, and small-band swing. The band has made semi-regular appearances on National Public Radio's "A Prairie Home Companion," and has been featured on albums by the Andrews Sisters-like trio Chenille Sisters and late jazz-blues pianist Sippie Wallace. Deeply influenced by the piano playing of Jelly Roll Morton (1890-1941), Dapogny wrote the liner notes for a series of Morton's recordings issued by the Library of Congress and Rounder Records and edited the scholarly book Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton: The Collected Piano Music, published by Schirmer, Inc.. Dapogny has recorded two albums -- Laughing at Life and Original Jelly Roll Blues -- featuring his interpretations of Morton's music. The holder of a doctorate of musical arts in composition, Dapogny has taught at the University of Michigan since 1966. He received a faculty recognition award and Thurnau professorship for outstanding teaching in 1982. Dapogny has served as an editor and editorial board member for Jazz Masterworks Editions, a collaborative project of Oberlin College and the Smithsonian Institute.

Jim Loeffler, as astute a student of Classic/Traditional Jazz as there ever was, comes by it honestly -- his father was steeped in the genre, and lived through the heyday of Bix and his contemporaries. Jim furnished the following summary, written by his father, Bill Loeffler, which we offer as an introduction to the legendary figure whose contributions to the art will be celebrated in Andy Schumm's scheduled performance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The below article was written by Wm. E. “Bill” Loeffler, 1939

Bix Biederbecke was born in Davenport, Iowa, in 1904 and managed in his first 26 years of life, to set the final standard by which all hot trumpet and cornet playing is judged today. A majority of musicians and music fans are agreed that Bix was the greatest hot cornet player and the most inspired jazz mucisian of his time.

Bix Beiderbecke

Many have spoken of him as Bix without really knowing from whence the nickname originally came. Strictly speaking, Bix Biederbeck is not the inimitable cornet player we all know, but an older brother, a music store proprieter in Davenport, who received the nickname "Bix" from friends long before young Leon did. The name was first applied to Leon as "Little "Bix", and later, as his fame grew, the qualifying adjective "Little" was dropped, resulting in his now familiar title, Bix Biederbeck.

Bix studied first to be a pianist, but when he was well on in his teens, he heard Louis Armstrong and King Oliver play on the riverboats that came to Davenport and decided that he wanted to take up the cornet.

His first public performance with an orchestral group was in auspicious company, although in a somewhat unique combination consisting of cornet, clarinet, drums and piano. Bix played the cornet, Benny Goodman the clarinet,(he was then only 12 years old), Dave Tough the drums, and Dick Voynow played the piano. Benny remembered the day (he was wearing his short pants,then) he first played with Bix. Bix thought that little Benny was Just fooling around with the instruments, and Dave Tough had to argue with Bix to let him stay on.

Attending Lake Forest Acadamy, Bix, joined a group called the Wolverines, which were very popular in the midwest at that time, and Bix's cornet was largely responsible for this popularity.

Bix and the Wolverines, February 18, 1924

Shortly after the Wolverine group went to New York, about 1924, they broke up. Bix joined Charlie Straight's orchestra for a while and then met with a new fella by the name of Frankie Trumbauer, who was makeing a name for himself in St. Louis about 1925. The Trumbauer-Bix association was a happy one, with plenty of photographic evidence of the partnership.  Under the psuedonym of the Souix City Six, they made "I'm Glad" and "Flock 0' Blues" and then recorded together as members of Jean Goldkette’s Band, Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra and many small combos under Trams supervision.

In 1920, Jean Goldkette heard of Tram's success, but Tram would not join him unless Bix Was signed up with him. Jean accepted and so Tram and Bix joined Jean in Detroit.

Bix with Frankie Trumbauer's Orchestra

In 1927, Paul Whiteman took over a large section of Jean's band and for the next two years Bix, Tram, and Bill Challis, (Goldkette's former arranger), were part of Whiteman’s band.

Bix was supposed to have appeared in a motion picture called "The King of Jazz", but alcoholism claimed him in the fall of 1929 and he had to retire from the band and return home and spend several months recuperating.

Bix never was strong enough for regular band work, and, except for a couple of radio dates and a few recording sessions, he was in retirement. The stories of his death are numerous, but the real truth is as told by Tram.

In the summer of 1931, Princeton U. was having a dance, with a pick up band that included Bix. Princeton would not accept the band unless Bix was there in person. Bix was in bed with a severe cold, but when he was told the news, he insisted on making the date. He drove to Princeton in an open car, while running a fever of 100 degrees. That, coupled with the heat of the dance hall and the cold ride back to New York, resulted in a case of pneumonia, and on August 7,1931, he died in a Long Island hospital.

The Florentine Restaurant, 907 W. Broad St. Columbus, OH: The North Side Jazz Band, 4th Tuesday of the month (call 228-2262 to check), 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. Reservations accepted but not essential.

The Coachlight Room at Just One More Tavern, 7511 Hamilton Ave., Mt. Healthy, OH (Cincinnati Suburb): Bob Adams' Buffalo Ridge Jazz Band, first Thursday of the month, 7 - 10 pm, 513-522-3001.

Alex's on 725 Supper Club, 125 Monarch Lane, Miamisburg, OH (1/2 mile W. off I-75 Exit 44): Dave Greer's Classic Jazz Stompers, every Wednesday, 7:30 - 11:00 pm, 937-866-2266

Red Brick Tavern, old Rt. 40, Lafayette, North of London, OH: The Lower London Street Dixieland Band, last Tuesday of the month, 7 - 10 p.m.

Jimmy V's Westerville, OH, Anne Young Trio, alternate Tuesdays Main Street Bar & Grill, 5758 N. Main St., Sylvania, OH, Haymarket Square: Ragtime Rick & the Chefs of Dixieland, Wednesday nights 8 - 12. Details 419-885-3351

South Briar Restaurant, 5147 Main St. Sylvania, OH 43560: Ray Heitger's N'Orleans Jazz Jam, 7 - 10 p.m, 419-517-1111

The Rusty Nail restaurant, 7291 SR 43 in Twin Lakes, OH, 44240, between Streetsboro and Kent: The Minstrels of Earlville, first Thursday, 6:30 - 9:00 p.m. 440-247-4800

Raintree Restaurant, 25 Pleasant Dr., Chagrin Falls, OH, 440-247-4800: The New Orleans Jazz Ensemble, second Wednesday of month, 6:30 - 9:30 p.m,.

The High Society Jazz Association meets 3rd or 4th Sunday of month, at Abrio's Ristorante, 859 E. State St. Athens, OH, 3 - 6 p.m., with music by the Athens High Society Jazz Band. Musicians welcome. Pat Light 740-592-1317.

Barking Spider Tavern, 11310 Juniper Rd., University Circle (Cleveland): The Night Owls, ('20s dance band), 2nd Sunday of month, 3:00 - 5:30 p.m.; The Hot Jazz 7, 3rd Sunday of month, 3:00 - 5:30 p.m.

JAZZ CRUISE PARTICIPANTS WE KNOW, IN ACTION
Here's a shot showing three (actually only two -- you can't quite see Sid Townsend behind the piano, but he was there) stalwart Central Ohio musicians leading a jam session aboard the cruise ship MSC Poesia during its Caribbean "JazzFest at Sea" last November. The other two of course are Mike Evans and Phil Stone, on banjo and cornet respectively.

DO DUTY - DUES DUE
That time of year has rolled around again for all you good and loyal COHJS members - and anyone else reading this newsletter, in hard copy or on the web -- and all friends, neighbors, and relatives thereof, to cogitate the future of this organization that brings great live Classic/Traditional Jazz music to a beautiful venue near you, and consider renewing or creating a new membership, whichever appropriately describes your particular status.  In any event, we want and need your support for this noble endeavor, in the form of the normal annual dues AND your attendance at the superb performances we schedule throughout the year.  And to those who have re-upped already for 2011, we offer our heartfelt thanks and our commitment to carry on the mission in the grandest style possible.

LOST & FOUND DEPT.
We're in possession of a pair of prescription sun glasses left at Makoy Center at last November's COHJS Fall Harvest event, and we'd like to get them back to their rightful owner. Please call Bob Butters at 451-1761.

COHJS bylaws require that a meeting, open to the entire membership, be held at least annually for the purpose of electing members of the Board of Directors, and for any other business anyone would like to bring up. (Actually, your Board would be pleased to have any member present at any of its monthly meetings).

The 2011 meeting will take place at the home of COHJS President Bob Butters, 4453 Willowbrook Rd. in Upper Arlington, on Wednesday, February 2, at 7:30 p.m. Members of the Board whose 3-year terms are expiring, and who are standing for reelection, are: .Jim Loeffler, Dave Campbell, and Larry Nusser.

In addition to the Board positions referred to above, there are additional Director vacancies which we would like to fill, and we solicit nominations which we invite and urge the membership to bring to this meeting for consideration.

From the January Jazz Hot Sheet Newsletter