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 SALUTING LONGEVITY: Loving Jazz For the Long Haul How many jazz musicians have you heard of who voluntarily "retired?" Most will say playing jazz is a life-long love affair, that it frequently gets better with age, and that retirement is out of the question. Benny Waters, Jane Jarvis, Jay McShann, Claude "Fiddler" Williams, Daahoud Williams and Wayne Ruppenthal have been in love with jazz for more years than we can count (over 400 combined, we're estimating). And each has done his or her part to spread the gospel of America's classical music. JAM takes a closer look at the lives of these six jazz veterans who've made a difference; and who have a story or two to tell. BENNY WATERS: "Life's OK By Me So Long As I Can Keep On Swingin'" By Wilma Dobie
The words and wisdom of saxophonist Benny Waters who last month celebrated his 95th birthday. Bear in mind, this reflection comes from a musician who has been facing audiences -- and frequently bringing them to their feet -- for the greater part of the 20th century. A recent standing ovation of note came last summer at the JVC Jazz Festival in New York. Jon Pareles of the New York Times wrote: "(Waters) was simply a powerhouse, as brash and robust as players one third his age. His tone was almost full enough to burst, and his solos were cocky and impetuous, sprinting to the edge a harmony, digging into trills, riffing hard on the blues and diving into gut-bucket rasps and growls while playing 'I'm In the Mood For Love' with a broad old-fashioned vibrato that was both courtly and smoldering." After a 40 year stay in Paris, a base that enabled him to play clubs, concerts and festivals throughout Europe, Waters was somewhat apprehensive about facing audiences at home in the U.S. But in 1992 there was a happy homecoming that was celebrated with a concert in Baltimore, close to Benny's birthplace of Brighton, Maryland. It was shortly after this return, however, that Waters had cataract surgery, and lost his eyesight. Inherently strong by nature, Benny now credits his faith in Christian Science for helping him to resume, with cheerful determination, his life in jazz. As one who has always had a love for travel, Waters was at the ready when The American Federation of Jazz Societies tapped him for its nationwide tour of the "Statesmen of Jazz," a band featuring jazz musicians of distinction 65 years and older. (Arbors Records made a studio recording of the group and plans to donate the proceeds to the non-profit "Statesmen of Jazz" tour fund.) "Getting together with those musicians was a real treat for me," says Waters of the recording session. "Some I hadn't seen in a long time, and some, of course, I'd heard about but never met. I think we all enjoyed making this CD." In addition to Waters, Statesmen of Jazz (AFJS CD-201) also features Clark Terry (trumpet), Joe Wilder (cornet), Buddy Tate (tenor sax), Al Grey (trombone), Claude "Fiddler" Williams (violin), Milt Hinton (bass), Jane Jarvis (piano), and Panama Francis (drums). It was released in 1995. One aspect of traveling Waters particularly enjoys is getting to hear other musicians. "That's how you keep up with what's going on," he states. "That's how you get new ideas!" And once again, age is not a factor for this last living link to cornetist King Oliver. "Yes, I listen to the younger musicians. You're never too old to get new ideas. Age just doesn't make any difference to me with these things; and that goes for listening to other musicians, just like it does for playing." Noted jazz writer Chip Deffaa -- also covering last summer's JVC Festival -- wrote in the New York Post: "...(He) has gone to check out the younger players... even the 'free jazz' guys... Why weren't there (more) young jazz musicians in the audience checking out Waters?" No matter. Benny Waters is always looking ahead. And still trying to grow. "I even learn things from listening to bad musicians and bad concerts! Like: how to avoid doing what they did wrong! It's important to keep learning, keep practicing every day, and keep getting new ideas." "Jazz is like life itself," Waters concludes. "It's always changing. But I'll always be faithful to the great Duke Ellington when he said, 'It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing.' "That's the way I see it, too." (R.I.P Benny Waters, 1/23/02 -- 8/11/98) BACK TO TOP JANE JARVIS: No Retirement in Sight by Wilma Dobie
Reflecting on the outcome of this child's life, not to mention the checkered career it would encompass, the late Leonard Feather wrote in his liner notes for The Jane Jarvis L.A. Quartet: "It would be easy to characterize her career with a catch phrase such as 'The Nine Lives of Jane Jarvis.' Her extraordinary career has been subdivided: as a sideman in small jazz groups (during her years of conservatory and university studies); as radio personality (at 13 she was the child prodigy who became staff pianist at WJKS-WIND in Chicago); as composer, arranger, organist, television personality; as business executive and record producer (both during her many years at Muzak, where she worked her way up to a vice presidency in 1973); as concert performer (she has joined forces with the Tampa Bay Symphony for a recital of Cole Porter's music); and finally, as if back on home base, as the jazz pianist she could not previously afford to be when her children were growing up." Versatility is a winning card the pianist learned how to play early in life. Scarcely in her teens, Jane Jarvis was expert as an arranger and composer, at sight-reading and transposing, and she was exceptional at both piano and organ. A member of ASCAP, Ms. Jarvis has over 300 compositions credited and has recorded with internationally known jazz artists on various labels for many years. A favorite is her most recent Jane Jarvis Jams for Arbors Records, featuring Dan Barrett on trumpet and trombone, Bob Haggart on bass, and Grady Tate, drums. "This is an album that has class and sheer professionalism written all over it," reports London's Jazz Journal. "...a thoroughly enjoyable listening experience beautifully recorded in spacious, warm digital sound." Last spring the American Federation of Jazz Societies launched its "Statesmen of Jazz" to honor during their lifetimes musicians 65 years and older for creative contributions to jazz. Jane Jarvis was the "First Lady" named to its ranks. Shortly thereafter, the pianist became the first living lady to be honored with a festival in her name: the "Jane Jarvis Jazz Invitational" given under the auspices of Jazz Music Education, Inc. in Tampa, Florida. At the same time, the "Jane Jarvis Piano Scholarship" was announced, and just recently Ms. Jarvis presented the first award of $5,000 to Enrique Haneine, a student at the Berklee College of Music and the Boston Conservatory. "Jazz scholarships to young students are most important," says Ms. Jarvis, "and there is a growing need to establish more. If I hadn't received scholarships, I'd never have received my degree." Still another award came to the "First Lady" during New York's "Women's History Month" (March '96) when the International Women in Jazz honored Ms. Jarvis with its Lifetime Achievement Award naming her a "Living Legend." "Now, if I'm considered a 'living legend,'" the pianist recently told this interviewer, "I'd like to go on record as saying: yes, there are joys in longevity; there are treasured memories and years I wouldn't trade for anything in the world." One such memory involves the great trombonist, Vic Dickenson. "A living legend for me will always be Vic Dickenson. He was singular because he always 'rang the bell' with his trombone jazz; he was known as "Ding-Ding" to us. Years ago I was so enamored of Vic I used to write him letters care of local union in New York, the Toledo local, or any other club or hotel I knew he was playing. I was dubbed 'President of the Vic Dickenson Fan Club.' Years later, when I finally had the chance to play with him at Eddie Condon's, I was scared stiff. It was like being in 'God's Waiting Room' for an audition to get into Heaven! And, it was heaven to play with Vic. "The ultimate came when the Overseas Press Club's Jazz Club invited Roy Eldridge -- my life-long friend -- and me to join in a tribute to Vic. We decided to collaborate on a song and call it 'Aladdin's Lamp.' This salute to Vic came at a time when Roy could no longer play, but he sang cadenzas in such a manner that had every musician in the room swinging like they'd been hearing it forever. Vic called out 'ding-ding' to me twice, an accolade -- coming from Vic -- I'll treasure with every award I ever receive." As America enters the 21st century, at no time have the ranks of America's senior jazz musicians held so many. "Making the Statesmen of Jazz recording was a great reunion for many of us," Ms. Jarvis recalls, looking back at the gathering at the Arbors Records studio in New York. "And it all came to me, as we listened to the playbacks of ourselves, that we had reached, with age, a new level of creativity. "The years had done a good job of seasoning us!" BACK TO TOP JAY MCSHANN: "It's Still a Gas Playing in Kansas City" By Bill O'Connor
"Hi, I'm Jay McShann." Even though I didn't really know Jay, I felt like I did. Ever since the first time I saw him live (in 1973, at Paul Gray's in Lawrence) or heard my first Jay McShann album (Man From Muskogee, Sackville 1972), I've listened to hundreds of hours of his music. From his big band recordings of the early 1940s and those first recordings of (and with) Charlie Parker, to the duets with Ralph Sutton and 1992's "Paris, All-Star Blues" session, I'd followed Jay from afar. Now, I was going to sit down with him, get to know him, and interview him. What follows is an excerpt from our KKFI interview, aired in September of 1996. O'C: Jay, it seems as though there are two different years listed for when you were born... McShann: Let's just say I'm "80-something." (laughs) O'C: I understand that you are basically self-taught. And that you were even kicked out of a piano lesson once! Is that true? McShann: That was right funny. I went with my sister to her lesson -- this was in about 1922 -- and the teacher was in the kitchen checking on her beans on the stove. She came back in and said to my sister, "That's right, do it like that again." And my sister said, "That wasn't me, that was my brother!" The teacher made me leave and she told my parents I couldn't come along anymore. That she was giving two lessons for the price of one. O'C: What brought you to Kansas City? McShann: In the mid to late '30s I played in these bands in southern Kansas that played in these roadhouses. That's back when Kansas was dry, you see. So, sooner or later the sheriff would put pressure on the club owner to close down. One time some of the cats were going back to Oklahoma, but I decided to go see my uncle in Omaha and see if anything was going on there. We had a (bus) layover in Kansas City and I asked someone if (Count) Basie was playing anywhere close by. They said he was; over at the Reno Club. I went, but Basie was out of town. It was Buster Moten instead. I knew several of the cats and they said, "Don't go no further!" I told them my bread wasn't very long, so they hooked me up with a drummer named Elmore Hopkins. Hops was one of those guys who could always get gigs. Within two days he came around and said, "Whose that new piano player in town?" "That's me," I said, and we played our first gig at the Monroe Inn at Independence and Monroe. O'C: How did you first meet Charlie Parker? McShann: My band would play til 1:00 a.m., and then we'd go check out the other cats. One night three of us were walking east on 12th Street and we walked past the Barley Duke. This was in the late '30s and in those days they put speakers outside so you could hear the music inside. We heard a different sound coming out of there, so we went inside and waited til the band got through playing. I said, "I thought I knew all the cats in town. Who are you?" He said, "I livehere. But I've been down in the Ozarks with George Lee. It's tough to get cats to go down there because there's nothing to do. But I wanted to go because I wanted to woodshed. That's probably why I sound different. I'm Charlie Parker." O'C: What made Charlie Parker different? McShann: He knew what he wanted to do, he knew where he wanted to go, and he knew how to get there. It was like he was on a mission. Some other cats were on the right track, but they got side-tracked. 'Bird was quicker, more fluent. In this business, you never know what's going to happen. I used to listen to 'Bird and wonder if this guy was ever going to get his due. But when he hit, he just took off. Just took off. O'C: You had a big hit with your recording of "Confessin' the Blues." How did that effect your career at the time? McShann: My band was playing the walk-a-thon at the Pla-Mor (ballroom); it went on for four and a half months. During that time Tadd Dameron was in town writing for the Kansas City Rockets. He liked my band and would sell me arrangements for about half what it should have cost. Also, Willie Scott was writing for me, so we'd built up a book of about 200 arrangements. When the walk-a-thon ended, we were ready for the road, but we didn't have a name; nobody came to the gigs. But then we went down to Dallas to record and, at first, the producer didn't like what we were playing. He said, "Do you know any boogie?" So we played "Vine Street Boogie" and he started smiling; he knew what would sell. Then he said, "Do you know any blues?" And we did "Confessin' the Blues" and he's smiling real big now! You see, we didn't know it, but he was recording it right then; the first take! By the time we got back on the road, that's all you'd hear on thejukebox. And we were getting a name now. Also, we started playing for a "sixty privilege," which meant we got our $350, but also sixty per cent of the house. So, we were doing pretty good. O'C: Jay, your music is very popular in other parts of the world... McShann: Oh yes... You know, it's funny -- they all ask about that, and if you don't answer just right, they'll rebuttal you. It's been that way since we first started going to Europe in the early '70s. O'C: What are your plans for future recordings and performances? McShann: Well, I'll tell you, right now I've been cuttin' back. You know, it's time. I'll still do some things, but not on a full scale. But it's still a gas playing here in Kansas City. Last summer I played with the Basie band at 18th and Vine. I loved that. O'C: Thanks for everything, Jay. McShann: It's been my pleasure. BACK TO TOP CLAUDE "FIDDLER" WILLIAMS: "Life's About As Good As It Could Be." by Doug Auwarter
Originally from Muskogee, Oklahoma, Claude first played the mandolin, banjo and cello. Then one day violinist Joe Venuti came through town to play at an outdoor pavilion. The sound of the violin soaring over the top of everything else made such an impression on young Claude that the next day the cello was traded in for a violin. That night, Claude learned his first song, "You Got to See Your Mama Every Night," an audience favorite to this day. At 15, he went on the road with a "TOBA" show (T.O.B.A. stands for Theater Owners Booking Agency, but according to Claude, it was generally regarded as "Tough On Black Asses"), but as was often the case on this circuit, he was never paid. When he was 17, he joined "The Twelve Clouds of Joy," then located in Tulsa. Soon, Andy Kirk took over the band, and it relocated in Kansas City. By this time, things were jumping in Kansas City. Claude was playing an engagement in Chicago with Eddie Cole (Nat King Cole's brother), and Count Basie, also in Chicago, invited Claude to jam. Claude was hired on the spot to play guitar and violin, and the band returned to Kansas City to play the Reno Club. They then traveled to New York, but Claude's gig came to an end when record producer John Hammond insisted that Basie use some of Hammond's people on a recording date as well as some club dates. Ironically, Claude was voted "number one guitarist" in Down Beat magazine that same year. Claude has based himself out of Kansas City ever since and has shared the stage with just about every local jazz notable you can name ("I especially enjoyed a band I had with Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Russ Long and Orestie Tucker"). At The Club at Plaza III alone, he has performed with Karrin Allyson, Bob Bowman, Danny Embrey, Todd Strait and Rod Fleeman. This past year saw Claude working a full schedule, the highlight of which was a performance at Carnegie Hall staged by Clint Eastwood. There he performed with Jay McShann, and shared the bill with Christian McBride, James Moody, Jon Faddis and Kenny Barron. There's even a new CD due out in the spring of '97. When asked for his secret to such amazing longevity, Claude "Fiddler" Williams replies, stating the obvious: "Just don't worry about nothin'." BACK TO TOP DAAHOUD WILLIAMS: Playing Music For the Duration by Vanessa Barnard
If you've hung out after hours at the Mutual Musicians Foundation on any given Saturday night, you've witnessed Daahoud lugging that big bass of his through the door, and setting up to play the late night jam for the duration. That's the key to what makes Daahoud tick: the music has been his life. For the duration. Whether it be serving (since 1990) on the Board of Directors of the Mutual Musician's Foundation, or helping to co-found (with the late Professor Willie Rice) the Inner City Orchestra, Daahoud has been a champion of jazz in Kansas City. And a tireless champion, at that. Williams started out as an alto saxophonist, playing in the school band at R.T. Coles High School at 19th and Tracy. Several of his schoolmates back then were also destined for notoriety in the Kansas City jazz community. The "Kansas City Trio Plus Two" featured Daahoud, Ahmad Alaadeen (then Richard White) and Luqman Hamza (a.k.a. Larry Cummings), along with Richard Davis, Bob Watkins and Roy Brooks. Over the years, Daahoud has played with just about everyone in town; Frank Smith, Jay McShann, Sonny Kenner and Willie Rice's Big Band to name but a few. And of the many visiting artists he's worked with, the list includes Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Herbie Hancock, Andrew Hill and Bobby Hutcherson. "The whole essence of jazz is creativity," says Daahoud. "And spontaneity. When a group of jazz musicians are really into something, it's like a great burst of spontaneous combustion, force, and power; plus a great deal of spirit and energy. Then the music develops into something new as you play." Daahoud has been known to be -- at times -- irascible, argumentative, and somewhat contentious. Even a bit of a maverick. But he is just as well known for his big heart, and for his willingness to help out whenever and whoever he can. Drummer Matt Kane has experienced both through Daahoud's "method of teaching." "I had just moved to Kansas City from Hannibal (MO). I was 18 years old -- and very green -- and a friend suggested we go sit in at the Foundation. As I got up to play, I noticed that Daahoud was looking strangely at me, shaking his head. He put his bass down and said -- in front of everyone -- 'Man, this ain't for kids. Kids' night is Wednesday night!'" Kane eased out of the Foundation and didn't come back for almost two years. "When I finally got up the nerve to go back," he recalls, "I sat in again with Daahoud. When we were done, he came up to me and said 'Man, where you been? You sounded great!' That generosity is what defines Daahoud Williams. He was the first person to tell me how bad I was, but then he was the first to tell me how good I'd gotten. When I play with him now, I just want to shout, he sounds so good. No other bass player can swing harder that Daahoud Williams." Longtime friend and colleague Ahmad Alaadeen also has praise for Daahoud the musician, and the man. "He's an extremely gifted musician and a very loyal and dear friend," says Alaadeen. "He's also one of the few guys I know who can play the bass unamplified. He's so forceful pulling those strings that an amplifier is unnecessary." One of Daahoud's most important contributions to the health and traditions of Kansas City jazz has been making sure the Mutual Musicians Foundation is open every Saturday night for the weekly jam. Lately, however, this has not been an easy task. Recently, he was diagnosed with renal failure and placed on a waiting list for a kidney transplant. Additional health problems have since put plans for a possible transplant on hold. But, even as Daahoud has endured the rigors of thrice-weekly dialysis, he's continued to lug that bass through the door of the Foundation, and then jamming 'til daylight. "Some of the most beautiful music has already been written," says Daahoud of the life-force that's kept him going all these years. "And some of the most beautiful music has still to be written." "I intend to be one of the people who writes some of that; the most beautiful music yet to be written." (David "Daahoud" Williams died on Nov. 21, 1998 at the age of 63.) BACK TO TOP "RUPE" (WAYNE RUPPENTHAL) by John Leisenring
The difference between Ruppenthal and most of the steadily employed is the fact that he has been packing up his trumpet and going to work for more than 70 years. Now, at 84, he maintains a schedule during the winter months that is the envy of many a freelancer in search of warmer climes: playing jazz trumpet (and sometimes piano) at the Coral Reef Lounge on South Padre Island in Texas. "Rupe" also just bought a bass guitar. "I'm going to learn how to play it when my teeth fall out," he explains with a chuckle. Most of his teeth were indeed replaced long ago. But he continues to play the trumpet. And he seems ageless. (His good friend Count Basie once hollered to him from the stage, "Hey man, how come you're not gettin' old like the rest of us?!") Wayne Ruppenthal was born in Russell, Kansas in 1913. As a boy, he listened to radio broadcasts of great jazz coming from far-away Chicago, and as a seventh grader, he formed a first dance band. Then, at 13, he started taking cornet lessons from "Mr. Deines, a member of the famous Coon-Saunders Nighthawks Orchestra that performed regularly at the Sni-a-bar Gardens in Kansas City." Upon graduation from high school, Ruppenthal left Russell for good to go on the road with Eddie Anderson and his "Blues Chasers." Today, Rupe looks back on a life that has taken many turns and has enjoyed many successes. He was a charter member of the Warren Durrett Orchestra, playing with that notable Kansas City band from 1945 to 1976. He attended the University of Kansas off and on for 14 years, eventually earning a degree in music education as well as the first masters degree in music therapy ever conferred by K.U. And he subsequently held the position of Director of Music Therapy for the Topeka State Hospital for 20 years. Always a freelance musician, Wayne combined his day jobs in Topeka, and later in Kansas City (Cole Music in the 1960s, Wingert-Jones in the 1970s and '80s), with a wide variety of playing opportunities. There were radio broadcasts, and bands of all descriptions, some of which performed at locations prominent in the history of Kansas City jazz. Wayne tells wonderful stories of jam sessions with trumpeter "Hot Lips" Page and drummer Jo Jones, of stints at the old Pla-Mor ballroom, and of sitting in at the Reno Club with Count Basie's band. "The stage (at the Reno Club) was so small, there wasn't room for one more trumpet player. So I sat on my up-ended trumpet case just off the stand." Wayne adds, after a well-timed pause, "I had to move out of the way for Jimmy Rushing from time to time." Now, in what for most would be the twilight of a career, Rupe continues to march on to a beat that is unfaltering. If you're looking for a secret to "longevity" here, there is much to be learned from the purchase of that bass guitar. The lesson seems obvious. The longer we seek to find what is just over the horizon, the longer the journey will last. Wayne Ruppenthal will almost certainly be found one day playing that bass guitar with a firm touch and a gentle swing. But only after his teeth fall out. Editors note: Wayne Ruppenthal died 8/31/97. BACK TO TOP RETURN TO FEBRUARY/MARCH 1997 MAIN INDEX ------------------------------------------------------------------------ © Kansas City Jazz Ambassadors 1996-2001. All rights reserved. |
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