Goodbye Phoebe and Hello Timme

Dan Morgenstern

Columnist since 2009

Dan Morgenstern is widely recognized as one of America's leading jazz authorities, an honored NEA Jazz Advocate and the director of the Rutgers University Institute of Jazz Studies.

Recent articles (8 total)

Published: July 1, 2012

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A couple of Armstrong specials, "Struttin' with Some Barbecue," by a small group with guest Bob Stewart Bob Stewart
b.1945
tuba on tuba, and "Mahogany Hall Stomp," with good short Gardner à la J.C. Higginbotham J.C. Higginbotham
b.1906 and Wynton doing well in the lead passages, though having one of his curiously corny moments in the midst of the solo (this happens, I think, when he strives to be authentic). He was fine, however, in leading the concluding parade through the hall, headed for outside and a turnaround Columbus Circle, starting with "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" and ending with "Didn't He (rather, She) Ramble." Phoebe sure did!

Kicking Off a Visit

My man Fradley Garner is not editing me this time because he left his adopted Denmark and returned to native haunts in order to promote the Timme Rosenkrantz autobiography, Harlem Jazz Adventures, published earlier this year by Scarecrow Press. [Uh-uh, Danny—I came flyin' home just in time to add a few touches and names, a title and subheads, and zing this over to All About Jazz. —Your grateful editor]

I had the pleasure of Frad's company and that of the Jersey Jazz editorial team of The Tony Mottola Recording Ensemble The Tony Mottola Recording Ensemble
and Linda Lobdell, plus an auld acquaintance, ex-Rutgers University- Newark philosophy professor Robinson Lilienthal, at lunch at Hobby's, downtown Newark's sole surviving Jewish deli, to kick off the visit in a style befitting the Newark native Fradley is, followed by the recording, at nearby WBGO studios, of a Jazz from the Archives show plugging the book.

With the kind cooperation of two notable bandleaders, Vince Giordano Vince Giordano
b.1952
composer/conductor and David Ostwald David Ostwald

tuba , further plugging was done at their respective New York venues: Sofia's Restaurant at the Edison Hotel for Vince's Nighthawks, and Birdland, no longer at "the jazz corner of the world," where David's Louis Armstrong Centennial Band had celebrated its 12th year of Wednesdays just the week before.

At Sofia's, where there is more open space (there's a dance floor, as you should know), Vince arranged for a couple of chairs up front, and Fradley read a chapter (abridged) from the book, about Timme's first encounter with Mezz Mezzrow Mezz Mezzrow
1899 - 1972
clarinet and the herbal product for which he was famous, to much laughter from the audience. I was once again impressed with just how good the Nighthawks are—at their special game, in the same class as the Lincoln Center band. I'll have more to say about them soon.

At Birdland, the reading had to be done from the bandstand, with me holding the mic, but it worked out okay. Fradley this time rendered a foreshortened chapter about Benny Goodman's first band, at Billy Rose's Music Hall, where Timme worked as a gigolo so he could hear them for a whole month. You have to read this book—Google jazzbaron.com! The band spotted a first: Australian clarinetist and alto saxophonist Adrian Cunningham Adrian Cunningham
, who scored with Johnny Hodges Johnny Hodges
1907 - 1970
sax, alto ' "Jeep's Blues."