Word: mezzrow
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Dates: during 1943-1943
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...denies that there was a distinctly psychopathic strain in the old Austin High School crowd, which included Jimmy and Rich MacUartland, Bud Freeman, Floyd O'Brien, Frank Teschemacher, and allied members such as Dave Hough, Jess Stacy, Gene Krupa, Joe Sullivan, Muggsy Spanier, and Mezz Mezzrow. For instance, Tesch married a gal who used to pour nothing but straight gin on her corn flakes...
Using the same lineup of Jack Butler (trumpet), George Lugg (trombone), Mezz Mezzrow (clarinet), Jack Bland (guitar), and Kaiser Marshall (drums), pianist Hodes gave the Harvard jazz fans three solid hours of improvisation such as one can't buy for love, money, or ration points around Boston. Once again the highlight of the session was a splendid version of the blues, featuring Jack Butler singing his own lyrics and then leading the band out on a series of ensemble choruses which were so superb as to overshadow everything else heard during the afternoon...
Among jazz fans, and they seem to be plentiful on both sides of the quadrangle, the super colossal attraction is the appearance of a body of top-notch improvisers at Lowell House. Art Hodes and Mezz Mezzrow head the list of jam specialists, so don't be surprised if you see a mad dash in the direction of Lowell House right after inspection...
...rest of the band includes Mezz Mezzrow (clarinet), Jack Bland (guitar), George Lugg (trombone), and of course Hodes at the keys. It is interesting to note that all are veteran Chicagoans of the old school (Mezzrow, who was the original ringleader of that crowd, is now pressing 44 but still plays that highly controversial clarinet as agilely as he did 20 years...
Bland was a member of the original mind City Blue Blowers whose records sold in the millions, and Mezzrow and Lugg were in the ill-fated band which Mezz started in the fall of 1937 at the Uproar House in New York--the only full-sized mixed dance band ever to work regularly at a night club. There were six Negroes and seven white musicians in that group, but the club was padlocked over an irregularity in the liquor license, and the band had to break up, never to reform...