Table Of ContentTELLING IT
LIKE IT IS
by
JOE DARENSBOURG
Edited by
Peter Vaclier
Supplementary material compiled by
Peter Vacher
M
MACMILLAN
PRESS
Music Division
For Patricia, Louise, Sarah and Amanda
Text © Helen Darensbourg and Peter Vacher 1987
Supplementary material © Peter Vacher 1987
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1987 978-0-333-41735-5
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission
of this publication may be made without written permission.
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or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance
with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended).
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to
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civil claims for damages.
First published 1987
Published by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
Typeset by Wessex Typesetters
(Division of The Eastern Press Ltd)
Frome, Somerset
in 10/ll V2pt Caledonia
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Darensbourg, Joe
Telling it like it is.-(Macmillan
popular music studies).
I. Darensbourg, Joe 2. Jazz musicians
United States-Biography
I. Title II. Vacher, Peter
788'.62'0924 MU19.D3
ISBN 978-1-349-08732-7 ISBN 978-1-349-08730-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-08730-3
Contents
Forewdrd iv
Acknowledgements vii
Prologue 1
1. Every little town in Louisiana had some kind of band 5
2. Doc Moon could sell an icebox to an Eskimo 28
3. Los Angeles was really jumping 50
4. There's never been a town like Seattle 72
5. I never did lose my touch for dixieland 96
6. Ory was a very suspi<;ious character 121
7. Yes, the Lord picked out Louis 147
8. I know I'll be playing until I cut out 169
Supplementary material compiled by Peter Vacher
Discography 197
List of compositions by Joe Darensbourg 208
The film appearances of Joe Darensbourg 209
Career chronology 210
A bibliography of articles about Joe Darensbourg 217
Index 218
Foreword
The greater part of Joe Darensbourg's reminiscences were recorded on cassette
tapes during my stay at his home in Woodland Hills, California, in October 1979.
Although I set out to build up a chronological account of his life, along the way
there were many digressions and diversions, some omissions and a fair amount of
repetition. A number of Joe's stories, when repeated, differed in details that
were quite important and there were occasions when I had to guess which was
the right version. Naturally there were topics that he preferred to hint at rather
than explore, although Joe wanted, where possible, to be frank and direct. That is
why we decided to give the book its title, Telling it Like it is.
We also spent time examining his personal papers, files and scrapbooks, to
ensure that the career chronology was as complete as possible. In fact this
flltering of data proved a far more involved task than I had anticipated, since Joe,
unusually for a musician, had kept a lot of material. He had many of his
recordings, too, and I listened to them all with him, cross-checking dates and
personnel so that the discography would be reasonably comprehensive.
This book is the result of those days that we spent talking over his career, but
its seed had been planted many years before. As far back as 1959, I had written to
Joe at his house in North Hollywood, taking his address from Leonar<J Feather's
Encyclopaedia ofJ azz. To my surprise Joe replied promptly, asking whether I
could help him organize a visit by his band to England and telling me that he
intended sending me his latest records. These arrived and proved to be by the
Dixie Flyers, the band that brought Joe some fame and a brush with fortune.
Joe's touring possibilities came to nothing in my inexpert hands, but our
friendship flourished despite this and we continued to exchange letters. We met
for the first time in 1962 when Joe was touring Europe with the Louis Armstrong
All Stars and, aside from the exceptional pleasure of meeting Satchmo and
mingling with the Bob Scobey band, who were also backstage at the Odeon,
Hammersmith, I was able to tape a lengthy interview with Joe, which later
appeared in Jazz Monthly as "My Louisiana Story." This account of Joe's life was
certainly the m'ost complete to have been published up to that time, and made
clear the varied circumstances of his musical wanderings.
After this Joe and I lost touch for a number of years, but our correspondence
resumed in the early seventies and was followed by a cordial reunion in London,
this time in March 1974, when Joe was a member of Barry Martyn's Legends of
Jazz. I interviewed him for Melody Maker but it was obvious that Joe was quite
ill. Fortunately trumpeter Andy Blakeney was on hand to take care of his old Ory
FOREWORD I v
colleague, but, more to the point, local enthusiast Dave Bennett was quick to
take action and arranged Joe's admission to hospital. After two weeks'
recuperation at Bennett's home Joe felt well enough to return to Los Angeles
and continued his recovery, watched over by his wife, Helen. In August of the
same year Joe brought Helen over to stay with the Bennetts for a holiday, before
showing her a number of European countries where he had taken playing
engagements.
It was during our conversations at the Bennetts' house that the idea of a book
collaboration took root. Dave recorded those discussions and turned the tapes
over to me; their contents were used to supplement the main flow of Joe's
recollections. In 1975 Joe was in London once more, still with the Legends,
restored to health but already tired of touring. I wrote about him again for
Melody Maker and we continued to assemble inteiView material, starting to plan
the book in earnest. Our exchanges of letters continued after Joe had left the
Legends, but then Joe's poor health intervened and the anticipated series of
trans-Atlantic tapes never quite materialized. Curiously, it was the recuperation
period that followed his heart attacks that provided the impetus for the
preparation of these tapes, and they started to arrive. Inevitably, recovery led to
increased calls for Joe to work and the tapes slowed down, although some were
sent in February 1978 and two more in early 1979. Their quality heartened me
and also made clear Helen's clever questioning. Transcription confirmed that we
had an excellent story to tell, but it was also obvious that detailed one-to-one
inteiViews were needed to eliminate ambiguities and it was arranged that I
would travel over in October 1979, just 20 years on from my first contact with
Joe.
During our fortnight together I enjoyed the Darensbourgs' hospitality to the
full. Joe was an outstanding cook and introduced me to all his favorite New
Orleans dishes. I was able to hear him play-usually at private functions-and to
meet a number of his musician friends, who were also remarkably hospitable.
Joe took life fairly quietly following his heart attacks, but his lively anticipation of
the gig and animation when at work belied his condition. His warm-toned
clarinet style, for which he was well known, together with his easy-going
personality, meant that he enjoyed the respect and admiration of his fellow
musicians. The trombonist Herbie Harper put it well: "Joe's just wonderful. I
have never heard anyone in this business say a word against him. He has friends
everywhere."
I believe his story is uniquely American in its sense of movement and
opportunism, a kind of picaresque journey that would be impossible to equal in
today's world of music colleges and high-profile media hype. Joe worked with
some of the greatest creative musicians in jazz, both black and white, straddling
the line between art and entertainment, with the various phases of his career a
partial mirror to the evolution of the music itself.
During his Louisiana childhood, Joe was fortunate to know some of the first
great generation of Creole and black jazzmen before ~oving on to California,
where many of the New Orleans pioneers had also journeyed. From Los Angeles
he went on to the lively backwater of Seattle, which offered a low-life parallel to
Pendergast's Kansas City with its "wide-open" status. Many readers, I think, will
vi I FOREWORD
be interested in Joe's account of his participation in the Seattle scene, since this
is a subject which has been overlooked by historians. He then took an active part
in the New Orleans revival of the forties, the last major flowering of traditional
jazz, and arguably Joe's finest hour.
No master plan attended his travels, just chance, and it is our good fortune that
his remarkably accurate reminiscences bring back these lost eras with such
vivacity. Joe was proud that he had always earned a living from music and seldom
complained about past hardships. While often critical ofo thers, he made no false
claims for himself and he was refreshingly honest about the temptations that
faced traveling musicians. If some of his stories sound apocryphal, then so be it.
Joe's most appropriate legacy must, of course, be his music, and I urge the
reader to seek out his recordings, especially those of the early Ory period (from
the mid-forties) and others by his Dixie Flyers and the Legends of Jazz. His style
on these, as with his live performances, embodies the flowing arabesques of
Creole clarinet, a tradition in itself, carrying forward the Picou and Tio lineage,
with a hot attack allied to a warm, limpid tone quality.
Never an innovator, Joe brought the neglected skill of slap-tongue clarinet
back to prominence; he was also an amusing vocalist, an occasional composer, a
fine front man and bandleader, and a soprano saxophonist of genuine merit. Of
his earlier alto and tenor saxophone we have no record, and it is one of my regrets
that Joe's wanderings kept him away from the main centers of jazz recording
during the classic pre-swing period. There is also a dearth of contemporary
reference to his playing worth in those days, but I think it safe to argue that fine
musicianship and good-time jazz feeling would have been as evident then as they
were in his more recent work Joe waited a long time for recognition: happily, his
later years were both successful and well documented.
The words and syntax throughout the book are in every way Joe's own and he
was anxious that he should pay proper tribute to his many friends. Nearly 40
hours of recorded reminiscences have been compressed into an oral collage
which we hope is both entertaining and informative. Even so, more could have
been done had Joe survived long enough to allow additional interview time.
Sadly, he died when only one chapter had been completed. Therefore any
mistakes of interpretation are mine, but it is my hope that the unsentimental
directness and wry sense of humor that were combined in Joe's observations will
cominend themselves to the reader. Even after the editing and shaping process,
the voice that remains is truly that of Joe Darensbourg "telling it like it is."
Peter Vacher
London, February 1987
Acknowledgements
My main debt of gratitude is to Helen and Joe Darensbourg, whose friendship I
have enjoyed for a quarter century or more and whose hospitality and patience
when answering my questions took on saintly proportions. It remains a great
sadness to me that Joe was unable to see the finished work for himself. Helen
answered all my letters and filled in much essential detail, proving to be an
excellent interviewer on the tapes that she made with Joe prior to my visit to
Woodland Hills in 1979. She kept the project going even during the many
illnesses that beset both Joe and herself in recent years. The existence of the
book owes a lot to her persistent enthusiasm.
My thanks also go to Max Jones and John Chilton for their encouragement; to
Floyd Levin for so generously providing photographs and sharing his files with
me; and to Roger Jamieson and Sid Bailey who gave me much detailed
information that has been incorporated in the discography and chronology.
Frank Driggs allowed me to quote from his unpublished interviews with Joe;
Karl Gert zur Heide gave me invaluable research assistance; Anne and Dave
Bennett provided hospitality and help with cassette copies and photographs; my
friend Denis Wynne-Jones painstakingly copied photographs lent to me by other
enthusiasts. Others who helped with data or with pictures include Paul Affeldt
(Jazz Report), Ray Avery, John Bentley, Andy Blakeney, Jonas Bemholm, Mary
Corliss (MOMA, New York), Terry Dash (Footnote), David Griffiths, Gideon
Honore, Larry Kiner (Aircheck Records), Joe Liggins, Terry Martin (JIC),
David Meeker (BFI), Wayne Morris (Director Publications, Disney Consumer
Products), Gene Norman (Crescendo Records), Brian Peerless, Archie Rosate,
Brian Rust, Bo Scherman (Orkesterjoumalen), Duncan Schiedt, Cy Shain, Bez
Turner (Juke Blues), Patricia Willard, Val Wilmer, Laurie Wright (Storyville ),
and Theo Zwicky.
My special thanks go to my wife Patricia, who typed the manuscript and put up
nobly with its editor's many variations of mood as the work forged ahead or
lagged behind.
My publisher Alyn Shipton deseiVes his due in recognition of his
encouragement, patience and faith in the book; it matters a lot to be working
with someone who has genuine regard for the musical era epitomized by
someone of Darensbourg's generation. I was lucky too, that his editorial team of
Jannet King and Caroline Richmond were so understanding and professional.
Peter Vacher
London, February 1987
I think Joe's the most beautiful guy in the world.
You know why? He's honest.
He tells everything right like it is.
That's what I like about him.
Nick Fatool
Van Nuys, California
Prologue
I wanted this book to be written so that the people could get some insight into
what musicians had to go through in those early days, especially mentioning
about Prohibition. I don't want to hide that I drank. How I'm living today after
going through that period, I'll never know. I had some rough times, like getting
drunk and sick, having the DTs, jumping up in the middle of the night and
almost having to be put in a strait-jacket. I wish I hadn't drunk so damn much.
Any musician that's living now that went through Prohibition and drank all that
bad liquor will know what I'm talking about. If I hadn't met my wife Helen, I'd
probably have been gone by now; she cooled me down quite a bit. r ve been lucky
all my life, especially with women, even Gladys in Seattle and Margaret. I wasn't
married to Gladys but I was married to Margaret and at the time I was very
unhappy, but it was just one of those things where you don't hit it off for some
reason. Everybody's not compatible, but Helen and I certainly are. She softened
me up, changed the course of my life. Since I've been with her, she knows I
haven't been tempted to do nothing. Once in a while I might get carried away
with a few nips but nothing bothers me, so far as spending money, getting cars or
chasing other broads goes. I just love to be home. Anyway, I think a reformed
musician makes the best husband of all. I want to let people know about the
insides and outs of musicians, that musicians are human beings just like anybody
else and not bums like the great majority of people think. We have the same
problems as you do. Like I said, Helen has helped me a helluva lot. I've seen so
many musicians have headaches with women.
I think the music is changing. Like Louis Armstrong said, dixieland never
went away, it just went to sleep for a little while. I think the greatest salvation for
this type of music is the European musicians with their dedication to it. It's a
known fact that we in America originated it but, like a lot of things, we miss the
point and take it too much for granted. One of the biggest troubles with dixieland
is that it's not a style but a feeling. People will tell you to play a dixieland tune, but
when we was coming up you didn't pick out any special tunes. For instance, we
played Let me call you sweetheart with a dixieland beat, although it was a waltz.
It's the feeling that you put in it, not just the tune. The music didn't have that
dixieland title to start with; they called it ragtime, and a lot of people didn't even
want it in their houses-called it the Devil' s music. To my idea, dixieland was at
its best in Chicago. When I was on the boats you didn't hear much dixieland at
all. You have to give Orson Welles a lot of credit 'cause he started reviving this
stuff, along with Marili Morden, Nesuhi Ertegun, even Turk Murphy, Lu
