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Bob Scobey's Frisco Band

Traditional Dixieland jazz band. Formed in San Francisco in late 1949 with Clancy Hayes on banjo (and occasional vocals). The collaboration recorded over two hundred tracks, including Hayes' own compositions, such as "Huggin' and a Chalkin'," before he left in 1959 to follow a solo career. From 1950, the group had a three-year residency at Victor & Roxie's in Oakland, California, and started recording on the Good Time Jazz label in April 1950. The Frisco Band was broadcast in 1952 and 1953 on Rusty Draper's television show. In 1953, Louis Armstrong sang with them at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. In 1953 the band moved to one of the largest nightclubs on the west coast, the Rancho Grande in Lafayette, California, near Berkeley. From 1954-57, African-American blues singer Lizzie Miles recorded and toured with the band. In 1955, Scobey and his band played dates at San Quentin Prison and at the Rancho Grande in Lafayette, California — a sizable roadhouse with a dance floor. In 1957, he recorded for Verve Records and RCA Victor. An important and successful album for RCA was Bing with a Beat recorded with Bing Crosby in 1957. From early in 1956, he toured colleges and universities and, in 1958, he recorded many of the student favorites in New York, the album College Classics (RCA Victor LPM 1700). In 1959 Scobey and the band moved to his own club, Club Bourbon Street in Chicago, and toured extensively in the Midwest, Las Vegas, New York, and San Francisco. See also [a=Frisco Jazz Band].