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Queen City Jazz Band

Overview

Queen City Jazz Band --- 1962

Title on Track 5b is intentional. Stikeleather is misspelled on back cover. Partial notes from the back cover: THE QUEEN CITY JAZZ BAND was organized in Cincinnati (the ‘‘Queen City”) in the Fall of 1957 due to the co-operative efforts of Monte Tabbert and Fred Starr. The latter went on to fame at Yale with his TIN RAINBOW JAZZ BAND (see Toad LP 1). The QCJB played its first professional job in September, 1957, for a fraternity at the University there -- on Friday the 13th. After Fred’s departure for Yale the QCJB fell into the hands of Mr. Tabbert whose primary qualifications for leadership seemed to be that he could talk faster and louder than either musicians or booking agents. In the Fall of 1958 the band went into the Sinton Hotel for a very successful three year stay. At the beginning of this engagement Frank Powers came into the band on clarinet to replace Fred. Although there have been changes in the rhythm section, the front line has consisted of the same three men since that time. THE BAND’S HERITAGE In 1957 the greater-Cincinnati area already had a rich jazz lagacy. Gene Mayl's DIXIELAND RHYTHM KINGS working out of Dayton had blown their way to national recognition some ten years earlier and were still going strong. Carl Halen’s GIN BOTTLE 7 had been organized for more than four years (which is old for a jazz band) and had rode to fame on Riverside and Eperical recordings. The legendary Sheik Coyle had been playing Chicago style jazz out of Hamilton, Ohio, for almost twenty years. Bobby Guyer, who had played in the trumpet sections of Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman, was packing them in across the river in Kentucky. Some years earlier Bix and the Wolverines had been around Hamilton, Ohio, for a while - Vic Dickenson had begun in Springfield. Frank Foster from Cincinnati had gone to fame with Duke Ellington across the Ohio in Newport, Kentucky. In the Negro clubs around you could hear all the great Blues artists -- Charles Brown, Jimmy Witherspoon, and later even Muddy Waters. The George Lewis Jazz band played Cincinnati frequently, and the Lu Watters impact had just gotten through to the co-founders Tabbert and Starr. It was a rich, living musical heritage, and the young men who were to form the QUEEN CITY JAZZ BAND were steeped in it. But at first the band was a bastard to behold - some tunes sounding like Watters and the DRK, others like George Lewis renditions. TAKING SHAPE Into this picture stepped one Mr. Frank Powers, a clarinetist of already considerable ability. Although never officially announced, Frank has been, in effect, the musical director of the QCJB. Not that he dictated the songs that were to be played, but instead, it was only Frank who had the energy and ability to seek out and arrange the ‘‘heavies”- most of the songs of worth that the group played. He deserves much credit, for if he had not been so ambitious, the QCJB might still be jamming comparatively simple tunes. Sparred on by the promise of brilliancy in trumpeter Roy Tate, Frank arranged many songs of worthwhile content. Of the tunes on this album, all except PANAMA and DOIN’ THE HAMBONE are Powers arrangements. THE PERSONNEL DAVE HERBERT -- banjo -- Raised in the Midwest, Dave has had an impressive career in music. He appeared as a regular member of a TV show in Cincinnati and then went on his own TV show in Cleveland. Dave’s single string solo on KANSAS CITY STOMPS should make banjo-jazz history. PHIL STIKELEATER - tuba - is 26 years old. He attended the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, and is a charter member of the QCJB, as well as an occasional sub in the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He makes the tuba sing. Listen to his moving lines on BUDDY BOLDEN’S BLUES. TOM HYER -- drums - born in Dayton, Ohio; a jazz veteran. A member of the original DIXIELAND RHYTHM KINGS and also a charter member of the GIN BOTTLE 7. He plays with knowledge and taste, with not too much doodeling, but a rock solid beat with fine choke cymbal work. MATT FUCHS - piano - plays fine ragtime, as evidenced on DOIN’ THE HAMBONE and GRACE AND BEAUTY RAG. His real love is the Chicago school of piano, but he is equally at home in ragtime. Born in Hamilton, Ohio, Matt also worked there with the GIN BOTTLE 7 for quite a while. More of his fine solo work can be heard on Riverside LP's. ROY TATE -- trumpet -- Brilliant is the only word. Listen to his Louie based intro on WEST END BLUES, and to the moving plunger-muted chase chorus with clarinet on YOUR NEXT. Roy is 25 years old, born in Cincinnati. His greatest influences were Bix, Louie, and Lu Watters. FRANK POWERS -- clarinet -- hails from Cuyahoga Fails, Ohio, and is a student of traditional jazz. Frank gets a big, round Dodds sound from his horn. His influences were Dodds, Noone, and Simeon. And listen to him drive on DOIN’ THE HAMBONE. Although Frank’s arranging ability has already been mentioned, we might point out that his arrangement of James Scott’s GRACE AND BEAUTY RAG is the only successful arrangement of a rag for a jazz band that we have heard so far. He shows considerable daring in even attempting Charlie Johnsons’ BOY IN THE BOAT. Frank is 29 years old. MONTE TABBERT -- trombone and leader - influenced by Turk Murphy, Ory and Robinson: Monte has played several concerts and engagements with George Lewis. He’s 27 years old and a Cincinnati native. CLOSING The men in this band deserve credit, if for nothing else, at least for playing some good and seldom recorded songs. We think that you’ll give them much more credit.