All That Jazz–Just Great

by Bernie Decker, The Knickerbocker News, June 15, 1970

There was no generation gap at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center last night, mainly because there was only one generation there — the older. And they heard their kind of music, traditional jazz.

Sorry, kids, you don’t know what you’re missing – or what you missed.

IF THE World’s Greatest Jazz Band isn’t that, it is the next thing to it. Each man is a top-notch soloist in his own right, yet blends with the others to provide first-rate jazz. The roster reads like a who’s who of jazz: on trumpet, Yank Lawson and Billy Butterfield; on trombone, Vic Dickenson and Eddie Hubble; Bud Freeman on saxophone; Bob Wilber on clarinet and tenor sax; Ralph Sutton on piano; Bob Haggart on bass, and Gus Johnson Jr. on drums.

Each was given his moment in the sun — or spotlights, at least.

One cannot say enough about the virtuosity of these men: Sutton rolling through “Honky Tonk Train Blues”; Butterfield throbbing “What’s New”; Wilber as sweet as sugar on the soprano sax with “Morning Glory”; Dickenson wha-whaing his way through “In a Sentimental Mood”; Haggart thrumming and whistling his own number, “Big Noise from Winnetka” …

One could go on forever praising the songs and sounds: “At the Jazz Band Ball,” “Rampart Street Parade,” “Tin Roof Blues,” “Limehouse Blues” (great duo work by Hubble and Dickenson), “St. James Infirmary” (superb duo by Butterfield and Lawson) …

As a warm-up to this feast of sound, the evening opened with The Preservation Hall Jazz Band from New Orleans. It may not have had the spit and polish of The World’s Greatest Jazz Band, age having taken its toll, but The Preservation Hall Jazz Band made up for the lack with spirit.

They played all the old Dixieland favorites, even such chestnuts as “Bill Bailes” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

But they won the audience’s applause for their good nature and drive. One standout was Narvin Kimball, a left-handed banjoist who did a marvelous job — singing and playing — on “I Ain’t Got Nobody.”

OTHER MEMBERS of the band are: Percy Humphrey, trumpet; Willie Humphrey, clarinet and the clown of the outfit; “Big Jim” Robinson, trombone; and James “Sing” Miller, piano.

Only disappointment of the evening was the crowd —or the size of it. SPAC gave out attendance at 2,800, which was a generous figure. Despite the small size, the audience was enthusiastic. It should have been. There are not many chances to hear music like that anymore.

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