Tuesday, February 10, 2015

A League of Her Own

By David "Chet" Williamson Sneade

In her book, Swing Shift: All-Girl Bands of the 1940s, author Sherrie Tucker documents the largely forgotten history of women musicians and their contributions to the big band era. She notes that during WWII, when men were serving overseas, “swing skyrocketed with the onslaught of war.” The book is filled with firsthand accounts of remarkable women playing in all-female jazz and dance bands all across America.

Here in Worcester, one such band was Maxine King and her Starlets, an all-girl territory band that barnstormed throughout New England in nightclubs, dance halls, and ballrooms. At its peak, the group had as many as 13 members and by most accounts could really swing.


King was a gifted pianist and organist who was born in Worcester on October 5, 1922. Her family name was George. Her real name was Sadie Ferris George. There is no known origin of the name change to the more Americanized “King.” The guess is that it was fashioned after one of the Andrew Sisters (Maxine) and the King Sisters. She grew up in a traditional Lebanese home and practiced her faith at St. George Orthodox Church. She first lived at 31 Wall Street, in the same neighborhood of local trumpeter Emil Haddad.

In fact, according to Maxine’s younger sister Delores, Haddad was first taught how to play the trumpet by Michael George, one her older brothers. Emil was 13 when he first started playing.  

Author Elizabeth Boosahda, who is a cousin to the George family, wrote about Maxine and those early days in her landmark book, Arab-American Faces and Voice; The Origins of an Immigrant Community. “Around 1939 and 1940, when she was just out of high school, she had practice sessions with Emil Haddad on the trumpet, Richard Haddad on the saxophone, and her brother Michael on the trumpet at their homes or at an empty store owned by Emil Haddad’s parents. They did gigs together.”

The adcopy for the book reads: Boosahda focuses on the Arab-American community in Worcester, Massachusetts, a major northeastern center for Arab immigration, and Worcester's links to and similarities with Arab-American communities throughout North and South America. Using the voices of Arab immigrants and their families, she explores their entire experience, from emigration at the turn of the twentieth century to the present-day lives of their descendants. This rich documentation sheds light on many aspects of Arab-American life, including the Arab entrepreneurial motivation and success, family life, education, religious and community organizations, and the role of women in initiating immigration and the economic success they achieved.” It was published by University of Texas Press, 2003.

Boosahda also noted that Maxine King’s all-girl orchestra played gigs not only in New England, but all the way into New York, and at military bases. “Her four brothers were in the U.S. military and enjoyed the orchestra’s music.”



Teenager Emil Haddad on trumpet with the Al Gervais Band 
Before taking up the trumpet, Haddad was already an entertainer by the age of 10. He and Al Dahrooge – also a neighbor and cousin of the George family – formed a comedy act and for a period of time appeared every Saturday morning over radio WTAG.

In addition to both being Lebanese, Maxine and Emil were the same age. As teenagers they went to Commerce High School, which at the time had an outstanding music department, boasting two large orchestras and concert bands, choruses, and glee clubs.

Commerce High School Orchestra, 1939


Maxine was the fifth of eight children of Thomas and Sophie George, both originally from Lebanon. “My father got up every morning at 4 o’clock to chant and pray,” says Dolores. “We all sang in church. Maxine was the organist.”

Student walking outside Commerce High on Walnut Street

  The El Morocco, a legendary Lebanese restaurant owned by the Aboody family,
first opened in 1943 on Wall Street. 



By the 1930s the George family moved to Hamilton Street, where Delores still resides. She says Maxine was earning money for the family by playing music at an early age. “She was a special person. Maxine had perfect pitch. My mother made it a point to see our teachers once a week and one of them said to my mother, ‘Your daughter has musical talent.’ She recommended her getting private tutoring. I still remember her teacher. Her name was Marie Louise Webetts. She was a real Blue Blood American. She lived up near Fairlawn Hospital.  Lessons were $25 a week. That was a lot of money back then.”




Before putting the all-girl band together, Delores says Maxine worked general business musical jobs all over the city. In particular, she recalled her sister playing at Putnam and Thurston’s Restaurant on Norwich Street. She also worked at the Eden Gardens, Hotel Coronado, the Bancoft Hotel, and at one point, Maxine was the house pianist at the Plymouth Theater.

Live at the bar in the Bancroft Hotel





Maxine died on July 17, 2006 and according to her obituary in the Worcester Telegram, she played between showings of movies and newsreels at the Plymouth when she was 12 years-old. “She later played with such well-known groups as Spike Jones, Woody Herman, Tommy Dorsey, Horace Heidt and singers: Vic Damone, Dick Haymes, and the Ink Spots.”

“She was invited to join Spike Jones, but my parents said, no because while at home she was required to sleep in her own bed every night,” says Dolores. “I remember she had an agent. She also studied in Boston.”

Maxine (2nd from left) and her Starlets, circa 1945

Unfortunately, very little is known or documented of the all-girl band. In 1945, Telegram entertainment writer James Lee made mention of them in his column, Backstage: “Under the marquee: Maxine and her Starlets, all-girl Worcester orchestra, play a repeat date Sunday at the Merry-Go-Round, Hoosick Falls, NY, nightclub.”

The trumpeter in the group was Jane Krasuki, an accomplished musician who held a “gold card” with Worcester’s Musicians Union Local 143. She was later a member of a trio called the Rhythmettes. 
   
Delores, who was born in 1939, was little too young to remember the band, but she says, “I have a 78 of the band somewhere. I remember them travelling. They played in western, MA at a place called the Bernardston Inn.”


The March 12th 1949 edition Billboard magazine mentioned Maxine. An item, with the headline of “Organ Jamboree Big at Dolan Skateland” read: “Worcester, Mass, March 5 – An organ jamboree held February 28 at James J. Dolan Skateland here was reported a big success by Mrs. Norman Allen, wife of the Skateland organist. Five organists, including Allen, were featured. Ira Bates, Boston; Joe Nickerson, the Sheraton Hotel, Boston; Ron Harry, Fitchburg, Mass., and Maxine George, Worcester, Mass., appeared on the program. To the skater selling the most tickets to the affair went an album containing an autograph record of each organist. Skating was offered the first half of the evening, with ballroom dancing following. Organ novelties were offered between sessions.”
  
In 1948, Maxine played a church convention in Grand Rapids, MI and met her future husband Moses Hattem, who owned a prominent dining establishment in that city. She left Worcester in 1950, settling in Grand Rapids where she became a well-known pianist and organist for more than 50 years. She first came to prominence there after performing at Hattem’s Restaurant.

Grand Rapids is comparable to Worcester. A 2010 census counted its population as a city of 188,000 people and is the second to Detroit as the largest city in Michigan. Maxine and Moses had four children. A daughter, Donna still lives in Grand Rapids. “My mother was very talented. She had a great ear. She could play any song in any key. She played in the family restaurant and elsewhere, everywhere, really. And, she taught. She recorded one album. It is called Music by Maxine.”



Downtown Grand Rapids, circa 1950s

At the restaurant Maxine played for many dignitaries, including Betty and Gerald Ford, who were so enamored of the pianist that they invited her to the White House as their guest. According to her Grand Rapids Press obituary, “she was the pianist at the weekly Grand Rapids Lions Club meetings, Cascade Hills Country Club, and many local retirement communities. Maxine was the organist and member of St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church.” Aquinas College has established the “Maxine G. Hattem Memorial Music Scholarship” for students pursuing a major in music with a preference in piano and organ.”



Note: This is a work in progress. Send all comments, corrections, and suggestions to: walnutharmonicas@gmail.com Thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Also see: www.worcestersongs.blogspot.com.


Sunday, February 8, 2015

Black Elks on Chandler

By David "Chet" Williamson Sneade

The Independent Benevolent Protective Order of the Quinsigamond Elks #173 is best known as the Black Elks. Back in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, the first Elks Club was on Summer Street. By the 1980s, the order set up shop at 200 Chandler Street on the corner of Bellevue Street. Like its predecessor, the Black Elks held Sunday afternoon jam sessions. The house band was the Soul-Jazz Qt., featuring trumpeter Barney Price, bassist Bunny Price, drummer Reggie Walley and pianist Allan Mueller. Qt., was an abbreviation out of necessity. Sometimes the group was a quartet, other times a quintet.

A pianist in residence with the Thayer Symphony and Chamber Orchestras today, Mueller is also an outstanding jazz pianist in the Oscar Peterson vein. A few years ago he sat down to recall his days at the Elks. The intent of the conversation was to document the club as part of an oral history section of the Jazz Worcester Real Book. Unfortunately, the section didn’t make the cut. Here is our conversation. 

Pianist Allan Mueller
Tell me what you remember about the club? 

It was the same type of thing we were doing at the Hottentotte [A former club on Austin Street]. We played a session. It was a Sunday, like 3 to 7 p.m. The music room was separate from the bar. I remember that the stage was tiny and not very deep. We had to spread across. If you are looking at the stage, Reggie was on the left. I was next to him. Then Bunny. The three of us would be in the back. Then the horns would be out front. Barney really liked being right out there with the people. There was some kind of soundboard and occasionally a deejay would crank something up on the break.

Who were some of the guys who sat in?

Bunny Price, Al Mueller, Barney Price, and Reggie Walley
A lot of guys would come in and you wouldn’t even know their name. They’d say “Hi, I’m Bill.” There were so many. And of course you have all these guys lined up on the side. They would be holding their horns waiting to play. I can remember Bob Simonelli would come in and play. He would get so frustrated because you’d be playing a tune like, “l’ll Remember April” and somebody would be up there blowing and he might be three fourths of the way through the tune and stop playing and walk off.

We’d be in the middle of a tune and this guy would start at the beginning. You’d go nuts trying to figure out where all these guys were. If you were playing “How High the Moon” in G, they’d play in G, but they wouldn’t make any changes. Simbob would look at me. We just decided to keep the form no matter what.

Bob Simonelli
It was loose and relaxed. Reggie would be smoking his pipe and smiling. Everybody was drinking and having a good time. We’d set up, play and have a good time. It was fun. I can remember Teddy Blandin coming in. When I left, one of my students, Jim Heffernan, came in.
Jim Heffernan

What was the audience like at the club?

It wasn’t just a black crowd. It was a good mix of white and black. Everybody was there to hear the old tunes and remember back when there were clubs where you could go out and hear that stuff. There were very few places where you could go once the Hottentotte closed. As those places died out you wound up with discos and deejays. Before you knew it there were not many venues for musicians to play.

Nobody seemed to bother us. I could never remember any instance of any kind of a racial thing going on. When I was there or Nat Simpkins was there it was just a crowd of musicians and a crowd of people that liked music. There was no, I’m black and you are white. No problems. It was a natural situation. We played and people appreciated what you did. Nobody would ever hassle you.
Nat Simpkins
I taught at Clark [University] during that period and so just spreading the word that we were doing jazz on Sundays you’d get a lot of kids coming down sitting-in. I’d have students get up and play a little bit. That’s the name of the game, how you learn to play. Again, you had to be a little careful because the union was strict about people sitting-in. They weren’t supposed to unless that had a union card. They didn’t like the business of sitting-in anyway. We did it anyway.

Charles Ketter
[A partial list of other players to have played the jam include Bruce and Steve Thomas, Bill Vigliotti, Jim Robo, Charles Ketter, Jerry Pelligrini, Bill Ryan, Tommy Herbert, Sonny Benson and Willie Pye.]


Trumpeter Bill Ryan and saxophonist Joe Pisano

Did you ever play at the club when it was on Summer Street?

You are talking about the original Elks, which was way over in the Laurel/Claytonneighborhood. I did a lot of playing over there with Barney and Reggie. This was in the 1960s. I remember going into the place. There was a big old upright piano in there. It was really beat, out of tune, but not ridiculous. The sustain pedal didn’t work. I can remember somebody went out back and found a broom handle. We were able to saw it off and stick it on the piano. We did a lot of stuff like that. We’d take the whole front of the piano off so you could hear it.

Larry Monroe
It was like a session. One time Larry Monroe was with us. He was studying at Berklee. I remember we rolled the piano right out of the club and down the street. Some of the local kids were riding it. We rolled it right onto a basketball court and we played an outdoor thing there. The kids were running and jumping all over the place. It was all-acoustic. Bunny played an old upright bass. There was a saxophone player name Al Pitts. He was great. It was fun to play blues with guys like that. They played the real stuff.

What it was like working with Barney? There’s not much is written about him.

Mueller, Price, Bill Myers, Bobby Gould and Monroe
Barney Price was a super guy. I played with him quite bit. He used to like to open with the theme song from the Burns and Allen TV show, “Love Nest.” That was a tune that he liked to play. He had a great voice. He used to sing a lot of things He actually sang more tunes than Reggie. He knew more tunes.

Mueller, Bunny and Barney
He was great with the crowd. Right off the top of his head he always had all kinds of stories, little anecdotes and stuff. The first concert I did at Clark University, I had Larry Monroe and Barney, Bobby Gould, Bunny Price and myself. It was when I first started to teach at Clark. We did a jazz concert. I remember Barney got on the mike and he said, “What town are we in? Oh, wait a minute this is Worcester.” 

This was a typical Barney thing. He would always keep you laughing. He had a million stories. I think a lot of it was because he worked at the train station helping people with their luggage. He had a lot of personality. We did a lot of jobs together and he was an awful lot of fun to be with. Barney and Howie Jefferson were also a great pair to work with.

I seemed to recall him going from Louis Armstrong hits to modern stuff. Was he flexible like that?

He was open to doing anything. I mean, jazz-rock tunes, he’d get in and play it. Barney was good with the swing and the old time blues. He’d get in and do his thing, whether we were doing a Cannonball Adderley tune, “Walk Tall.”

Elwood "Barney" Price

I had a lot of respect for Barney. He may not have been a schooled musician but the guy was a real musician and somebody that I respected. It was for what he was able to do, his entertaining with the people. It’s certainly something I can’t do. Barney, Howie [Jefferson] and Reggie were the three guys.

You have to hear these guys back in their prime to really appreciate them. The problem is some people hear them when they are old and their chops are starting to go and they say, “What’s the big deal with these players?”

This article was first published in Jazzsphere on April 16, 2008.

Note: This is a work in progress. Comments, corrections, and suggestions are always welcome at: walnutharmonicas@gmail.com Also see: www.worcestersongs.blogspot.com  Thank you.