Jazz Riffing on a Lost Worcester

Friday, March 15, 2013

The Notable Johnny Rines

By David "Chet" Williamson Sneade

Guitarist Johnny Rines

He was a guitar player’s guitar player. Not one to wow you with flashy licks, but give support with choice chordal accompaniment. He was a selfless player whose styling and phrasing made many a soloist sound great.

He was Johnny Rines. Although not publicly well-known, jazz guitar players throughout the Central New England recall lessons learned from hearing him play.

Rines was a stage name. His real name was John P. Rynkowski, and according to the 1940 US Federal Census, he was born in Webster, MA on May 12, 1919.

Spanning his 40 year-career, the guitarist worked with local ensembles, regionally with territory bands, and with a score of national acts. He was best known for his 22-year-stint with Emil Haddad and the Noteables.

Clockwise from top left, Eddie Defino, Emil Haddad, Johnny Mason and Johnny Rines.

Rines was also a highly regarded teacher. The Webster Times once reported that, “a generation of young guitarists studied under him.” For years he taught at Perry Conte’s studio on Front Street and later at Guido Forchelli’s at 14 Portland Street in Worcester.

“I studied with him now and then, occasionally, when I was in high school,” said guitarist Steve Cancelli. “Most of my studying with John, however, was talking to him and going out to hear him play on the bandstand.

Guitarist Steve Cancelli

“Like, on the break I’d say, ‘What is that chord you played on that song.’ So, on the bandstand he’d play that chord and look right at me. I’d say, ‘Okay.’ So, I learned a lot from him just by listening.”

According to Cancelli, Rines mostly played an L5 with the P90 pickups with the black covers. “It’s a real collector’s item today,” he said. “He played through an Ampeg Jet amp. It was the best sound. He later went on to a Guild Artist Award.”

Guitarist Rines here with Epiphone Delux and a vintage Sano Amplifier

Virtually a lifetime member of the Worcester Local Musician’s Union, Rines’ early work was doing general business dates throughout the Webster area. He also played in local nightclubs such as the Happy Hour and the Top Hat with boyhood friend, Tony Lada Sr., a trumpeter. His son Tony Jr., a respected Berklee College of Music educator, also recalls Rines as “a fine player, very knowledgeable and well-respected.”

“He loved George Van Eps, the seven string player,” Cancelli said. “He actually introduced me to his great record called the Mellow Guitar. George was a master of playing inside, moving voices within the chord structures. John was into that. He used to move the voices like good a pianist. Beautiful. That was the first time I heard anybody locally do that.”

George Van Eps

Band leader and trombonist Dick Bellerose gave the guitarist his stage name, Johnny Rines. Bellerose played in the Jimmy Dorsey band and later with Hines in the Gene Broadman Orchestra, a territory band the barnstormed throughout the Southern New England region. Rines was a teenager at the time.

According to Webster’s Edward Mrozinski, it was the Broadman band that was scheduled to play at the fabled Mohegan Dance Pavilion the week it burned down.

See: www.oldewebster.com

During WWII, according to The Webster Times, Rines, “served in the U.S. Navy. He was assigned to a Navy band, backing many name acts that entertained service men at Navy bases around the country.”

After the war, Rines, using the G.I. Bill, enrolled in the Schillinger House, which later became Berklee College of Music. He also continued his gigging schedule locally, including with the Worcester-based Dol Brissette Studio Orchestra, a band that was featured regularly on WTAG – AM 580.

In 1950, Rines joined a trio, led by accordionist, Johnny Mason. In 1953, he helped to form the first version of the legendary Noteables, with Mason, trumpeter Emil Haddad, bassist Eddie Defino, and drummer Eddie “Sham” Shamgochian.

The Noteables were one of the more successful bands the Worcester area has ever seen. So popular, that they didn’t take a vacation for 18 years. They played six and seven night a week for more than 20 years.

Rines, Haddad, and Defino in action

The most consistent line up of the group featured guitarist Rines, Defino, Mason, and Haddad, who sang and played trumpet, a little bass, and cocktail drums.

The Noteables and unidentified singer

According to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reporter Walter Crockett, the Noteables began working at the Red Top on Rte. 9 in Shrewsbury, “then moved to Toni Toscano's 371 Club on Park Avenue…. The Note-ables spent three years and a month at the 371 Club. Then they were off to Nicolena's on Shrewsbury Street. Then back to the 371 for three and a half years, then off to Framingham. Johnny Mason left around 1960 to play on cruise ships, but the Note-ables continued as a trio, their popularity unflagging.”

During their impressive shelf-life, the band played a number of rooms up and down Rte. 9. Webster trombonist Tony Lada, Jr. recalls seeing them at the Framingham Motor Inn. “I was playing Monticello’s [a showcase also in metrowest] after my show I would jump in the car and drive to the Inn just to sit-in with Emil.”

Another Rte. 9 venue was the Indian Meadows in Westboro. Radio announcer Johnny Most, known as “The Voice of the Boston Celtics,” and player/coach K.C. Jones were regulars.

In the book, High Above Courtside: The Lost Memoir of Johnny Most, the broadcaster recalled how he and Jones would visit various nightclubs in the greater Boston area. One in particular was the Meadows. This was in the 1959 office season.

Jones (front row, nearest to the camera during his playing days

“As we sat listening to the Noteables, a jazz trio from Worcester, KC would softly sing along,” Most wrote. “I was so impressed with the quality of his voice, that I asked the horn player, Emil Haddad, to invite KC to the stage to sing a number or two. KC was very shy and didn’t really want to sing in front of hundreds of people. ‘Please give it a shot. You’ve got as good voice as a lot of professional I’ve heard,’ I encouraged him.

Paul Holmberg (standing), Haddad, Jones and unidentified woman

“Finally KC went up and performed a couple of ballads. At the end of each song, he received a standing ovation and even did an encore at the insistence of Haddad and the entire audience. From that night on, KC became a welcomed, regular, non-paid performer at the Meadows.”

The Noteables would often invite guests to sit-in with the group. And no doubt, because of Rines’ self-less support and musicality, the accompaniment was more than complimentary.

Bill Leavitt

Rines was very good friends with the late William Leavitt, who was a longtime Berklee educator. He wrote a series of instructional books that continues to school countless guitar students both in and out of the school.

“If John couldn’t make a gig, they would get Bill Leavitt,” Cancelli said. “He was a very smart player. One night when John was playing Bill Leavitt came to see him. After listening to him for two sets he said to Johnny Rines, ‘You know I’ve been analyzing your playing and you play everything like an arrangement. It’s very deliberate.”

After leaving the Noteables in the early 1970s, Rines worked in a trio with Defino for a couple of years and later formed a trio with Ken Barrett called, the Bermuda Triangle.

“I never heard anyone do it any better than Johnny,” Cancelli said. “John could play a few notes and just knock you out, because he played the right notes. He was really unique. He had a different style. He was a very much underrated player in Worcester.”

Rines died in Worcester on March 24, 1977. He was 57. He is buried in St. Joseph’s Cemetery, Old Worcester Road, Webster.

This is a work in progress. Send all comments to: walnutharmonicas@gmail.com.

Resources

A special thank you to Carla Manzi of Olde Webster for her kind assistance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBg9rYyC2uo

http://www.alisdair.com/educator/williamgleavitt.html

http://search.proquest.com.ezwx.ez.cwmars.org:58000/news/docview/268447127/13C5D2871B46828085A/223?accountid=31200

http://www.jazzhistorydatabase.com/blog-chet/?p=22

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAVNmlZeY1w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHE6FSeWuLQ

http://search.proquest.com.ezwx.ez.cwmars.org:58000/news/docview/268522648/13C5D2871B46828085A/215?accountid=31200

http://search.proquest.com.ezwx.ez.cwmars.org:58000/news/docview/268698355/13C5D483D70510C3C03/4?accountid=31200

Friday, March 8, 2013

Dreaming in a dream; the Ray Cully story

By David "Chet" Williamson Sneade

Ray Cully and his wife Jeanette, courtesy of Gail (Cully) Middleton

He was born into one of the most famous families that Worcester has ever produced. His older brother Wendell was a trumpet player who worked with among many others, Count Basie. His sister, Zara was an actress, best known for her role in the “Jeffersons.”

Although he is the lesser known sibling, his story is every bit as compelling, and one that should be told. His name was Raymond “Ray” Mansfield Culley, a distinguished jazz drummer, arranger, singer and songwriter. His stage name was Ray Cully.

Downtown Worcester, circa 1920

He is often credited with giving his brother his immaculate sense of timing. As Eugene Chadbourne noted in the All Music Guide, “Perhaps the trumpeter's ease with all tempos was developed early on through his relationship with his brother Ray Culley, a drummer. Both were members of various local bands in Worcester, Massachusetts in the second half of the '20s.”

Brother Wendell's photo from the 1925 Commerce High School Yearbook

Ray was born on October 20, 1907, a little more than 9 months after Wendell. He was the 11th child born to a Nora (Gilliam) Culley, who is said to have given birth to more than 20 children. His father, Ambrose E. Cully, worked as a chauffer for the Higgins family, one of the city’s most wealthy.

The Cully homestead at 74 Mulbery Street, Worcester

It should be said that all of the Cully children were notable. Nora Jr., and Catherine were jazz singers in New York. And, Hannah was a pianist and yet another sister, Agnes Cully, was Marian Anderson’s personal fashion designer.

Hannah Cully Brown

The Cullys were a musical family and active at the old African Methodist Episcopal Church on Belmont Street, where the father was the musical director of the local Jubilee Singers.

Although early documentation is hard to track, Ray’s Worcester music work was possibly filling in with bands such as Mamie Moffits and her Five Jazz Hounds, The Nitehawks, and with saxophonist Sydney Grant.

Mamie Moffitt's 5 Jazz-Hounds. Wendell and Ray Cully possibly filled in as substitutes in 1920s

Grant’s niece, Jackie Boyette recalled that Cully was not only a musical colleague, but friend of the family. “Ray Culley and his wife were often in our home with their son, Raymond M. Culley, Jr. I recently found a 5th grade photo of Ray Jr. in my deceased uncle’s memorabilia.”

In the late 1920s, early ‘30s, Cully headed for Boston where both he and his brother Wendell worked with the highly acclaimed pianist, bandleader, arranger, Preston “Sandy” Sandiford.

In an interview in the music magazine, Whiskey, Women and..., Sandiford said, “In that band then was Howard Johnson on first alto…. We also had Wendell Cully, a trumpet player. I can't remember the tuba player's name. The drummer was Ray Cully or "Leggy" Taylor, and Buster Tolliver was on tenor.”

Sandiford also mentioned how the band did a great deal of “general gig work,” around Boston. “We played every club you can think of around here… . I played the swinging belt of clubs on Massachusetts Avenue and the hotels downtown, and made guest appearances at the Latin Quarter.”

In addition to his work with Sandiford, Culley may have also played in the George Tynes Georgia Cotton Pickers. According to one Boston listing, his bands included such musicians, as trumpeter Ray Culley (sic), which could be a misprint, and really be Wendell.

In the 1930s into the ‘40s, Cully played with trumpeter Bobby Booker who led a band based out of New York City. In an interview with David Griffiths for his book, Hot Jazz: From Harlem to Storyville, Booker said, “I worked up in Glen Falls at the Royal Pines with R.Q. Dickenson and Ray Culley, also a local piano player named Tucker Smith and the bass player from the Missourians. I used to stick my horn out the window and blow at the cars passing along the highway.”

Ray Cully, Central Park West, NY, 1940s

Bandleader Bobby Booker

Tadd Dameron

After working in a variety of shows, Booker organized a new group in 1939-40 with Tadd Dameron, saxophonist Stanley Payne, Ray Cully on drums, and “the famous Baby Laurence singing and dancing,” he said. Booker also noted that the group worked an extended engagement at Murrain's, a lounge and cabaret on 132nd Street in New York.

Dancer Baby Laurence

Ray Cully in Central Park in the 1940s

In the late 1940s, Cully reconnected with old friend Roger Quincey “R.C.” Dickerson; whom he had first worked with in the Bobby Booker Band. Dickerson had toured with Wilson Robinson’s Bostonians, played the Cotton Club, and later with Cab Calloway. According to Wikipedia, the trumpeter left the band in 1931 and quit music altogether becoming a cab driver, but “recorded again in 1949 accompanying a singer named Ray Cully.”

Before leaving Calloway, Dickerson recorded on many of the bandleader’s biggest hits, including “Minnie the Moocher,” where he sat in the trumpet section along side Wendell Culley.

Another item of interest is the fact that he lived in Glen Falls, New York where the Bobby Booker Band with Cully, Dameron and Laurence had played.

Cully was married to Jeanette Arnold, whom it met while gigging in Albany. The couple had three children, two girls (Gail and Karen), and a son, Ray Jr.

“My dad was in his late forties before we were born,” said Gail (Cully) Middleton. “I was born in 1956 …. By the mid 1960s, I think my dad’s musical career was finished. Before any of us kids came along, my parents lived in Saranac Lake, NY. I found a business card that my dad used to contact “Ray Cully’s Celebrity Orchestra.” The address on the card is 81 Broadway, Saranac Lake, N.Y.”

Ray Cully's Celebrity Orchestra

Sometime in the mid-50s, the family moved to Brooklyn. In 1961, Cully recorded with the legendary Victoria Spivey. The blues queen, whose career had spanned four decades, had left show business for a time in the 1950s, but continued singing in church. In the sixties, she returned the mainstream music scene with a duet recording of her tune, “Queen V. Souvenir” with Cully on drums. The release set in motion her resurgence. From her Brooklyn home the singer launched her own record label, Spivey Records. One of the label’s first releases featured Bob Dylan.

Blues queen Victoria Spivey

“I remember Victoria,” Gail said. “She visited us more than once, and made enough of an impression on me that I remember her quite vividly. She was a drama queen. All of the videos I saw reminded me of the lady I had met -- very melodramatic, with an exaggerated eye roll. This was Victoria, not just a stage presence. It tickled me to see her in the videos. She is exactly as I remember her. We had quite a few Victoria Spivey recordings, 78’s I think.”

Gail recalls her dad as, “a gentle, funny, loving father. He kept us entertained and engaged,” she said. Dad once took us to see Lionel Hampton perform on the vibraphone at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He said that he had played with Hampton, but did not elaborate about it.

Lionel Hampton on drum

“By the time I was old enough to know he was a musician, he wasn’t working anymore. I remember his drums and cymbals, but they were almost always packed up in their cases. He did not play them at our apartment. He would sometimes bang out rhythms on the kitchen table.

When asked what her father did for a living after quitting music, Gail said, “My dad was a jack of all trades. I remember him doing some re-upholstery work in our apartment. He was a good cook. He did lot’s of odd jobs, one summer or two he was somehow connected with a Brooklyn-based, youth marching band.”

Gail (Cully) Middleton

Though he walked away from the music business – as did his brother Wendell -- Ray Cully remained a creative person. “He had a wonderful imagination,” Gail said. “He could sketch, and would draw pictures of us when we were little. He mentored at least one young singer. She used to come to our apartment and sing. Dad would play piano.

“He wrote songs for us too. We had a small console piano in the house. Dad could play and would play and sing songs for us. There was sheet music and records that my dad had cut, which I suspect were self-produced. I distinctly remember two songs that my dad recorded, “Really, Dear,” and “Baby Don’t You Dream Too Much.”

The New York Public Library has an audio tape as part of the Hatch-Billops collection of interviews with musician talking about their lives and careers. Those interviewed include, James Reese Europe, Alvin Batiste, Eubie Blake, and Ray Cully.

DOB: October 20, 1907 (Worcester)

DOD: March 8, 1977 (Brooklyn, New York)

This is a work in progress. Send all comments to: walnutharmonicas@gmail.com Thank you.

Resources

Special thanks to Gail (Cully) Middleton, Ray Cully, Jr., and Yvette Porter Moore

http://books.google.com/books?id=9UVjAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA489&dq=Ray+Cully&hl=en&sa=X&ei=PC0YUbDxOKqK0QGW7oDQBA&ved=0CEsQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=Ray%20Cully&f=false

http://books.google.com/books?id=Ai9jAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA876&dq=Raymond+Cully&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Ey4YUZjbJOrQ0wHX8YAg&ved=0CD4Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Raymond%20Cully&f=false

Victoria Spivey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ06tV2QnVQ

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSvcid=174057&GRid=60250813&

Interview New York Public Library

http://www.worldcat.org/title/hatch-billops-collection-taped-interviews-of-musicians/oclc/82086039

Tadd Dameron -- http://www.tadddameron.com/?s=Bobby+Booker&submit=Search

http://nejazz.org/pdf/PrestonSandiford.pdf

http://books.google.com/books?id=TH_wj7WCaNsC&pg=PA157&lpg=PA157&dq=Ray+Culley&source=bl&ots=IOGzGS8hLe&sig=JjF_MzYLrPIjbigq_Z3pAb_5UtU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=JfYZUJmdF-q26wH4hYC4Dg&ved=0CE0Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=Ray%20Culley&f=false

http://www.redhotjazz.com/spivey.html

http://www.keeponliving.at/artist/victoria_spivey.html

http://www.nejazz.org/prestonSandiford1983.php

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=60300312

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/wendell-culley-mn0000194415

http://www.thecullyfamily.com/2011/12/raymond-mansfield-cully-proof-that-he.html

http://rootdigger2011.com/2011/08/30/raymond-and-jeanette-cully-recollections-from-betty-peters/

http://ml.islandnet.com/pipermail/dixielandjazz/2010-February/063619.html

R.C. Dickerson

http://books.google.com/books?id=eTysFVY-i7UC&pg=PA130&lpg=PA130&dq=Roger+Quincey+Dickerson&source=bl&ots=6lBfndUaFT&sig=sQiduv91y0akJuyP4dCtuep2k6U&hl=en&sa=X&ei=nRYuUfXPLY600QH8oYDoBg&ved=0CFYQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Roger%20Quincey%20Dickerson&f=false

See: Big Band Jazz by Albert McCarthy mentions Ray

Zara Cully Brown -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zara_Cully

Baby Laurence -- http://www.atdf.org/awards/laurence.html

Jazzsphere

http://www.jazzhistorydatabase.com/blog-chet/?p=19

Family history

http://rootdigger2011.com/tag/geneablogger/

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=60250077

http://www.thecullyfamily.com/2011/10/research-day-one-higgins-family-wendell.html

http://rootdigger2011.com/page/3/?s=agnes+cully

http://bostonjazzscene.blogspot.com/2009/12/musiciansthe-major-contributors.html

http://www.nejazz.org/prestonSandiford1983.php

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Big Noise from Millbury

By David "Chet" Williamson Sneade

Drummer Nick Fatool

He should be hailed as a hometown hero. During the big band era, Millbury-born Nick Fatool played on many of the biggest hits of the day, while performing with the likes of Claude Thornhill, Benny Goodman, and Artie Shaw.

Still, most folks in town ask, "Nick who?" One explanation for his lack of local notoriety is that the Fatool family left town early in the drummer's life.

Downtown Millbury, circa 1950

Another reason is his name. In the registry of births in the Millbury town hall, Fatool's first is listed as Albert, not Nick. His father is listed as Saleem Fatool, a "dry goods dealer." His mother is Kahkab Shahmay. Both parents are listed as being from

Syria

and living on North Main Street.

From the Great Worcester Directory, note Saleem listed as farmer

As far as Albert being changed to Nick, no history is known. It may have been a middle name that the drummer preferred. According to Who's Who in Rhode Island Jazz, Fatool was a student at Cranston High School and studied with George Ball.

Inquiring about the drummer, Lisa Zalwadzki, the school's librarian said, "I found only one mention of Nick Fatool in the Cranston H.S. yearbooks. He is in the group shot of the band in 1931 Cranstonian. I checked multiple yearbooks both before and after this date with no luck. He doesn't seemed to have graduated from Cranston High. I also checked the Cranston newspaper for that time frame. There were lists of graduates, but his name was not among them."

Fatool gained his first professional experience working in bands in Providence. In his memoir, First Trumpet: The Road to Broadway and Hollywood, childhood friend Max Herman, wrote about the drummer stating, “Nick Fatool was a great drummer and a good friend. He was also about the same age as Bobby Hackett, and, as youngsters, we all played together in many bands in the Providence area. Nick always had an ambition to play with Benny Goodman, and Bob Crosby was my goal." (Both musicians accomplished their objectives.)

Bobby Hackett

Author Jack Bradley wrote about Hackett’s early days in Providence. This should give you a sense of Fatool’s activity at the time: “Bobby Hackett, one of nine children, was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island. At an early age he played the ukulele and by the time he was twelve played guitar and violin, and had bought his first cornet. He left high school after his freshman year to take a steady job with a band that performed seven days a week at the Port Arthur -- a local Chinese restaurant. He also played guitar regularly at the Rhodes and the Arcadia ballrooms which often broadcasted on Providence radio.”

In his feature on Fatool in Modern Drummer, Bruce Klauber said, “At the age of 22, Nick decided that living in New York City was necessary for anyone serious about the music business, and once he made the move, he performed with the bands of Joe Haymes, George Hall, and Don Bestor.”

The rest is well documented rhythm history. In his book, Swing, Scott Yanow's wrote: “Fatool spent the swing era playing swinging and supportive drums for the big bands of Joe Haymes (1937), George Hall (Taft Hotel 1938). In Dallas, Texas with The Don Bestor Band (summer 1938), Benny Goodman (May 1939- July ‘40), Artie Shaw (1940-41), Claude Thornhill before Les Brown , Jan Savitt, Alvino Rey (1942-1943), and Eddie Miller (1943).

“He worked in the studios for decades but gained his greatest fame playing with Dixieland bands, mostly on the West Coast. Fatool worked with Matty Matlock, appeared at Dixieland festivals, and was part of several Bob Crosby reunion bands starting in the late 1950s. He played in New Orleans with Pete Fountain (1962-65), worked with Phil Harris and Bob Crosby in Las Vegas (1969-’73), spent the 1970s and ‘80s working in the Los Angeles area with artists such as Matty Matlock, Dick Cary, Stan Hasselgard, and Peanuts Hucko.”

To give you a sense of Fatool’s ability and style, here’s fellow percussionist Chet Falzerano's take on the Millbury-born drummer: “Nick personified for me what Benny Goodman was always looking for in the back of his head. Benny was very particular about drummers…. Fatool wasn’t a flamboyant soloist, but boy what he did in a rhythm section. It’s magic really. Benny knew it. He said, ‘This is what a drummer should sound like when he is playing in a band.’”

Falzerano is the author of Gretsch Drums: The Legacy of That Great Gretsch Sound. Continuing his notes on Fatool he said, “Fatool did the same thing in the Artie Shaw band. Everything he did was in the right place.”

Klauber echoed that sentiment: “Stylistically, Fatool wasn’t an innovator on the scale of Jo Jones or Sid Catlet, nor was he a technical marvel a la Gene Krupa or Buddy Rich – although he listened to them all and was especially inspired by Ray Bauduc. Fatool came in and did his job with a minimum of fuss. And what jobs they were.”

Fatool with Hoagy Charmichael

Credits

Film: Appeared in the film and soundtrack of Pete Kelly’s Blues (1959), The Five Pennies, and is seen with Artie Shaw in Second Chorus (1942) and The Man I Love (1946).

Television: “The Bing Crosby Show,” and the “Pete Kelly’s Blues Television Series.

Recorded with: Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Lionel Hampton, Rosemary Clooney, Nat Cole, Charlie Christian, Jack Teagarden, Pete Fountain, Bob Crosby, and Juan Tizol, among many others.

Select recordings include: Coast Concert with Bobby Hackett, Spirituals to Swing, “Put your Dreams Away” by Frank Sinatra, “God Bless the Child” with Billie Holiday, the Solo Flight recordings of Charlie Christian.