The False Ducks Blahg

     Let’s not start off this blahg by lamenting the lack of previous blahgs over the past number of months.   I’m on holidays this week and it’s the last official day of those holidays and I’m going to try and get this blahg written.  Yes, it’s mid-September and I’m taking holidays.  We’ve had gorgeous weather this week and I even went to the beach one day.  The photo to the right of me was a selfie taken September 12th at Sandbanks Provincial Park in lovely Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada.  Go ahead, be jealous. 

     Now, before we move on, I want to show you another shot of the beach at Sandbanks from my visit the other day.  You know I’m only doing this to make you all jealous.  The beach was great.  The water was beautiful and there was a sea-gull who bonded with me…as long as I fed him sun chips.  The sun chips were french onion and french seemed to be the theme of the day.  There were other people on the beach who seemed to be french-Canadian.  There were a group of bikini clad millennial who frolicked and  ignored my bird friend and I.  There was also a group of french-Canadians who came to the beach and immediately began singing for about twenty minutes.  As my bird friend philosophized, “it takes all kinds.”

     So, at this point you’re probably wondering about the pirates and if they had anything to do with my visit to the beach.  No, the two are totally unconnected but the pirates do connect to something else, if you’ll only allow me to get there in my own time.  First, let me remind you of a blahg I wrote in November of 2013 called “ZOEY, FRANK, JUNE & ALL THAT JAZZ“.  The blahg was mostly about my cats but there was some information on a new LP that I had found by the Bridge City Dixieland Jazz Band.  It was the only album that they put out and I mentioned that they were formed in 1967 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan here in Canada.  In fact, they were formed for Canada’s Centennial in 1967.  That’s the birthday I want to talk about later.  I know, Canada celebrated its 150th Birthday on July 1st of this year but everything in this blahg will link to Canada’s 100th Birthday in 1967. 

     Back on the 4th of July of this year, and yes I know that would have been a celebration for the USA and not Canada, I received an email with the subject line: “Bridge City Dixieland Jazz Band”.  On opening the email, I read the following: 

I was surprised to say the least.  Someone had not only read my previous blahg but they even had some connection to it.  I quickly wrote back:

At this point, you are probably realizing this is the other blog (or blahg as I like to spell it).  The email dialog continued:

I quickly discovered something when I visited the Facebook page and emailed Tom about it: 

Here’s part of the response: 

There were a couple more emails between us and Tom agreed to send me a copy of the CD.  I won’t paste the artwork because it’s the same as the 1967 album cover above.  The LP had ten tracks but the current CD contains 21 tracks.  Here’s the track lists for comparison: 

LP:

1.    Indiana
2.    Ookpik Ramble
3.    The Birth of The Blues
4.    Muskrat Ramble
5.    Cab Driver
6.    Lonesome Road
7.    Basin Street Blues
8.    American Patrol
9.    Down By The Riverside
10.    Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?

CD:

1.    Muskrat Ramble
2.    At The Jazz Band Ball
3.    Up A Lazy River
4.    Indiana
5.    South Rampart Street Parade
6.    Ookpik Ramble
7.    I Will Wait For You
8.    Lonesome Road
9.    American Patrol
10.    Basin Street Blues
11.    Down By The Riverside
12.    Bridge City Blues
13.    Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?
14.    Washington & Lee Swing
15.    The Birth of The Blues
16.    Ja-Da
17.    Hindustan
18.    Mahogany Hall Stomp
19.    St. Louis Blues
20.    Look What They’ve Done To My Song
21.    Royal Garden Blues

If you compare the two track lists carefully, you will notice that the song “Cab Driver” (made famous by The Mills Brothers) is not on the CD.  I’m not sure why but it’s got a nice vocal so I’m going to post it here: 

Before moving off the topic of Bridge City Dixieland Jazz Band, although I’m not quite finished with it, I’m going to post a couple more great tracks from the CD: 

I WILL WAIT FOR YOU:

SOUTH RAMPART STREET PARADE:

     Now, what about those Pirates, you may well ask.  Well, the Pirates reference is to an LP I picked up this summer called “Pirates, Buccaneers And All That Jazz” by The Pat Riccio Quartet.  Before I get into more about the contents of the LP, I want to talk about the experience behind purchasing this LP.  When I saw it in a thrift shop in Belleville, I immediately recognized the cover but could not remember where I knew it from.  It took some research through my collection at home before I recognized that I had seen the cover for this album on the back cover of the Bridge City Dixieland Jazz Band LP.  Click on the cover to the right and you will see a small image of “Pirates, Buccaneers And All That Jazz” down at the bottom.  That’s my connection between Pirates and Bridge City.  By the way, “Pirates, Buccaneers And All That Jazz” is a fabulous album.  Give a listen to one of their pirate themed songs:

PIRATE’S COVE:

See, I told you the sound was fabulous.  Here’s another track from that LP with a tune that is usually more associated with a Dixieland band: 

WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN:

     As far as I can tell, there have only been a couple of LPs put out by The Pat Riccio Quartet.  There has been “Pirates, Buccaneers And All That Jazz” on the Ringside label (later reissued as “The Basic Sounds Of The Pat Riccio Quartet” on the Quality label) and “The Pat Riccio Quartet Featuring Teddy Wilson” put out by Canadian Talent Library.  I’m going to try and track that one down and post about it when and if I find it.  If you want more from this Quartet then you’ll have to track down the albums yourself or enjoy this video I found of the Pat Riccio Quartet performing on television in the 1960s: 

Okay, before I move off of the music, I’m going to tie everything to Canada’s Birthday.  I mentioned earlier that the “Bridge City Dixieland Jazz Band” was formed in 1967 for Canada’s Centennial.  I think the albums from Bridge City and Pat Riccio came out around 1967 on the Ringside label.  If you look at the back cover of the Pirates LP to the left, you will see small images of other albums put out around the same time on the Ringside label.  The second in from the left on the top row of images is an album called “It’s A Sign Of The Time” by Pete Schofield and the Canadians.  Lo and behold, I had that in my collection as well.  It was purchased at the same thrift store in Belleville where I purchased the albums by Pat Riccio and the Bridge City Dixieland Jazz Band. 

     The album by Pete Schofield and the Canadians is a celebration of Canada that came out in 1967 and even has Canadian themed tracks such as “Canadian Sunset”, “Canada (A Centennial Song)” and “Canadiana”.  Bonus marks go this band for their picture being taken in front of the new City Hall in Toronto that opened in 1965.  I won’t go on about this band but I’m going to post a couple of songs in honor of Canada’s Birthday both in 1967 and 2017.  What a great country that produced great musical talent like those I’ve mentioned in this blahg.  Enjoy “Canada (A Centennial Song)” and “Canadiana”: 

CANADA (A CENTENNIAL SONG)

CANADIANA

‎

     I think I’ll end this blahg here.  I suffered an injury during the writing of this blahg but that’s another story all together.  I hope you enjoyed the Canadian music.  Again, I want to wish Canada a very Happy Birthday.  True North Strong And Free.  We Stand On Guard For Thee!

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 16th, 2017 at 10:21 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.