{"id":1224,"date":"2018-11-18T10:22:45","date_gmt":"2018-11-18T04:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/falseducks.com\/theblahg\/?p=1224"},"modified":"2023-05-01T00:17:12","modified_gmt":"2023-04-30T18:17:12","slug":"the-jazz-band-that-wasnt-but-was","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/falseducks.com\/theblahg\/?p=1224","title":{"rendered":"THE JAZZ BAND THAT WASN’T…BUT WAS!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 It’s about time I wrote this blahg.<\/span><\/strong>\"\"<\/a> Let me say that I think this blahg will practically write itself…which it probably should if it has to wait around for me.\u00a0 Let me also say what I won’t talk about in this blahg.\u00a0 I won’t comment on Doug Ford being elected as the new Premier of Ontario and how he and his party are rife with scandal and are attacking the working class and poor and disenfranchised of this Province.\u00a0 No, I won’t talk about that.\u00a0 I also won’t go on and on about my problems with my Father’s health and how he’s been home twice since October 15th and back again and how Belleville General Hospital had him on the mat with a count of 9 with us all around expecting him to lose the fight.\u00a0 Didn’t happen.\u00a0 He’s better and ornery and I hope to have him home again next week.\u00a0 I’m not talking about that though.\u00a0 This blahg is back to the music and an interesting story about a a dixieland jazz band that was but wasn’t.\u00a0 I know, I flipped the title.\u00a0 Read on and you’ll find out why.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Earlier this year, at a thrift store in Kingston, I picked up a jazz band record that looked very interesting.\u00a0 \"Dixieland<\/a>It was Dixieland played by The Left Bank Bearcats on the Reo label (this is probably a Canada label and in the USA the record was issued on the Sommerset label).\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>I had never heard of the band but the front cover and the description on the back cover sounded interesting.\u00a0 If you click on the back cover image to the right, you will get the description of the band.\u00a0 Here’s the description from the back cover:\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Paris and New Orleans.\u00a0 Both of these cities suggest about the same things to the traveler and the dreamer; Gayiety, food, the spice of naughtiness and music.<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s small wonder that Parissiennes have taken to the greatest of all New Orleans commodities; Jazz.\u00a0 The urban Frenchman always expresses himself in a free and uninhibited manner and yet never loses his identity as a Frenchman.\u00a0 Is this not so of Dixieland?\u00a0 Remain harmonious and sympathetic to the group, but never conform to preconceived pattern.\u00a0 This is Jazz \u2013 This is Paris.<\/h3>\n

The romance of the Left Bank with all its color and excitement has an individual quality that sets it apart from the rest of Paris just as the French quarter in New Orleans is unlike any place in any American City.\u00a0 The Left Bank Bearcats are a group of young French jazz devotees that play the various small cafes and bistros of Monmarte.\u00a0 Except for Marcel Durand, the leader (and trombonist) no member of the group has ever had any formal musical training.\u00a0 Jacques Cas the drummer worked four years as a deck hand aboard a French luxury liner and spent every off duty moment with the ship’s orchestra at rehearsals.<\/h3>\n

Bernard Gast\u00e9 \u00a0plays piano, Robert Eluist banjo, Louis Marquant guitar.\u00a0 Aron Dubois, the trumpeter, is an ardent fan of Louis Armstrong and boasts the largest personal collection of \u201cSatchmo\u201d recordings on the continent.\u00a0 These sides were made after closing hours at Maison Diabolique.\u00a0 They were recorded under the supervision of D.L. Miller.<\/h3>\n

Whether you are a student at Sobornne, a tourist, gendarme or just a darn fussy record collector, we\u2019re certain you will enjoy the Left Bank Bearcats in Dixieland.\u00a0 Cover art by Joe Krush.<\/h3>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I can only tell you that I was very intrigued when reading the back cover of the LP.\u00a0 A mysterious french band doing New Orleans style jazz?\u00a0 Recorded after hours at the Maison Diabolique?\u00a0 Who were these guys?\u00a0 I had to know more.\u00a0 First, here’s a sample of one of the songs from the LP.\u00a0 I wanted to choose something that swings and wasn’t one of the traditional songs you hear on most Dixieland Jazz LPs:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

CHINATOWN, MY CHINATOWN<\/h4>\n\nhttp:\/\/www.falseducks.com\/theblahg\/audiofiles\/ChinatownLBB.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some research online brought me more information about the band.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>They had recorded 3 LPs on the Sommerset label.\u00a0 I had the first and was able to track down “The Left Bank Bearcats Take George M. Cohan to Dixieland”.\u00a0 \"<\/a>On the rear cover of that record was a little more about the band.\u00a0 Some of the description of the band and their backgrounds and interests is lifted right from the back of the first LP and we also find out that they’re still under the direction of D.L. Miller and the cover art is once again by Joe Krush:\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dixieland is as purely American as the Eifel Tower is French.\u00a0 However, while Dixieland itself was born and developed here, the appetite for this happy music has not been confined to our shores.\u00a0 As stompin\u2019 evidence of its popularity overseas, we present this program of dixie all the way by a group of Parisian jazz devotees \u2013 The Left Bank Bearcats.\u00a0 This is the second Long Play record of the Bearcats released on Somerset.\u00a0 Their first release, \u201cThe Left Bank Bearcats in Dixieland\u201d (Somerset P-1400), has racked up such an impressive sales figure that we found ourselves back in Maison Diabolique laying down more tapes after hours.<\/h3>\n

The Left Bank Bearcats are a group of young french jazz devotees that play the various small cafes and bistros Monmartre.\u00a0 Except for Marcel Durand, the leader (and trombonist) no member of the group has ever had any formal musical training.\u00a0 Jacques Cas the drummer worked four years as a deck hand aboard a French luxury liner and spent every off duty moment with the ships orchestra at rehearsals.<\/h3>\n

Bernard Gast\u00e9 plays piano, Robert Eluist banjo, Louis Marquant guitar.\u00a0 Aron Dubois, the trumpeter, is an ardent fan of Louis Armstrong and boasts the largest personal collection of \u201cSatchmo\u201d recordings on the continent.<\/h3>\n

This collection of George M. Cohan songs (except for one original by J. Kuhn, Jr.\u2014\u201cIt\u2019s George With Joe\u201d) has been causing no end of packed performances at the Diabolique.\u00a0 Cohan was most certainly one of our greatest song writers.\u00a0 He was as uncomplicated a person as the wonderful songs he wrote.\u00a0 He was loved by his contemporaries while alive, as much as his songs are loved after his leaving us.<\/h3>\n

We reel that tunes and performance of this calibre will be with us a long time.\u00a0 After all, it is the good things that last.<\/h3>\n

Recording under direction of D. L. Miller at Maison Diabolique.\u00a0 Remote audio mix G. Berliot.\u00a0 Cover art Joe Krush.<\/h3>\n

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Give a listen to the original song from this LP, “It’s George (M. That Is) With Joe”:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.falseducks.com\/theblahg\/audiofiles\/GeorgeJoeLBB.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, so we didn’t really learn a great deal more about the band from the cover of the second album.\u00a0\"the<\/a> In fact, we don’t learn much more either with the release of the third album “the Left Bank Bearcats in Hi-Fi!” which was also released as “the Left Bank Bearcats in ‘Stereo’ “.\u00a0 Here’s what we get from the back cover: <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Due to the many requests since the first two releases, we returned to the Maison Diabolique, and not only give you more of the Left Bank Bearcats Dixieland, but give it to you both in high fidelity and stereophonic sound!<\/h3>\n

For those of you that haven\u2019t met the group until now, they are all young French jazz devotees who (with the exception of Marchel Durand) have never had formal musical training.\u00a0 Monsier Durand (leader and trombonist) and his group play the various small cafes and bistros Monmarte.\u00a0 Jacques Cas, former French liner deck hand on drums, Robert Eluist on banjo, Bernard Gast\u00e9 on piano, Louis Marquant on guitar, \u201cSatchmo\u201d Armstrong fan, Aron Dubois on trumpet, and Jacques Bonner on clarinet, were the original men, and since out last recording another has joined their midst.\u00a0 Jon Gautreaux was formerly a classical bass player, who, for undisclosed personal reasons left the concert halls and started sitting in on the Monmarte sessions.\u00a0 Needless to say, he found the tuba more his forte and is now a regular Bearcat member.<\/h3>\n

Again these sides were made after hours and again the Left Bank Bearcats give you Dixieland \u201ctres magnifique\u201d.<\/h3>\n

Recording under the direction of D.L. Miller.\u00a0 Cover art by Will Dressler.<\/h3>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>So, we still don’t know much more about the band but John Gautreaux has joined on tuba and Will Dressler has done the artwork.\u00a0 You can click on the rear cover on the left which is in fact the rear cover of the “the Left Bank Bearcats in ‘Stereo’ ” and not the Hi-Fi version.\u00a0 I haven’t tracked down that LP but I have been able to get the audio files so I’ll offer up one from that third record in the ‘Stereo’ version.\u00a0 This time it’s “Good News on Bourbon St.”\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.falseducks.com\/theblahg\/audiofiles\/GoodNewsLBB.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At this point, I still had questions.\u00a0 What happened to the band?\u00a0 Why only three albums?\u00a0 Where was this famous Maison Diabolique?\u00a0 The answers to these questions will surprise you.\u00a0 The fact is, the band wasn’t a french band at all and there was no Maison Diabolique.\u00a0 It was all lies.\u00a0 In researching the band, I came across two videos that explained the truth behind the Left Bank Bearcats.\u00a0 The first is an interview with Al Leopold who was the real trombonist on the three albums.\u00a0 On the albums he was credited as Marcel Durand.\u00a0 Have a listen to his interview:\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n