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 June 2005 Back to Table of Contents Back to Archives Main Page Section: Arts & Letters In Praise of Homegrown Music By Ron Ehmke
At the outset, I thought I had a fairly decent grasp of the city’s extraordinary musical legacy: birthplace of Arlen and Ani and various Goos, stomping grounds of Al Tinney, launch pad for Rick James and Spyro Gyra, hotbed of punk in the late seventies and early eighties, home base to countless provocative bands in the years since then. I moved here in 1982 and spent many memorable evenings in the Little Harlem before it burned to the ground, to say nothing of the Tralf, Nietzsche’s, the Continental, Mohawk Place and dozens of other great live clubs. I was vaguely familiar with the legendary Colored Musicians Club, and I’d seen enough announcements for the annual Pine Grill and Belle Starr reunions to figure out that those two bygone clubs had meant a lot to the people who frequented them. But the best part of working on the issue was discovering how much I didn’t know. Each time one of our writers turned in a story, I learned about another individual or venue from Buffalo’s storied past. I found out about retired schoolteacher Bob Cerone, for instance, who spent his early years playing the string bass in numerous combos around the area. I discovered big-band DJ Ralph Irene and his weekly radio show on WWKB 1520 AM, A Swinging Sunday Morning with Sinatra. And I read about Boyd Jacklin, who makes and repairs stringed instruments for the BPO, bluegrass fiddlers, and even Bob Dylan. Writer Phil Nyhuis’s detailed and fascinating history of jazz in Buffalo may well be the most revelatory of these articles, at least for me. I admit I’m not a particularly devoted fan of that particular music, but his examination of the close ties between jazz, race and class in our community is eye opening. Reading Nyhuis’s descriptions of Sunday jam sessions at the Colored Musicians Club — with both audiences and players lined up down the block waiting to get in — conjures up an incredibly romantic portrait of the years just after World War II, even as he points out that the CMC owed its very existence to the bigotry of the dominant whites-only musicians’ union earlier in the century. Then there are the clubs: Mandy’s, the Vendome, Paradise, the Rhythm Club, Moonglow, Johnny’s Ellicott Grill, the Golden Gloves Lounge, and more, their names collectively creating a poem of urban nightlife. Elsewhere in the issue, we pay tribute to other long-gone venues, including McVan’s, which somehow evolved from a tour stop for the Ink Spots and Gypsy Rose Lee to a home base for the city’s first-generation punk rockers, as well as the Cloister, the Blue Note, Dan Montgomery’s, Leonardo’s — and Stage One, where an upstart named Harvey Weinstein first flexed his muscles as an entrepreneur. Nyhuis also provides his personal top-10 of jazz players with Buffalo roots; I won’t give away the entire list, but you’ll find the likes of Bobby Militello and the Anchor Bar’s Dodo Greene on it, along with drummers Louis Marino (who accompanied Billie Holiday when he was seventeen years old) and Frankie Dunlop (whose résumé includes work with Monk, Mingus, Ellington, and Maynard Ferguson), plus trumpeter Sam Noto (associate of Stan Kenton and Count Basie). Meanwhile, Buff State professor and music historian Chuck Mancuso brings the lives and work of Arlen and his mentor Jack Yellen into clear focus, giving readers a chance to meet the men behind “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” “Stormy Weather,” and “Happy Days are Here Again.” As he details the context from which they emerged, we learn just how many Tin Pan Alley standards owe their existence to composers from Buffalo: “When Irish Eyes are Smiling,” “Bye Bye Blackbird,” “Mona Lisa,” “Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries,” “Buttons and Bows” and on and on. I always knew Western New York had an excess of musical talent, but putting the issue together made it even clearer. This area is blessed with phenomenal amounts of creative energy, and it’s time to sing the praises of the men and women who have shared their gifts with the rest of us for over a century. back to top back to table of contents Current Issue | About Forever Young | Where to Find | Advertise | Our Advertisers | Community Calendar | Contest | Clubs | Contact Us | Archives | Home |
