thelonicaNoch ein Update. Im Buch von Roy Porter ist auf Seite 120 ein Gruppenfoto aus dem Bop City in San Francisco (1951).
Großes Zusammentreffen.
https://books.google.de/books?id=lqHHgmB5l5AC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=chuck%20thompson&f=false
Ah, krass, den post hatte ich uebersehen, danke … schwer zu sagen, wie sich das ins Gesamtbild einfuegt, also, wie der Mann nun wirklich aussah… ich hab auch mal wieder was, Steve Isoardi im Interview mit Clifford Solomon (Tenorist, vor allem bekannt von Ray Charles), waere spannend, das besser datieren zu koennen… er sagt ungefaehr 1958… hier gibt es noch mehr so Interviews
ISOARDI: How long did you stay with Roy Milton?
SOLOMON: A couple of years.
ISOARDI: Why did you leave?
SOLOMON: I got busted. [laughs] In ’57– I don’t know if that was– I know I got busted. I’m not sure if that’s why I didn’t come back.
In ’58, I think, I went to Vegas with Tommy and Evelyn Roberts. We were a lounge act at the Dunes [Hotel]. This was 1958 Las Vegas, which was no different then 1958 Mississippi, you know what I mean? So the drummer, Chuck Thompson, and I– You may remember Chuck Thompson through his work with „Bird“ [Charlie Parker]–
ISOARDI: I certainly know who he was, yeah.
SOLOMON: –Dexter [Gordon] and Hampton Hawes. He was with the Hampton Hawes Trio on the early recordings. So he was a hell of a drummer, jazz drummer. So we were working with– We went to play. So we did the opening night, and we were in the lounge. It was during– What did they call it? Not „Hell’s a-Poppin‘ Week,“ but anyway it was a week that was like a celebration, a centennial-type thing. [Hell Dorado]
You would have these kangaroo courts. They’d put you in a jail, which was like a caboose that was out in the parking lot of the hotel. You know, it was one of those kind of things. So we played the first set. People liked the music. They liked the show, right? So Chuck and I went into the coffee shop to get something to eat. The waitress reluctantly gave us some menus. As soon as we picked them up, this guy came along and took them up. He said that we couldn’t eat in there; we had to go in the kitchen. Chuck and I looked at each other and said, „Okay.“
We went and got my horn. He didn’t even get his drums. We had uniforms on, so we changed the uniform, left them draped over the chair. We didn’t have a dressing room. Wait. No. We wore what we had worked in to work because there was no dressing room. There was nothing for black entertainers. If you wanted to use the rest room you had to go outside behind a trash can or something. It was terrible. So Chuck and I just left. We just quit. We told Tommy, „We can’t stand it. We didn’t come up for this type of bullshit.“ Tommy was mortified. „We can’t play, man. Not under these– Eating in kitchens. You know what I mean. Come on, man.“
So there were two clubs on the west side, which was the black part of Vegas; there was the Louisiana Club and the Town Tavern. Now, this was after the– You heard about the Moulin Rouge hotel that was built?
ISOARDI: Oh, yeah.
SOLOMON: It was there but no business; it didn’t have anything happening. [tape recorder off] These two clubs, the Town Tavern and the Louisiana Club– The musicians that were playing on the Strip under these Jim Crow conditions–like Cab Calloway, Lena Horne, who was– They give Sammy Davis [Jr.] a lot of credit, but Lena Horne was the one that helped break up all that bullshit out there, because she said, „If my people can’t come in then you don’t want me in there.“ She was instrumental in helping to break up that stuff, and she did it in a way where it would be affecting business. She’s a very classy lady and had very great connections and a lot of clout. People say „Sammy Davis.“ Well, maybe he did. Of course, he was so involved in hanging out with the „rat pack.“ He could come in, „Well, I can get in, so too bad.“ But I’ll never forget that Cab Calloway had to change in a trailer. There was Larry Steele’s review. It was very famous in Atlantic City. It was a great review–dancers, singers–Larry Steele’s review. I remember Lena had Chico Hamilton on drums, and George Duvivier was the bass player. I don’t remember the piano player. But there were so many great musicians and great acts in town. Everybody, when they got off, would hang out at the Town Tavern and Louisiana Club, the Town Tavern especially, because they had a little house group. Then all of the musicians would come and sit in. You’ve got a million dollars‘ worth of entertainers, people just sitting in and stretching out.
ISOARDI: Jeez. Nice.
SOLOMON: You could gamble. It was a casino, a light-weight casino. People could gamble. Both of these clubs, but the Town Tavern especially. So the guy that ran the Tavern asked me and Chuck, „Do you guys want to work here?“ We said, „Well, yeah.“ They heard about what happened. He said, „Well, you can work here.“ We didn’t have to be at work till twelve [o’clock]. So we worked there, man. Even though we had left that bigoted scene, we were happy because we were playing. And we were playing with some excellent musicians. Everybody. George Kirby and I used to hang out together. Do you remember the comic, George Kirby?
ISOARDI: Yeah.
SOLOMON: A very funny guy.
ISOARDI: Yeah, I remember him.
SOLOMON: Everybody that worked Vegas would be over– All of the black entertainers would be– And the white ones too, because they didn’t like that crap either. They said, „That’s bullshit.“ So they’d come over to the Tavern and were accepted like anybody else. But on the other hand, you couldn’t– The main reason is because these casinos catered to these Texas oil and cattle millionaires that loved to play poker and craps. They figured that they would object to being in a casino with black people. As it turned out, it didn’t really make any difference; all they wanted to do was play. They didn’t give a shit. The powers that be figured that, „Well, we don’t want to run them off. They’ll leave the Dunes and go over to the Flamingo [Hotel]“ or whatever. It was just this mind-set, just like the record companies. „We’ve got to have it this way. This is the way it is supposed to be.“ Say, „Well, why don’t we try another way? It might work.“
SOLOMON: That’s what we were up against then. So ’58, I was in Vegas. We came back here. The date I don’t remember exactly. I think I got busted again, I’m not sure.
ISOARDI: It was a rough time?
SOLOMON: Yeah, well, I was a user. I wasn’t a crook. „I’m not a crook.“ [laughs] I wasn’t a crook, I was just using, and I would always get busted for possession. But I never did look like I was using, because I was sharp. I didn’t look run-down and raggedy. So that was ’58, ’59. I went away for a couple of years, and when I came back there was no looking back. I came back at the end of ’62, just after Thanksgiving of ’62, and I haven’t looked back since. That’s a long time ago.
ISOARDI: Yeah, very much. Very much so. Not many people can say that.
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