All I know is that Robby and Ricky went to Eddie Condon’s in 1953*. They heard the band — Eddie, Cutty Cutshall, Rex Stewart, Gene Schroeder, Herb Hall, Leonard Gaskin, George Wettling. Someone took a color photograph of the band. They asked Mr. Condon for his autograph, and he kindly obliged. Now it belongs to eBay — and to the unnamed bidder who bought it for $42.00 plus $6.55 shipping. But here it is for your admiration!
WHEE!
And here’s a soundtrack from the same period — Billy Butterfield, Rex, Peanuts Hucko, Herb Hall, Bud Freeman, Cutty Cutshall, and others performing AT THE JAZZ BAND BALL and THAT’S A PLENTY — with the leader’s delicious guitar quite audible in stereo.
*The picture is dated 1953. But I am troubled — mildly — by the memory that the musicians pictured were playing Condon’s in 1958. Could someone have misremembered?
May your happiness increase!
