Jim Goodwin, Bob Helm, and Bob Mielke
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Archive for June, 2009
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Jun-11 2009
Barney Google ♪
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Jun-11 2009
Source of Inspiration for the Breda Jazz Festival
0by Joep Peeters
On the eve of the 39th Breda Jazz Festival, the American Cornettist Jim Goodwin passed away, shortly after his 65th birthday anniversary. From 1975 till 1995 he played almost every Breda Jazz Festival, he even lived for some time in Breda. Co-founder of the Festival Joep Peeters considers him as an important source of inspiration. Because of the start of the 39th Jazz Festival tomorrow, today an obituary by Joep Peeters.
The American cornettist Jim Goodwin was to many European musicians a source of inspiration, being an expert in the music that was fairly unknown in Europe, the music we failed to hear when it was there: the (real) American small band swing from the thirties. In 1976 Jim came to Europe for the first time, thanks to soprano saxophonist George Probert. Jim, together with his music friends as where were amongst others Dan Barrett and later on Tom Baker, taught us not to split up jazz in styles and currents as well as not to concentrate too much on stereotyped band line-ups. His phenomenal knowledge of Jazz history and his unique cornet playing, from raw and rough to subdued, but always “lightly and politely”, made him the ideal band leader, though this leadership was completely opposed to his gentle character. The bands varied from duos up till sometimes as many as twelve pieces. Without any form of rehearsal or arrangements. That way the the musicians learned to expose their own individuality, but without being in the way of the others. Collective Improvisation as it should be in the swing tradition. In the USA too, Jim was a shining example to many musicians. He was born and raised in Portland Oregon, but played mostly in California, particularly in Berkeley. He was a professional musician, but during some time he was America’s youngest stockbroker. In later years he was co-proprietor of a small beer factory. Thanks to Jim Goodwin, the Breda Jazz Festival has never become a The Hague-typed Dixieland festival and has maintained its own Classic Swing character. And the unique Duo Special concerts as well as the Festival Jam bands, nowadays called the Festival Surprise Bands, are the impressive heritage he gave to Breda.
Joep Peeters
Jazz Musician -
Jun-10 2009
Deep In The Heart Boogie ♪
0Retta and The Smart Fellas featuring Jim Goodwin
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Jun-06 2009
Great second, man!
0by Edd Dickerman
I was playing with a ‘banjo band’ in a club on Monterey’s Cannery Row – one night a character came up to me on a break and asked if I was Edd Dickerman – I don’t always admit it, but he mentioned mutual friend Ray Skjelbred, so I thought he might be all right. He introduced himself as ‘Jim’ and asked if he might sit in – our bandstand was a flatbed truck from the 20′s parked against one wall – Jim leaned his chair against the wall and warmed up on his cornet quietly for a couple of tunes – then stood up and blew the crap out of that joint. I remember thinking, like Bogart said in Casablanca – “this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship!” and so it was. Jim became a regular at the Warehouse and I remember playing second trumpet with him from time to time – he always said, “Great second, man!”
Years later, when I had returned to the Bay Area, I often played in groups with Jim – he drove an old VW bug that he had decorated in a particularly ‘Jim’ fashion – he had cut the heads out of many photographs of his friends and glued them to the dashboard – as he drove along, there were dozens of his pals, thumb-nail size, looking out into the interior of the car.
One night the owner of the club, who played the washboard with us, mostly on the weekends, made a ‘joke’ that insulted one of Jim’s best friends, ‘Fast Eddie’, who was playing banjo with us. Jim just quietly packed his horn in its case and walked out the door forever. It wasn’t long before I had also had a belly full of that guy and did the same. I found a job at a gas station with a boss I didn’t hate quite as much. Gasoline was 23¢ a gallon in those ‘good old days’!
One afternoon I was working at the gas station, and here come Jim and Fast Eddie – in battered sneakers and ragged tuxedos they’d found at a Goodwill store! When they saw me, they shouted: “National Tuxedo Week, man!” They were on their way to force Bill Dendle to join the movement, wearing his grungy tux for a week, and taping some tunes – I was busy. I was glad to see that they observed that holiday – I’ve never missed this important annual rite.
It has seemed to me that to some degree Jim’s astonishing talent may have been a curse in his later life – he had been able to survive without developing any other skills, never being reduced to flipping MacBurgers or wielding a broom or shovel – we had a great laugh when he told me that his folks wanted him to be a stockbroker – difficult to imagine a career more incongruous for a spirit like Jim’s. I told him once that he could put together a band with almost anyone he wanted with his stature in the jazz community – he shuddered at the suggestion of assuming that responsibility. He was able to spend his life, enviably, having FUN with his music and his musical pals.
