Lu Watters & Yerba Buena Jazz Band - Maxi Single

Lu Watters & the Yerba Buena Jazz Band is the name of an American

traditional jazz Trad jazz, short for "traditional jazz", is a form of jazz in the United States and Britain in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, played by musicians such as Chris Barber, Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball, Ken Colyer and Monty Sunshine, based on a reviva ...

revival band founded by

Lu Watters Lucius Carl Watters (December 19, 1911 – November 5, 1989) was a trumpeter and bandleader of the Yerba Buena Jazz Band. Jazz critic Leonard Feather said, “The Yerba Buena band was perhaps the most vital factor in the reawakening of public i ...

in 1940.

Yerba Buena Yerba buena or hierba buena is the Spanish name for a number of aromatic plants, most of which belong to the mint family. ''Yerba buena'' translates as "good herb". The specific plant species regarded as ''yerba buena'' varies from region to regi ...

was the original name of

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. Notable members included singer and banjoist

Clancy Hayes Clarence Leonard Hayes (November 14, 1908 – March 13, 1972) was an American jazz vocalist and banjo player. Early life Hayes was born in Caney, Kansas, on November 14, 1908. As a child, he learned the drums, then switched to guitar and banjo. ...

, clarinetist Bob Helm, trumpeter

Bob Scobey Robert Alexander Scobey Jr. (December 9, 1916 – June 12, 1963) was an American jazz trumpet player of traditional or Dixieland music based originally in the San Francisco area and later in Chicago, Illinois. He was born in Tucumcari, New Mex ...

, trombonist

Turk Murphy Melvin Edward Alton "Turk" Murphy (December 16, 1915 – May 30, 1987) was an American trombonist and bandleader, who played traditional and Dixieland jazz. Biography He was born in Palermo, California, United States. Murphy served in the Navy ...

, tubist/bassist

Dick Lammi Dick Lammi (January 15, 1909 – November 29, 1969) was an American jazz tubist and bassist associated with Dixieland jazz. Lammi played violin and banjo early in his career, and played as a banjoist in various groups in the Pacific Northwest in ...

, and Watters himself. In the late 1930s, cornetist Lu Watters was playing commercial dance gigs in the San Francisco area. He went on tour across America with the Carol Lofner big band. While in New Orleans, he became interested in traditional jazz. Back in California, he assembled jam sessions with Bill Dart,

, Bob Helm,

, and Wally Rose to play traditional jazz. His rehearsal spot was the Big Bear Lodge on Redwood Road in the Oakland hills. In 1938, he formed a band that included Hayes, Helm, Squire Gersh,

, and Russell Bennett. The band found steady work at Sweet's Ballroom in Oakland, slipping in pieces of traditional New Orleans jazz into the repertoire until Watters was fired. In 1939, he established the Yerba Buena Jazz Band to revive the New Orleans jazz style of

King Oliver Joseph Nathan "King" Oliver (December 19, 1881 – April 8/10, 1938) was an American jazz cornet player and bandleader. He was particularly recognized for his playing style and his pioneering use of Mute (music), mutes in jazz. Also a notable c ...

, adding trombone player

. (

was the first name of San Francisco.) He brought in pianist Forrest Browne, who taught the band music by

Jelly Roll Morton Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (later Morton; c. September 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer. Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a gen ...

. Watters wrote music and arrangements to add to the traditional repertoire. The band performed at the Dawn Club in San Francisco, where it "began a phenomenally successful career as America’s first real revivalist band." It went on hiatus in 1942 when Watters entered the U.S. Navy but reunited at the Dawn Club after World War II. After the Dawn closed in 1947, the band started the club Hambone Kelly's in El Cerrito, California. In 1949 the band performed with visiting musicians

Kid Ory Edward "Kid" Ory (December 25, 1886 – January 23, 1973) was an American jazz composer, trombonist and bandleader. One of the early users of the glissando technique, he helped establish it as a central element of New Orleans jazz. He was ...

James P. Johnson James Price Johnson (February 1, 1894 – November 17, 1955) was an American pianist and composer. A pioneer of stride piano, he was one of the most important pianists in the early era of recording, and like Jelly Roll Morton, one of the key ...

, and

Mutt Carey Thomas "Papa Mutt" Carey (September 17, 1891 – September 3, 1948) was an American jazz trumpeter. Early life Carey was born in Hahnville, Louisiana,Kernfedl, Barry, ed. ''The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz''. Macmillan, 1994. p. 185. and moved ...

. After Hambone Kelly's closed, the band broke up in 1950. By 1959 the band had lost two key players, Bob Scobey and

, who had gone on their own. Watters ended the Yerba Vista Jazz Band. The ''Rough Guide'' concludes: “(they) had gone about as far as they could go: the revival had been launched worldwide and they had broadcast and recorded regularly for ten years.”

Discography

Dining its ten year existence, the Yerba Buena Jazz Band recorded for several small labels. In 1941 And 1942, the band recorded in San Francisco for the young label

Jazz Man Records Jazz Man Records was an American record company and independent record label devoted to traditional New Orleans-style jazz. David Stuart ''(né'' David Ashford Stuart; 1910–1984) founded the label in 1941 and sold it to Marili Morden and Nesu ...

. Four sessions recorded for

resulted in 19 released

78 rpm A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog signal, analog sound Recording medium, storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove ...

sides. After the band reorganized in 1946 after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

it recorded for another new label, West Coast Records. The first seven sessions were held on seven consecutive Monday evenings from April 16, 1946 to May 27 in San Francisco's Avalon Ballroom. The sound went by direct telephone line to a nearby recording studio where the masters were cut. West Coast recorded additional Avalon sessions in September the same year and February the next. The nine sessions resulted in 26 released sides on 78s. During the fall of 1946, ABC radio broadcast a 15-minute show three times a week at 11:45 p.m. from the Dawn Club. A fan recorded selections of these shows for his personal enjoyment. Sixteen songs from these broadcasts were released on a Fairmont Records

LP record The LP (from "long playing" or "long play") is an analog sound storage medium, a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specification; and a ...

in 1973. The same fan also recorded a “This is Jazz” August 16, 1947 radio broadcast featuring the band. “This is Jazz” was a 1947 nationally broadcast radio series. Fairmont also released seven numbers from this broadcast on one side of an LP. The above are all of the recordings of the band with its original front line of Watters, Scobey, and Murphy. In 1949 and 1950, after Scobey and Murphy had left the band, several recordings were made at Hambone Kelly's for

Norman Granz Norman Granz (August 6, 1918 – November 22, 2001) was an American jazz record producer and concert promoter. He founded the record labels Clef, Norgran, Down Home, Verve, and Pablo. Granz was acknowledged as "the most successful impresar ...

that resulted in 39 sides that were mostly released on Mercury, and later on Clef, Down Home, and Verve. In January 1952, Good Time Records bought the masters from Jazz Man Records. It also acquired the masters from West Coast Records. The West Coast Records were reissued on three LPs (12001, 12002, and 12003) in 1954. The Jazz Man masters were also reissued on LP. In 1993,

Fantasy Records Fantasy Records is an American independent record label company founded by brothers Max and Sol Stanley Weiss in 1949. The early years of the company were dedicated to issuing recordings by jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, who was also one of its inves ...

released a four-CD, 96 recordings, set of the Good Times' Yerba Buena recordings. It includes all but three of the band's released sides and several unreleased ones through 1947. In 2001, Giants of Jazz, a label based in Italy, released a CD called ''San Francisco Style: Lu Watters Yerba Buena Jazz Band: Clancy Hays, vocals'', containing 20 of the three dozen sides by the band from December 7, 1949 through the last recordings from mid-1950. By December 1949, both Bob Scobey and "Turk" Murphy had left the band.''San Francisco Style: Lu Watters Yerba Buena Jazz Band: Clancy Hays, vocals'', Giants of Jazz, Italy, 2001, CD53364 All of the Jazz Man recordings were issued in the UK on

Melodisc Records Melodisc Records was a record label founded by Emil E. Shalit in the late 1940s. It was one of the first independent record labels in the UK and the parent company of the Blue Beat label. History Melodisc records was founded by Austrian-born Am ...

: * Melodisc 1123 Original Jelly Roll Blues (Jelly Roll Morton)/ At a Georgia Camp Meeting (Mills) * Melodisc 1124 Daddy Do (Fred Longshaw) /Millenberg Joys * Melodisc 1125 Muskrat Ramble (Kid Ory)/ Smokey Mokes (Holzman) * Melodisc 1126 Tiger Rag/Come Back Sweet Papa (Russell / Barbarin) * Melodisc 1148 Creole Belles (Bodewalt)/ Chattanooga Stomp (King Oliver) * Melodisc 1149 Working Man Blues (King Oliver) / Big Bear Stomp (Lu Watters) * Melodisc 1150 Copenhagen (davis)/ Jazzin' Babies Blues (Jones) * Melodisc 1158 1919 Rag (arr. by Lu Watters) / Ostrich Walk (Nick La Rocca) * Melodisc 1170 South (Moten/Hayes)/ Richard M. Jones Blues * Melodisc 1180 Friendless Blues / I'm Goin' Huntin' (Blythe/Bertrand)

References

External links

Hear a broadcast of a live performance by Lu Watters and the Yerba Buena Jazz Band
*Paige Van Vorst, ''West Coast Jazz'' http://www.bobschulzjazz.com/NEWS/WestCoast.html Reprinted from ''Jazz Beat'', Vol. 18, No. 1, 2006 Accessed April 30, 2022 * The complete Lu Watters' discography at "Lu Watters Discography," JAZZDISCO, https://www.jazzdisco.org/lu-watters/discography/ accessed April 30, 2022 American jazz ensembles from California {{US-jazz-band-stub