The Last Chance Jazz Band
THE LAST CHANCE JAZZ BAND
A BIT OF NEW ORLEANS IN POUGHKEEPSIE
Sept 2005
I first entered The Last Chance Saloon in Poughkeepsie in the fall of 1974 to see the Flying Burrito Brothers. I was so taken by the old room that I don’t know that I ever left. Back in those days Larry Plover and Mike Chiriati would book national attractions on Friday or Sunday..or any day of the week except Saturday.
Saturday night in Poughkeepsie belonged to The Last Chance Jazz Band. Long rows of seated patrons…..business people..politicos…rubbing elbows with hippies. Legend has it that Patty Hearst was in the audience while “on the lam” as Tania. ..as well as one time assistant Dutchess County District Attorney ..G. Gordon Liddy who would make his name busting Dutchess resident Tim Leary after the Grateful Dead bus visit……what a long strange trip………anyway….
The Last Chance opened its doors in 1970. The name was drawn from the Jackie Gleason Saturday night TV ,..Joe the bartender..who would pour drinks for Crazy Guggenheim ..played by Frank Fontaine as a hopeless drunk who would convulse into laughter over the mention of a Mr. Duna -he he he ..Then Frank Fontaine would change character and sing a classic ballad in his rich baritone…kind of like what Jim Nabors would do a few years later with Gomer Pyle…but..The State liquor authority discouraged the use of the word Saloon in those days..so the name of the bar was Frivolous Sal’s Last Chance..( with a graphic of swinging saloon doors)..it became The Chance..and Now The Chance Complex. Mike Chiriati first opened Frivolous Sal’s on Academy Street.in 1967.and that is where the LCJB began..then there was Sal’s II on Raymond and Haight… many old timers would refer to The Chance as Sal’s….
The star attraction on Saturday nite at Frivolous Sal’s Last Chance Saloon was The Last Chance Jazz Band or LCJB..Every Saturday..an eight piece jazz band would go from cornball ( as in fun) tunes like Cabaret..to the most low down New Orleans blues you ever heard like St. James Infirmary or Basin Street Blues.. It was there that I fell under the spell of one of the most extraordinary musicians I would ever experience. Trumpet player Johnny Windhurst. To hear Johnny play the blues was like hearing the great Louis Armstrong ( Satchmo to many…Pops to musicians).
As Larry Plover tells the story the great jazz drummer and vibes player Lionel Hampton’s bus found its way to the Last Chance between gigs. Once Hamp was discovered he sat in on drums and payed Johnny the highest compliment after a slow blues..” Just like Pops Johnny..amazing..just like Pops!!!!..” On another occasion a few years later September 1976 David Bromberg came thru with his 8 piece band for an unprecedented 3 night stay. The LCJB was the opener. Johnny was invited to sit in and did such an amazing job on Send Me To The Lectric Chair..that Bromberg invited him to join the band. Johnny politely declined. He was one of those extraordinary musicians who knew that life on the road would have killed him. He died in his early 50’s just a few years later in the early 1980’s Had the “One Place” he lived in been New Orleans he would have been world famous….He may not have been world famous ..but everyone in Poughkeepsie knew the beautiful trumpet of Johnny Windhurst.. …and so did the worlds greatest trumpet player..Johnny was invited to Louis Armstrong’s house in Corona Queens NYC just two months before “pop’s” passed…..Those visits to Louis’ were by invitation only …obviously,.. from his years in NYC,.. musicians knew Johnny.
The LCJB also had Eddie Hubble on trombone ..Eddie had been a world traveling musician in Yank Lawsons Worlds Greatest Jazz Band amongst others.. Eddie could remind you of Jack Teagarten..smooth as silk..and pull off tricks like taking the bell portion of the trombone and playing the slide into a glass to get this beautiful high pitch. The horn section was rounded out by the proprietor who chose to use a soprano sax in place of a clarinet..but you’d never know if you didn’t look.Then there was Charlie Hoyt on ragtime piano and gravely vocals..no less than Pete Seeger called him the best ragtime and stride piano player he had ever heard.…Charlie still plays locally. Did a fine job on Beale St. Blues.
There was the rhythm section of Jimmy Leary and Bugsy Moran and occasionally Greg McCurdy would add some authentic Tuba bottom to Tiger Rag.
Out in front of the LCJB were two banjo playing vocalists seated center stage.
One was the tenor voiced Roger Fay…The other was the Baritone crooner and partner in the joint ,… Larry Plover. Yes Larry is a crooner..not a shouter not gravely voiced..but a crooner like Bing Crosby…..Many of us might not have ever heard of Louis Armstrong if not for Bing Crosby. Bing was the second deca-phenom of recorded history…the timeline goes
20’s Rudy Vallee…. 30’s Bing Crosby…..,,,,… 40’s Frank Sinatra …50’s Elvis…
60’s Beatles …70’s Bruce??.( maybe) …..80’s Michael Jackson……90’s..?
Bing loved jazz ..He befriended Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith among others He brought Louis to Decca records and to Hollywood to be in the movies . Larry Plover brought a bit of Bing to St. James Infirmary.
So there you have the LCJB many a pitcher and pint was poured as I listened to music that I had previously associated only with early cartoons from my childhood. To this day,..if I hear Tiger Rag,.. I see the old Farmer Grey black and white cartoons. But performed live in the house this music took on an almost spiritual nature. Not unlike the jewish klezmorim of eastern Europe.
One more Chance coincidence. When I was a high school kid in TheBronx , I used to bring the rent check down to “the super” for my mom. Our super was a Hungarian immigrant with broken English named Joe Muranyi. .Once..while waiting at the open door I notice an autographed picture of Louis Armstrong on his TV. He noticed me noticing and explains that his son plays clarinet with Louis Armstrong….Many years later I would find a poster of a 1973 concert at the Last Chance Saloon with the LCJB behind the great drummer Gene Krupa and special guest Joe Muranyi Jr. on clarinet….Plover tells me that Krupa and Muranyi agreed to play The Chance because Johnny Windhurst would play with them.I still have that poster..and I am pleased to say that one of my most prized collectable cd’s is a copy of the LCJB album on cd….I hope someone makes it available locally.
Yes The LCJB opened my eyes to the wonders of true New Orleans Jazz. In the 50’s Miles Davis called Pops “old school”..but by the 70’s Miles was admitting that it was just bravado..he couldn’t carry Pop’s horn case…and he knew it...and I love Miles!!!! …
In 1983 I met Wynton Marsalis on an airplane .He was seated next to me..He was 21 but I already knew who he was.We talked about Pops and Miles …and I wished him well.. Wynton is the missing link between Pops and Miles.
It’s obvious that hurricance Katrina has us all thinking of New Orleans.
I finally got to New Orleans last November with 4 old buddies ..Our 4 day weekend in the French Quarter is a blur. I remember at least 25 bars with their windows and doors open and a Stevie Ray Wanabe wailing away in every one..and all I wanted was the “real deal”..I finally found it with the street musicians in Jackson Square. A loose non-amplified aggregate of true Dixie land jazz musicians young and old playing 3 or 4 sets a day for tips..and man could they work the crowd..Trombones,Trumpets,Clarinet,,Sax,,maybe a snare and one cymbal…Tuba..( no string bass)…tambourine..I was in heaven.
As I took a walk down River Walk along the Mississippi just a few blocks away I learned that the slave ships disposed of their cargo..then the slaves would walk through a tunnel that was three blocks long under Jackson Square so that they would not be seen by society folks on their way to the market …. musicians played almost directly above that tunnel today..where they would have been banned 150 years ago.
As I walked further down the River Walk I noticed a holocaust monument maybe two blocks away. I was surprised to find this Jewish monument in this city. A beautiful Menorah that changed as the sunlight changed. It took awhile for the connection to sink in..The music of bondage..The klezmorim and the Dixieland band had more in common than I had realized. Listen to the Clarinet glissando at the beginning of Rhapsody In Blue…written by George Gershwin and the connection is very clear.
I had the chance to see the New Orleans Klezmer Orchestra at Tipitina’s while I was in New Orleans..but I blew it..it was a cross town cab ride that was not meant to be. I hope I get to go back to New Orleans. Our culture owes so much to that town.
Those slaves would develop that music..bring it up thru the delta to Memphis….and after World War II seek work in the factories of Chicago where Muddy would electrify it…but it all started in New Orleans…Buddy Bolden… Kid Ory. Jelly Roll Morton..King Oliver.. the great Satchmo..Pops…Louis Armstrong …..Professor Longhair…Fats Domino ..The Nevilles..Allen Tousaint..
Wynton Marsalis..Harry Connick..Randy Newman…..Geoff Muldaur…and of course Dr. John…just a few of the natives of this wonderful free city….there is no way to describe the feeling of freedom that one gets in the French Quarter…and the music is not incidental..it’s an essential ingredient.
Yet another more obtuse New Orleans /Last Chance connection. In the early 70’s one of the bar bands out of Woodstock that worked at the Chance every week
( Wednesday I believe ) was Orleans . As John Hall told Justin Foy at WDST last week of how they got their name. During a late night “name the band” session,..the late great Wells Kelly ..their drummer said..”hey we’ve been working on that New Orleans shuffle ..Julliette….how about calling ourselves Orleans”..They played a gig in Oswego under the name Orleans ..they packed the house…..two weeks later they were invited back..and the consensus was … we have to be Orleans again..and they packed the house again and it stuck…
Thanks to The Last Chance Jazz Band of Poughkeepsie New York for wetting my appetite for New Orleans over 30 years ago. If you’ve ever loved music..chances are you have a deep connection to New Orleans..one you may not realize or be able to define….but it’s there…… and for heavens sake buy any Louis Armstrong cd if you don’t have one.. tragically they are everywhere in those $5 bins in the supermarket. Then work your way back to the older recordings ..What you lose in fidelity you gain in youthful performance ( from the 20’s)…..If fidelity is your thing..a few gems from the 50’s include Louis and Ella…Louis and Duke…..and Louis does WC Handy…..keep the music in your heart and…
GIVE GENEROUSLY TO THE PEOPLE OF THE GULF COAST…