JAZZ RHYTHM

Bill Bardin
San Francisco Bay Area Trombone Player

BILL BARDIN (1924-2011)

11.16.80
Photo by Ed Lawless

For six decades around San Francisco Bill Bardin played expressive, eloquent trombone in a style that moved easily between Classic, small combo Swing, and Traditional jazz.

He often made statements to the effect, "I was the first of the Turk Murphy imitators. And though I no longer am, they are now legion."

Bill's lodestar was swing trombonist Dickie Wells. Late in life the two became acquainted, met a couple of times and exchanged occasional letters and Christmas cards.

This page profiles Bardin in interviews, musical rarities, and exclusive live concert tapes. It was a privilege to interview him; Bill was a great source of San Francisco jazz history, a fine musician and a sincere man.

A JAZZ RHYTHM tribute to Bill Bardin with and in-depth interview and wide ranging selection of music.

Bill Bardin Pt. 1A.mp3
All of Me -- Magnolia Jazz Band, live 1988
Riverside Blues -- Earl Sheelar’s Funky New Orleans Jazz Band, 1971-72
Willie the Weeper -- Earl Sheelar’s Funky New Orleans Jazz Band, 1971-72
Dippermouth Blues (excerpt) -- Lu Watters’ Yerba Buena Jazz Band, 1942
Kansas City Stomps (excerpt) -- Lu Watters’ YBJB, 1942
Muskrat Ramble -- Lu Watters’ Yerba Buena Jazz Band, 1942
New Orleans Joys -- Burt Bales, piano solo, 1949

Bill Bardin Pt. 1B.mp3 Mecca Flat Blues -- Dick Oxtot & Co (Jam session c. 1966)
Jazzin’ Babies Blues -- Lu Watters’ Yerba Buena Jazz Band
Creole Love Call -- Earl Sheelar’s Funky New Orleans Jazz Band, 1971-72
Mama Don’t ‘Low -- Magnolia Jazz Band, live 1988
Darktown Strutters’ Ball -- Magnolia Jazz Band, live 1988

Bill Bardin Pt. 2A.mp3
St. James Infirmary -- Magnolia Jazz Band, live 1988
Bogalusa Strut -- Funky New Orleans Jazz Band, 1971-72
Ooh! Looka tHere Ain’t She Pretty? -- Funky New Orleans Jazz Band, 1971-72
Moonlight and Roses -- Dick Oxtot’s Golden Age Jazz Band, 1980
Gatemouth -- Dick Oxtot & Co (Jam session c. 1966)
It’s Foxy -- Dick Oxtot’s Golden Age Jazz Band, 1980
All The Girls Go Crazy -- Dick Oxtot & Co (Jam session c. 1966)

Bill Bardin Pt. 2B.mp3
My Lovin’ Imogene -- Funky New Orleans Jazz Band, 1971-72 MMRC CD-5
My Josephine -- Funky New Orleans Jazz Band, 1971-72
Sister Kate -- P. T. Stanton’s Stone Age Jazz Band, 1975
Move the Body Over -- P. T. Stanton’s Stone Age Jazz Band, 1975
Shake That Thing -- Magnolia Jazz Band, live 1988, private tape

Archive Interview clips:

Bill Bardin remembers Benny Strickler at the Dawn Club, 1942

Bill Bardin recalls Burt Bales: Hanging with Burt c. 1950.mp3
". . . a wiggy guy . . . a rather high IQ," & Bales at the 1018 Club

After hours with Bales.mp3
" . . . a really good guy, very easy to get along with."

Bill Bardin
Smoothly swinging trombonist,
sweet and modest human being

Photo: Mili Rosenblatt-Bardin

The BILL BARDIN Archive

INTERVIEW 11.5.94
In a wide-ranging discussion with Bill Carter and myself in 1994 Bill vividly recalled iconic Jazz musicians he knew & worked with Bunk Johnson, Benny Strickler, Frank Goudie, Dick Oxtot, Turk Murphy & Bob Helm . . . plus such obscure but fascinating characters as novelty clarinet player Hots O’Casey, pianists Burt Bales & Paul Lingle, and the odd trumpet player player P.T. Stanton.

BARDIN_Interview_1.mp3
The Dawn Club, Benny Strickler, early interest in music, using a mute, P.T. Stanton

BARDIN_Interview_2.mp3
Kid Ory, Turk Murphy, Bunk Johnson, Ma Watters' flat, Forrest Brown, Burt Bales

BARDIN_Interview_3.mp3
Burt Bales con't, Victor & Roxies, Hots O'Casey, tunes & rehearsals, Musicians union, union segregation, Dick Oxtot, The Point

BARDIN_Interview_4.mp3
Oxtot con't, The Point, double & doodle-tonguing, Frank Goudie, Earl Sheelar

Bill evokes the jazz personalities and vivid night life of Baghdad by the Bay in the 1940s and ‘50s:
    * the Musicians' Union after-hours speakeasy;
    * subbing at the Dawn Club with Benny Strickler;
    * playing ‘clip joints,’ ‘taxi dances’ and 90-second songs at the ‘dime jigs';
    * musician rivalries, boozing, and the Jazz bars of the Bay Area: Victor & Roxie's, Burp Hollow, The Ordinary, CIO Hall, Tin Angel and the longest running Dixieland gig in the Bay Area, The Point.

Bill Bardin remembers Benny Strickler

BARDIN PROGRAM on KALW-FM 3.12.95

BARDIN_1_KALW_PGM_9.1.96.mp3
BARDIN_2_KALW_PGM_9.1.96.mp3

Note: This Vintage JAZZ RHYTHM program proceeded the Bardin retrospective above by a decade. It’s based on longer clips of the same interview, and is more San Francisco-centric with a more limited selection of complete tunes.

Forthcoming: The best and rarest of the archival jazz recordings heard on these pages will soon be available for purchase on CD or downloads (Amazon, i-tunes, etc) from Frisco Jazz Archival Rarities, a partnership between Dave Radlauer and Grammercy Records.

Frank “Big Boy” Goudie, Bob Mielke, Bill Erickson combo in Stereo Hi-fi
Live at Monkey Inn, 1961-62. (3 CDs)
Five hours of music from the legendary Monkey Inn combo of Bill Erickson.

Frisco Jazz Archival Rarities offers unissued historic recordings from live performances, jam sessions and private tapes. Recorded mostly in the Bay Area 1940-75, this is lost sound from a boisterous musical culture that created an independent jazz style of its own.

As titles become available links to sellers will be provided.

ARCHIVE MUSIC

The Black Egg was a bar in San Mateo where some of the East Bay revival musicians played briefly. All the musicians sound very good on this session especially Frank Goudie, though Oxtot’s one vocal is off mic.

Quite surprising is the presence Pearl Zohn playing piano on this session Previously unknown to me she was apparently sister of trumpet player, Al Zohn and trombonist, Joe, both of whom worked in the wartime Yerba Buena band, local ensembles, and studio orchestras.

In a notable tribute to the origins of the West Coast jazz revival movement, the group closed with the Yerba Buena theme, “Friendless Blues.”

P.T. Stanton (cornet)
Frank Goudie (clarinet)
Bill Bardin (trombone)
Dick Oxtot (banjo and vocal)
Pearl Zohn (piano)

Bill Bailey.mp3 (4:06)
Blues.mp3 (7:01)
I Want a Little Girl.mp3 (3:17)
I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter.mp3 (3:51)
When You and I Were Young, Maggie.mp3 (5:16)
Milenberg Joys.mp3 (5:56)
The Saints.mp3 (4:03)
See See Rider.mp3 (4:28)
Tiger Rag.mp3 (6:34)
Way Down Yonder in New Orleans.mp3 (4:02)
Friendless Blues theme.mp3 (3:43)

Note on recordings:
The archival recordings heard on these pages are offered as historic artifacts. They contain many musical and technical flaws, or are incomplete or poorly balanced in places. Personnel are listed as available, or as deduced from educated guesses.

From liner notes to the Stomp Off record by Mike Duffy:

“Introducing the listener to the Stone Age Jazz Band is no easy matter, for they are so thoroughly odd. One cannot, for instance quite imagine them being invited to a standard traditional jazz festival. And they weren’t. But they had their fans (musicians typically, and a collection of the Bohemians of the diverse, tolerant, notoriously goofy communities across the Oakland Bay from San Francisco), and for a good stretch they even had a steady gig at the old Berkeley Square bar a mile or so from the University of California campus.

The Stones were something of a reaction from the beginning. Their name, for example, was chosen as a gentle way of teasing their old pal Dick Oxtot, leader of the Golden Age Jazz Band. And their book was very small (maybe eighty tunes) -- in spite of the fact that they rehearsed weekly and could easily have played hundreds of things. But their motto was “less Is More.” They never used a drummer because they wanted neither the heaviness nor the cluttering of their carefully worked-out colors. Almost everything they did was deliberate of course, and much of it gleefully calculated to be appropriate to their ‘Stone Age’ sound.”

ARCHIVE MUSIC

Bardin with P.T. Stanton’s Stone Age Jazz Band
Old St. Hilary’s Church, Tiburon, CA, 1977-78

P.T. Stanton (cornet)
Earl Scheelar (clarinet)
Bill Bardin (trombone)
Peter Berg (guitar)
Paul Boberg (banjo)
Peter Allen (string bass)

Note: These unissued items were taped 9/77 & 1/78 under favored conditions -- a minimalist recording of a live but relaxed performance. Similar material -- including the first track below -- was issued on Stomp Off 1228 (LP or cassette only) .

Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet.mp3 (4:18)
Moose March.mp3 (2:47)
My Darling Nellie Grey.mp3 (4:48, group harmony vocal )
Do You ever Think of Me.mp3 (4:18)
Sister Kate.mp3 (4:42)
Bugle Boy March.mp3 (3:45)
Dallas Blues.mp3 (4:42, excellent performance)
Pastel Blue.mp3 (6:35)
Swanee River.mp3 (4:52)
You Always Hurt the One You Love.mp3 (4:31)
Sing On.mp3 (4:36)
Beale St Blues.mp3 (4:40)
1919 March.mp3 (4:24)
I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles.mp3 (4:42)
Get Out Of Here.mp3 (3:46)

Special thanks to Mili Bardin-Rosenblatt and the late Bill Bardin.

ARCHIVE INTERVIEW

Earl Scheelar on Bardin
 Scheelar says Bardin was Bay Area's finest trombonist.mp3
Scheelar describes his personality.mp3
Scheelar on other Bay Area trombone player.mp3

Bill Bardin with
P.T. Stanton

Old St. Hilary Church

(Photo courtesy Early Scheelar)

ARCHIVE MUSIC

P.T. Stanton Stone Age Jazz Band, August 1974
Location was probably Earl's (former) New Orleans House

P.T. Stanton (cornet)
Earl Scheelar (clarinet)
Bill Bardin (trombone)
Karl Walterskirchen (banjo)
Peter Berg (guitar)
Walter Yost (tuba)

Just a Little While to Stay (5:19)
Beale St. Blues (5:22)
Old Spinning Wheel (5:31)
I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter (4:00)
Tiger Rag (5:22)

Thanks to Earl Scheelar.

PT Stanton Stone Age Jazz Band
Berkeley, CA, 10/74
Location was probably Earl's (former) New Orleans House

P.T. Stanton (cornet)
Earl Scheelar (clarinet)
Lisa Pollard (tenor sax)*
Bill Bardin (trombone)
guitar and banjo
Walter Yost (tuba)

1919 Rag.mp3 - add washboard
Move the Body Over.mp3 - vocal off mic
Earl’s Blues.mp3 - Scheelar featured
(*add tenor sax:)
Mecca Flat Blues.mp3
Make Me a Pallet on the Floor.mp3
The Waltz You Saved for Me.mp3

Courtesy Earl Scheelar

PT Stanton Stone Age JB Sacramento Jazz Club 12.76

No personnel data; probably P.T. Stanton, Earl Sheelar, Bardin, Pete Allen, others

Sister Kate.mp3
You Always Hurt the One You Love.mp3
Dallas Blues.mp3 - vocal duet Stanton with Bardin
Get Out of Here.mp3 - PT announces outro, play closing theme

Coutesy Mili Bardin-Rosenblatt

Bardin with Earl Scheelar's Funky New Orleans Jazz Band:

GIVE ME SOME MORE
featuring Bob Helm
Original issue, 1972.
Reissued with seven tunes added, Merry Makers MMRC-CD-5.

Wrote Earl in the liner notes: “The recording was done on several Sunday afternoons in 1971 and 1972 at the New Orleans House. There were no written arrangements . . . the acoustics at the New Orleans House were ideal. The band was hot and sometimes truly inspired.”

Earl Scheelar (cornet, leader)
Bob Helm (reeds)
Bill Bardin (trombone)
Dick Oxtot (banjo, vocals)
Peter Allen (Strong bass, vocals)
Don Marchant (drums)

Ain’t Nobody Got the Blues Like Me.mp3 (4:00, vocal and composition by Oxtot)
Bogalusa Strut.mp3 (2:55)
Don’t You Leave Me Here.mp3 (4:08)
Lady Love.mp3 (3:50)
Make Me a Pallet on the Floor.mp3 (4:27)
My Lovin’ Imogene.mp3 (3:33, vocal and composition by Oxtot)
Sittin’ Around.mp3 (4:34, vocal by Pete Allen)
Skid-Dat-De-Dat.mp3 (3:03)
Smiles.mp3 (4:46)


FUNKY FANTASY, 1997, GHB BCD-367
From liner notes by Marshall Kent:
“Twenty five years later Earl Scheelar has brought together essentially the same musicians back into the studio to record this CD. Scheelar’s vision in forming the Funky New Orleans Jazz Band was to play New Orleans jazz with veteran musicians who loved the music and could play with the inventiveness that was central to this musical tradition.
 Furthermore he wanted that small band makeup of three lead instruments with rhythm that would allow room for solo improvisation and ensemble playing that was clean and un-muddied. These musicians have all played New Orleans style with their own bands and with others for many decades.

Earl Scheelar (cornet, vocals, leader)
Bob Helm (reeds)
Bill Bardin (trombone)
George Knoblauch, Frank Tateosian, or Eliot Kenin (banjo)
Peter Allen (Strong bass, vocals)
Don Marchant (drums)

Breeze.mp3 (4:31, vocal, Scheelar)
Funky Fantasy.mp3 (4:51, composed by Scheelar)
I Hear You Baby.mp3 (7:17, vocal and composition by Scheelar)
West Indies Blues.mp3 (3:42, vocal, Scheelar)

Bardin with Scheelar's Zenith Jazz Band:

Launched in the late-1980s, Zenith was successor to Scheelar’s earlier bands, utilizing some of the same New Orleans repertoire and personnel including Bob Helm, Bill Bardin and Pete Allen. Zenith shared the New Orleans sound, style, and relaxed pulsing beat of the earlier New Orleans House and Funky New Orleans bands.

From Zenith Jazz Band featuring Bob Helm, Merry Makers MMRC-CD-21.

Earl Scheelar (clarinet, leader)
Bob Helm (reeds)
Robert Young (conret, saxes)
Bill Bardin (trombone)
Frank Tateosin (banjo)
Peter Allen (Strong bass)
Henk Wagner (drums)
Genny Haley (vocals)
Tom Barnebey (guest pianist, vocals)

Livin’ High.mp3 (2:24)
Solitary Blues.mp3 (6:13, vocal and composition by Barnebey)
Oriental Man.mp3 (4:15)
Messin’ Around.mp3 (3:16)
New Orleans Stomp.mp3 (2:50)
Hot Stuff.mp3 (4:06, vocal and composition by Barnebey)
Carolina Sunshine.mp3 (4:19)
Down Where The Sun Goes Down.mp3 (4:45, vocal Scheelar and Bardin)
Panama.mp3 (2:24)

ARCHIVE MUSIC:

Big Magnolia Jazz Band
I recorded this JAZZ RHYTHM exclusive in Santa Rosa, CA, 1988.

Robbie Schlosser, cornet
Lin Patch, clarinet
Bill Bardin, trombone
Karl Walterskirchen, banjo
Evan Dain, bass
Henk Wagner, drums

Darktown Strutters Ball_Big Magnolia.mp3
Mama Don't 'Low_Big Magnolia.mp3
Shine_Big Magnolia.mp3
All The Girls Go Crazy.mp3
Careless Love_Big Magnolia.mp3
Shake That Thing_Big Magnolia.mp3
Make Me a Pallet_Big Magnolia.mp3
St. James Infirmary Blues_Big Magnolia.mp3
All of Me_Big Magnolia.mp3

New 10.14

MUSIC ARCHIVE

P.T. Stanton's Stone Age Jazz Band
Stomp Off LP/cassette 1228, 1992
excerpts

P.T. Stanton (cornet)
Earl Scheelar (clarinet)
Bill Bardin (trombone)
Peter Berg (guitar)
Paul Boberg (banjo)
Walter Yost (tuba) or
Peter Allen (string bass)

Moose March Stone Age LP.mp3
Stone Age Blues Stone Age LP.mp3 (aka Earl's Blues)
Move the Body Over Stone Age LP.mp3
Mecca Flat Blues Stone Age LP.mp3
Pastel Blue Stone Age LP.mp3
There's Yes Yes In Your Eyes Stone Age LP.mp3

Find more historic and exclusive recordings of Bardin on this site:

Earl Sheelar
PT Stanton
Dick Oxtot
Frank Goudie
The Bagatelle

L to R:
P.T. Stanton, Bill Bardin, Diane Holmes

Oxtot collection

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