“Live” At White Beeches Country Club-October 1963

1. One O’Clock Jump (Ensemble) 2. Little Slew Foot (Chris Griffin) 3. Royal Garden Blues (Pee Wee Irwin) 4. Bluesette (Dick Hyman) 5. South Rampart Street Parade (Ensemble) 6. Track 6 (?) (Bernie Privin) 7. When Sonny Gets Blue (Carl Kress) 8. Big Noise From Winetka (Bob Haggart-Sonny Igoe) 9. St. Louis Blues (Cutty Cutshall/Lou McGarrity) 10. Sing, Sing, Sing (Ensemble) 11. After You’ve Gone (Bob Wilbur)

In 1962, my family lived in Manhasset, NY and I had just celebrated my eighteenth birthday, and enjoyed my first “legal” alcoholic beverage. Three weeks later, we moved from Manhasset, to Dumont, NJ where we became members of the White Beeches Country Cub in Haworth, NJ. (And I once again became under aged since the drinking age in NJ was twenty-one!) We had our own entrance right onto the eighteenth tee where I foolishly practiced my golf swing, and gave up more than my fair share of Dunlops to the pond. Ed Prodigo (director) asked my father, Chris Griffin (trumpet player with Benny Goodman, Harry James, Ziggy Elman, Ed Sullivan, Jackie Gleason, Frank Sinatra, etc) if he would bring in his own Big Band for a special night of entertainment at the club. Well, my dad pulled together a band worthy of a “who’s who” list of Jazz Greats…straight out of the history books. What a special night it turned out to be and fortunately, it was captured on tape. Throughout the years of technological revolutions, paradigm shifts and worm holes, I have managed to preserve the music as I converted it from tape, to vinyl, back to tape, to cassette, to CD and finally to MP3. The nostalgia and the enjoyment of that evening are here for anyone who would care to travel back to a moment in musical history, that took place in October of 1963 at White Beeches CC. 

I began my own trumpet playing career with Fred Waring, and he would open his show with the statement: “Music is meant to be shared!” As a performer, I came to realize that once the music left the end of my trumpet, it became a memory…Years of study and practice culminating in a singular effort, but gone forever! Unless…..? I was fortunate to have enjoyed a successful recording career in the UK with the BBC, and with my own band, Force Ten. Returning to the U.S. in 1982, and after my career was abruptly ended when I fell from a stage, I have endeavored to compile and preserve our music. To that end, I have up linked much of the audio/video that we have produced over the years to: Griffin House Productions.

My Dad passed away on Father’s Day, 2005, and this web page is a tribute not only to him, but to all of the great musicians of an era gone bye. Please feel free to share this music and keep their memory alive.

Trumpets:	Chris Griffin (Leader) Pee Wee Irwin, Bernie Privin, Jimmie Nottingham
Trombones:	Cutty Cutshall, Lou McGarrity
Sax/Clarinet:	Bob Wilbur
Guitar:	Carl Kress
Piano:	Dick Hyman
Bass:	Bob Haggart
Drums:	Sonny Igoe

 

		Yogi Berra-Gordon Chris Griffin
Chris With Ed Sullivan	Chris & Dizzy Gillepsie
Bernie Privin	Pee Wee Irwin	Sonny Igoe
Bob Haggart	Dick Hyman	Bob Wilbur
Lou McGarity	Cutty Cutshall	Carl Kress

 

Griffin House Productions