Hal Smith’s West Coast Jazz Heritage Series

For the last year, along with an active tour schedule, appearing on recordings for others, and contributing his great column with Jeff Barnhart analyzing choice tracks from important jazz bands, Hal Smith has been rolling out albums for what he is calling the West Coast Jazz Heritage Series. Three albums have been released with two more coming this fall. These are remote recordings for which he has assembled a variety of musicians, most of them too young to have had a real-time connection to the material covered.

Volume 1 of the series is a tribute to the Firehouse Five Plus Two. Volume 2 is a tribute to Papa Ray Ronnei with Vince Saunders’ South Frisco Jazz Band. Volume 3 is a tribute to the El Dorado Jazz Band of the mid 1960s. Forthcoming are tributes to Benny Strickler with the Yerba Buena Jazz Band, coming soon, and to Ted Shafer’s Jelly Roll Jazz Band, hopefully out this fall.

This is not entirely new territory for Hal, whose On The Levee Jazz Band was a tribute to Kid Ory’s revival years on the West Coast. They released an excellent album in 2018, made a well received appearance at the New Orleans Mint, and traveled to several festivals including a hit showing in San Diego. The original group included Kris Tokarski, Don Ewell, Clint Baker, Josh Gouzy, Ben Polcer, Joe Goldberg, and Alex Belhaj. I am not sure how often the group has performed since but On The Levee appeared at this spring’s French Quarter Festival with the same focus on late 1950s Kid Ory but this time with Charlie Halloran, Tim Laughlin, Andy Schumm, and John Gill joining Hal Smith, Kris Tokarski, and Joshua Gouzy from the original troop. An only in New Orleans lineup worth the plane ticket.

Hal Smith was born in 1953 and took up the drums when he was 10. He turned pro in 1978 after having been nurtured from a young age by his elders on the West Coast. It is wonderful that he can now serve as a bridge for young musicians to the revival generation. Hal was just a kid buying records, or not even born, when some of these bands were in their prime but he did get to connect to many of the musicians later, even as a teen, something out of reach to most musicians joining him on these albums.

Most traditional jazz fans born after 1970 discovered their passion in some roundabout way tracing music back to the roots. It is very easy as a younger fan to stay studying those roots but not the tree full of branches above. Jazz was jazz until the swing era was in full swing, then jazz became an expansive descriptor and the early jazz styles fell under labels like revival, or traditional, or Dixieland, with plenty of regional variety, excellent bands, and devoted fans. These are bands that deserve to be honored and discovered by the musicians and fans of the new generation, who might otherwise get the impression from thrift store record bins that it was all The Dukes of Dixieland, Al Hirt, and Pete Fountain for the 80 years before they came on the scene studying YouTube videos of 78s and itching to busk with the early stuff on their nearest tourist walk.

Not that the Dukes, Hirt, or Fountain, all reaching national prominence out of New Orleans, aren’t great and important to know about. They are. But there was a lot more going on with the revival, from Preservation Hall and recordings of Black musicians from New Orleans, to the UK which developed its own Trad voice, to St. Louis where ragtime revived, to the West Coast where a sustained revival would become part of the California culture for 85 years and counting. Lu Watters established the Yerba Buena Jazz Band in 1939 and even in 2024, after many saddening losses in the last decade, California still has a disproportionate number of Traditional Jazz festivals, featuring to this day bands that play in a unique West Coast Revival Style.

While British Trad seems well preserved, possibly pickled, with endless archive releases of concerts from 50 years ago, the music of the West Coast Revival is barely in circulation. This is especially true when you get to the 1960s and beyond. Bands that resonated so much that they inspired a generation to spend their golden years festival hopping are at risk of being forgotten… there is a key point in there. The people in the lawn chairs were there to hear the revival sound that captured them in their youth, not studied recreations of Isham Jones in 1928.

Enter Hal Smith, and I would also add men like Clint Baker, Jeff Barnhart, and David Radlauer. They are all artists or fans who were the youngest men at the show in the ’70s and ’80s and now actively try to promote the music of the Great Revival to the YouTube generation. On my end, I hope to capture as much of the history of the revival in all of its regional variety on these pages as I can, which is why I have sought out stories about things like the Hall Brothers Emporium of Jazz in tiny Mendota, Minnesota. This generation of young musicians is very interested in history. And to those born in the 1990s, the 1970s is history as much as WWI was in the 1960s.

Volume 1 – Backdraft Jazz Band:

A Musical Tribute to the Firehouse Five plus Two

The West Coast Jazz Heritage Series is not chronological, though it kicks off pretty early with the first release being focused on, by light years, the most well known band the series plans to cover. The Firehouse Five plus Two was the most commercially successful of the West Coast bands, even if not as long lasting and influential as Turk Murphy. Despite that success, or because of it, the Firehouse Five are overlooked by many jazz fans. The costumes don’t help their cause, even if you can find myriad examples of goofy dress, stage behavior, and even playing as far back as “Livery Stable Blues,” on the very first commercial jazz record.

One should understand their persona in that context, leaning into wacky fun was part of jazz from the very start. The Firehouse Five plus Two were primarily men who worked day jobs in the Disney Studios, and entertaining came naturally. They were a raucous group, cutting their first record in 1949, after developing a huge following in Southern California. The went through several name changes before settling on the firemen theme after Ward Kimball purchased a 1914 fire truck for parades.

Through nearly complete turnover the group cut many records and continued to perform into the ’60s when a very young Hal Smith was fortunate enough to see them repeatedly on trips to Disneyland with his parents. You can read about the earliest years of the band and hear Hal and Jeff Barnhart dissect a few tracks in their May and June 2022 “Ain’t Cha Got Music” columns.

The BackDraft Jazz Band features Rick Holzgrafe, cornet; Steve Drivon, trombone/percussion; Nathan Tokunaga, soprano sax; Andrew Oliver, piano; Bill Reinhart, banjo; Paul Hagglund, helicon; Hal Smith, drums/leader. They met remotely to record ten tracks covering the full scope of the Firehouse Five’s career.

Rick Holzgrafe is an appropriate cornet lead, his bio on the Black Swan Classic Jazz Band website, his current association, says the first group he joined, the Fink Street Five, was inspired by the Firehouse Five at Disneyland. He went on to play with John Scott’s Apex Jass Band and John Soulis’ Mission Gold Jazz Band while subbing in a number of other bands including Ted Shafer’s Jelly Roll Jazz Band which has a forthcoming album in this series. As of now he will not be on that one but is on the forthcoming Benny Strickler tribute.

Steve Drivon appears on trombone and percussion with the Backdraft band and on trombone on the Benny Strickler album. He can be heard on many great YouTube videos playing a drum kit to accompany Tom Brier; he cofounded the Port City Jazz Band where he plays trombone.

Nathan Tokunaga is probably the youngest active player on the scene, still only 17, and 15 when some of these tracks were recorded. A clarinet protege of Clint Baker and Evan Christopher, he has been a regular at West Coast festivals for several years and leads his own band, the Fearless Five. He is remarkable and adds a lot to these albums. Of the five albums in this series, planned or already released, he appears on four. A unique education in the styles of revival era bands for someone entering his senior year of High School this fall.

Andrew Oliver is a star pianist of the younger generation. He left the Northwest to spend several years in London, where he played with the many marvelous musicians who I wish would make it over our way. He got most noticed for a series of YouTube videos that became The Complete Morton Project, which featured him in duos with clarinetist David Horniblow. He also has several solo piano recordings in recent years. Now home in Portland, Oregon, he is part of the Bridgetown Sextet, which has a recent release on Rivermont.

Multi-instrumentalist Bill Reinhart plays banjo on all four West Coast Jazz Heritage Series already in the can, though he may play bass on the upcoming Ted Shafer session. Obviously, he’s a go-to for Hal as he also plays with Hal Smith’s Jazzologists and his New Orleans Night Owls. He can be heard twice a month with a set of true West Coast all stars in the Barbary Coast Jazz Band, featuring Bob Schulz, Don Neely, Clint Baker, Scott Anthony, and Marty Eggers.

Paul Hagglund plays helicon on the Firehouse Five tribute, adding to a parade feel, and his usual tuba on the upcoming Benny Strickler album as well as the South Frisco Jazz Band tribute. He is active on the West Coast appearing at most of the big festivals with groups including the Sierra Seven. He has been on the scene for 20 years, including with unique groups like the Uptown Lowdown Jazz Band, and more recently Katie Cavera’s outfits.

The Backdraft Jazz Band album is the wildest of the series, though they are all the stomping good time West Coast Revival Jazz is known for. From the ’40s through the ’60s trad jazz was the house party music of California for young people from frat boys to early hippies. The next two volumes in the series are focused on that period when the beer was flowing while the band was rolling. You can hear that in the sound recreated on these records, a time when the Honky Tonk LP craze was a near memory and banjo bars were popping up all over the country with red garters, singalongs, and nostalgic kitsch. This music was more jazzy, more “serious,” but it couldn’t help but absorb the times and the audience.

Volume 2 – Huntington Palace Jazz Band:

A Tribute to the Great Ray Ronnei  and the South Frisco Jazz Band

Volume Two in the series is a four track EP from the Huntington Palace Jazz Band, assembled to pay tribute to cornetist “Papa” Ray Ronnei with Vince Saunders’ South Frisco Jazz Band. It is an important group in the evolution of several of our current elder statesmen of traditional jazz. Dan Barrett, who plays trombone on this album, wrote about his time as a young man sitting in with the South Frisco Jazz Band in the late ’60s and early ’70s in our January 2024 issue. Hal followed up in March 2023 with the story of seeing them play in the late ’60s, first brought by his parents to the Pizza Palace in Huntington Beach, as a boy of not quite 13. This series of albums on the West Coast scene is at times “as seen” by a teenage Hal. That personal connection makes this entry special to him, and he also considers it the most successful of the sessions.

Each track is a very successful with arrangements both interesting and at times moving, especially “Far Away Blues.” It starts off hot with “One Sweet Letter From You” a tune Hal mentions being played on a birthday visit to the venue in his article about the group. I wish I had access to the study material he gave the band!

In addition to those mentioned above the band on volume two includes T.J. Muller, cornet. Based in St. Louis, he is an ever increasing presence in the national traditional jazz scene. He may also be on the Ted Shafer session when it happens later this summer. Brian Holland is at the piano for this one. If by chance you don’t know who he is, read my column from May where I highlighted three of his albums.

Hal Smith plays washboard on this drumless set, the instrument held by Bob Raggio when he went to see the band in 1966. While there he introduced himself and Raggio gave him a business card from the recently defunct other band he played with, telling young Hal “Here’s a collector’s item for you. The band played their final job last weekend.” That band was the 1962-66 El Dorado Jazz Band of Southern California, not to be confused with the Northern California group of 1954-61.

Volume 3 – El Dorado Jazz Band

While Hal never saw the El Dorado Jazz Band live, he did see a lineup of the South Frisco Jaz Band that was identical, and after seeking out their records this was the group that for him defined the New Orleans jazz sound. The El Dorado Jazz Band was featured in his column with Jeff Barnhart in February and March of this year.

In addition to being the subject of the third installment of the West Coast Jazz Heritage Series, Hal has been touring with his El Dorado Jazz Band and plans to release a download of a live set they recorded at Jazz Bash by the Bay in Monterey California this March. That set included Andy Schumm, cornet; Brandon Au, trombone/vocal; Nathan Tokunaga, clarinet; Brian Holland, piano (five tracks); Jeff Barnhart, piano/vocal (eight tracks); Bill Dendle, banjo; Mikiya Matsuda, string bass; and Hal Smith, washboard. The band also appeared at the Evergreen Jazz Festival in July, and is scheduled for the Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Festival in August and the Redwood Coast Music Festival in October. (Lineup subject to availability.)

On the remote recorded album you hear Colin Hancock, cornet and vocals; Brandon Au, trombone; Ryan Calloway, clarinet; Jeff Barnhart, piano and vocals; Bill Reinhart, banjo; Mikiya Matsuda, string bass; Hal Smith, washboard and leader. We are getting a little of everyone here.

Brandon Au has been part of the West Coast scene since childhood, along with his brother Gordon. I first noted Ryan Calloway with the Silver Bell Jazz Band of San Francisco, he plays with Hal on his Jazzologists and New Orleans Night Owls albums. Mikiya Matsuda leads The Alcatraz Islanders, a swing-era Hawaiian band based in San Francisco, where he also joins a number of other swing and traditional jazz bands. Colin Hancock is a multi-instrumentalist and scholar who most readers will be familiar with. Bill Dendle, in the to be released live set, adds decades of experience to the mix.

This is my favorite of the series so far. Ten tracks of fun tunes like “Papa Dip” give a live feel, especially with Jeff Barnhart on the piano. I am fortunate to have heard a lot of tape from this period of West Coast jazz, Dave Radlauer has released several albums of it, exploring bands and venues of the period, like the Monkey Inn in Berkeley. Of the tribute albums, this one takes you there the most, a time when heading to a jazz show meant a bar room full of young men and women who really dug the music, or at least each other.

You don’t need to take my word for it. Back in 2008 Hal helped shepherd a CD release of live El Dorado Jazz Band material recorded at Mr. Fat Fingers in Costa Mesa, California in 1964. You can find it as GHB CD-510. Jeff and Hal used YouTube links to the album to illustrate the online version of their two part column discussing the set in February and March.

More To Come

Looking forward, the Benny Strickler album has been recorded already and should be available soon. It focuses on the wartime Yerba Buena Jazz Band with Benny Strickler that had both Ellis Horne and Bob Helm on clarinets. In addition to the people already mentioned the album has David Jellema as a second clarinet paired with Nathan Tokunaga.

David Jellema is a well known trumpet and clarinet player based in Austin, Texas, with forty years under his belt. While his musical resume is too stellar to summarize, his relief work in Africa and the Middle East in the 1989-91 period is what I would ask him about if I ran into him!

Benny Stickler, had a unique trumpet style and a career that ended too soon. He played with Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys as well as Lu Watters. He was the subject of a tribute in Jeff and Hal’s column of December 2021. In that article they are joined by two men who have continued Strickler’s trumpet style on recordings, Chris Tyle and Marc Caparone; the article also includes memories from Strickler’s daughter, Diane Breazeale.

The Ted Shafer session will hopefully be recorded by the end of summer and released in the fall. It will be based on the Northern California version of the Jelly Roll Jazz Band of about 1967. Continuing the series right in that 1960s pocket of time. The group included the cornet of Papa Ray Ronnei, a name connecting several of these albums, it also included Bob Mielke, trombone; Bob Helm, clarinet; Ray Skjelbred, piano; Ted Shafer, banjo; Jim Cumming, bass; and Vince Hickey, drums. The tentative lineup for this fifth West Coast Jazz Heritage Series album looks excellent and includes a couple of names yet to appear on the other sets. But until they hit the record button I won’t jinx anything by putting names in print.

Two other recordings deserve mention in this column, because Hal Smith stays too busy for me to keep up with.

He has a second live digital album upcoming. The San Francisco Jazz All-Stars as recorded at this year’s Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival. That set featured T.J. Muller, cornet; Tom Bartlett, trombone/vocals; John Otto, clarinet; Brian Holland, piano; John Gill, banjo/vocals; Dan Anderson, tuba; me, drums. Judging by the band name it should fit right in with the Heritage series even if it is not focused on a particular band.

Also in the revival period is the latest from Hal Smith’s New Orleans Night Owls. St. Louis Rag and Other Ragtime Classics was recorded and released by Rivermont Records. It focuses on ragtime tunes as covered by mid-century revivalist jazz bands. I will give it a full review at some point. The band includes T.J. Muller, Charlie Halloran, Ryan Calloway, Chris Tokarski, Bill Reinhart, Michael Gamble, and special guest Bill Mason, of the St. Louis Ragtimers.

Further afield Hal Smith has been working on a western swing recording, another style close to his heart. It should be out soon. The band includes Olen Dillingham, fiddle/mandolin; Mikiya Matsuda, steel guitar; Alice Spencer, vocals (3); Katie Shore, vocals (2 + 2nd fiddle); Rick Holzgrafe, trumpet; Kris Tokarski, piano (five tracks); Charles Chen, piano (five tracks); Bill Reinhart, rhythm guitar; Josh Hoag, string bass; and Hal on drums.

All of these albums, besides the Rivermont CD release, are or will be available as digital downloads from Hal Smith’s Bandcamp page. If you have been longing for the revival music of yore, this is a set of albums you need to add to your collection. Not enough CDs move these days to justify minimum printing requirements, and if the musicians don’t get paid albums like these won’t get made. You can burn them to CD if you really want to. You can pick up the three released albums for a total of $18.

Hal Smith has assembled legends and future legends of the jazz scene to pay tribute to those who helped keep jazz relevant to American life between 1945 and 1975 and inspired a festival culture that is still hanging on 50 years later. Not only is it a worthwhile project, it is excellent music with a sound not quite like anything else being recorded right now.

West Coast Jazz Heritage Series
Hal Smith
halsmith.bandcamp.com