The Millpond Tavern was the home of the Galvanized Jazz Band for 25 years, starting on the first Sunday of January in 1971 when we brought Louis Nelson up from New Orleans and Tommy Benford from New York to kick off the regular Sunday series with a full seven-piece band including Fred Vigorito on cornet, Noel Kaletsky on clarinet and saxophones, Bill Sinclair on piano, Mark Finks on banjo, and Art Hovey on tuba and bass. Our recording with Nelson and Benford was made on that same weekend, and is now available on CD as BCD-467.
As mentioned in the previous article, we went back to a trio format with washboard in the ensuing weeks, but as we gradually expanded the band our audience expanded proportionally. (Bringing Fred and Noel back into the regular lineup resulted in substantial increases.) Also around that time the Connecticut “blue laws” were changed, so we were able to play from 6:30 to 10:30 PM on Sundays.
In April of 1971 we began trying out trombonists at the Millpond. At that time there weren’t many suitable candidates in our area, but Noel remembered the name of a guy from Rhode Island he had heard a few years before and we gave him a call. His first Sunday with us at the Millpond was the day we got back from the New Orleans festival described in our previous article. Having been up all night and having traveled all day, we were a bit groggy; I remember thinking that
