I spent most of this summer in western New York instead of at my usual place, Potsdam in the St. Lawrence River valley, since my house there was occupied by graduate student tenants again this summer. This change of venue allowed me to attend two jazz events run by, respectively, the Queen City Jass Society and the Flower City Jazz Society.
On Sunday, July 11, I shuffled off to Buffalo for Queen City’s annual picnic, held at its customary location, Banchetti’s Grove in the Town(ship) of Amherst. About 110 people attended. The picnic was outside in a large tent, which was fortunate because it rained the entire afternoon (but no thunder to compete with the music). I learned about it by from QCJS’s Facebook page, but I knew of QCJS from their ads in this paper. I requested and received the necessary information in time to mail back a check.
Music was provided by the Chefs of Dixieland, a seven-piece band from Toledo that has performed for QCJS several times. This band is led by “Ragtime Rick” Grafing on piano and vocals, and includes his wife “Banjo Betsy” and son John on trumpet. The well-known clarinetist Ray Heitger is there (Ray also leads the Cakewalkin’ Jass Band), along with Wes Linenkugel on bass, Kevin Shope on trombone, and A.J. Cechner on drums.
The chefs of dixieland playing closer to home in
