Seventy-five years ago, I was introduced to trad and big band jazz. A close friend, Don Boyer, asked me if I had any jazz records. I told him I had no records, and I knew very little about jazz. He invited me to his home and he played two 78s: Wild Bill Davison on one and a Basie tune. I was hooked!
Wild Bill and Basie have remained at the top of my list since then. Almost 40 years later, I called Wild Bill to play in the first year of the Elkhart Jazz Festival. In addition the Basie band came to town. Thanks to Don Boyer, I’ve enjoyed a close, caring experience with jazz, especially the Elkhart Jazz Festival. The EJF celebrated its 37th birthday in June.
The Elkhart Jazz Festival began in July 1988. After much consideration, the downtown area was selected for the festival. Another jazz promoter insisted on an area close to the Elkhart airport. He wanted a New Orleans style festival with tents. I talked to several downtown store managers about supporting the downtown EJF and several promised their support.
When July 1988 came around, the jazz fans could choose between the two festivals. The one near the airport had a decent lineup but the weather for all three days was in the 100s! We had air conditioning in most of our downtown venues. That was the first and last time for the tent festival.
That first year did have some problems for me during the preparation. I asked several of the store managers to give us a hand. Fortunately, they formed a board of Elkhartans who favored the downtown venue. I made reports weekly to the board during the preparation.
One person who spent a lot of his time working with me to get the festival going. Bill Miller, who owned all the Elkhart movie theaters and wanted to do a test to check the popularity of jazz in our area. I hired the Blue Wisp big band from the Cincinnati area and a Michigan band, the Jim Dapogny Jazz Band. From that info, we found out that jazz is truly popular in the Elkhart area.
Bill and I agreed to be at the Lerner Theatre where his office was located. The Dapogny band was scheduled for the next night. I was there at 4 p.m., the time he suggested but …no Bill. I finally did find out from an employee that Bill had gone to talk with the manager of one of his theaters on the south side of town. It did appear they had a nasty argument and the theater manager shot and killed Bill and put him in a closet. Bill’s son, Phil, called me that evening and told me they had found Bill’s body and arrested the theater manager who was later proved guilty. (Read More.)
Phil flew to be with his mother in Elkhart. He decided to remain in Elkhart and help run the theater business as well as assist me with planning the festival. He agreed to be the leader for the festival and I became the talent chair. Phil was an excellent leader.
The first three years of the festival could not support the festival through ticket sales but the sponsors came through each year. From 199l until today I assume the ticket sales did a good job of supporting the EJF.
When I began hiring musicians for the fest, I was advised to let the musicians know this is the first year so the salaries would be about half of what some festivals spent. None of the folks who have worked on the festival have been paid; they received what I did, free tickets. Furthermore, after the festival started drawing big crowds, the empty stores were back in business and they’ve stayed that way for the most part.
After the third year, I was questioned about the need for any more festivals. I crossed my two fingers and told them that we would make a profit, and by golly, we did! Since I retired as talent chair in 2015, the festival is still very much alive!
Back to Wild Bill Davison, he was one of the first musicians I called for the ’88 festival. He played in ’88 and ’89. We honored Eddie Condon the first year and Wild Bill, the second. He received several awards the second year in Elkhart, and he definitely enjoyed being the center of attention.
Bill left the festival with his awards but he also left a bit angry with me. When he arrived in Elkhart, as with all of the festival musicians, I showed him his schedule. He was pleased with most of it but the last one made him angry. I had scheduled his last set with a sextet.
When he saw that Dave McKenna was the pianist, he told me to get a different trumpeter. I told him all the bands were set and he would have to do the gig with McKenna. He then told me that if he had to play with McKenna, he would leave and go back to California. When I reminded him that he waws being honored at the festival, he then said he would handle it his way!
The people who set up the venues told me that Bill had gone to the stage and turned the piano around so he wouldn’t see McKenna. I was late getting to the gig and saw Dave standing behind the piano while playing it. When they took a break, I told the venue manager to turn the piano around. Wild Bill was furious but they did finish the gig. (For the record, the performance was video taped and has been on line.)
The following year Bill became very ill and in a coma. His friend, trumpeter Tom Saunders, flew to California to try to bring him out of the coma by playing his horn, but Wild Bill did not awaken. He passed away the next morning.
I’m pleased to note that I have had good luck with practically all the musicians I hired since that first year. I had some serious questions about the festival that needed answers. First, I wanted to make sure that the Elkhart black community should have a role. I talked to the ministers of two black churches and they agreed to bring their choirs for the Saturday afternoon show. When they finished singing and left the stage, I stood there and gave each of them a pass for the rest of the festival! And they used them!
As a former musician in a service band, I contacted the Navy Commodores. They told me they would not need payment but we could pay for their hotel bill. The band was well received so I decided to request that they return and got a strong “yes!”
The following year I called the U.S. Army Ambassadors who replied they might be on tour on the festival date. When the Navy heard, they were somewhat angry. Both bands had good attendance. For their last performance on Sunday, we had forty chairs set up and they played as one band! They had never done that before, and both bands told me that they were very pleased. So was I!
For the first few years, I arranged to have high school bands do a Saturday concert. I called the jazz band directors who cooperated with the plan. I decided to have the festival teachers select the students to play with them at the festival on Friday. We used them on our Main Street stage which was a free venue for every one. A few hundred folks were in the audience!
When I became familiar with Wild Bill and the Basie band, I was pleased to have them at the festival. Count Basie died five years before the first EJF but the band did make it . I called them while they were in Japan but they were too busy to talk then. When they did call from Japan, it was four o’clock in the morning at the Young abode. Then when they arrived from Japan, their bus pulled up in front of the Lerner Theatre and I got on the bus to tell the driver to take the bus to the alley in the back of the theater. When the band heard me say that, I received some loud boos. I explained the door there lead directly to their dressing room. I had a small group of all stars doing a late ten to twelve performance. I think the entire Basie lined up to sit in with the group. As I recall, there were no drummers in that line. Drummer Butch Miles played without a break for over two hours but he did not complain. We had a crowd of over a hundred people in a room built for 50!
I learned a lot about running a festival from the first two years. After 27 years, I retired, mainly because of a my health. I enjoyed every minute of each of the festivals. I’m cutting this article short because it could easily be a book if I did all the years I was involved. Most of the musicians I had have passed away but you can see several online videos made at the festival. It’s still very much alive and it will be on Main Street in Elkhart on the third weekend of June…I hope to see you there.
Van Young sent in this piece in Dec. 2022 and it got lost in the shuffle. I’m happy to have unearthed it! Van has sent us many great articles since we started and this one is a perennial. My thanks to Van for his work and my apologies to Van for the delay in publishing it!
Van Young has helped keep the Elkhart Jazz Festival a swinging proposition for the past three decades. He also hosted Patterns in Jazz, Sundays at noon (Central) at WGCS-FM 91.1, Goshen, IN.
He wrote a series of short memories from his interactions with jazz folk over the years. These don't count against your monthly article limit.
