New Orleans Jazz – News and Views – Sammy Penn
SAMMY PENN: Born Morgan City Louisiana September 15 1902. Passed Away Florida September 18 1969.
Allow’s start off a little in different ways this moment: to me, the greatest New Orleans drummers for my pleasure were Infant Dodds, Sammy Penn and Cie Frazier. But Sammy had a terrific second string to his bow. He sang with the very same phrasing as the legendary Fats Domino, and with his large stogie and also substantial smile was a master entertainer.
Sammy’s very first job was in 1921 with Jake Johnson’s band, after that with Chris Kelly’s Brass Band, Youngster Rena’s Brass Band as well as the fabulous Eureka Brass Band. He was the essence of the Kid Thomas band for a quarter of a century.
You must comprehend that entertainment was nitty-gritty. With Sammy Penn and Joe “Twat” Butler, Child Thomas Valentine had a showband. Vocalists, characters and Thomas with his renowned “bag of techniques” Not surprising that this band survived in New Orleans and after that toured the globe to represent the birthplace of jazz.
In a long interview with my friend Tom Stagg in his wonderful document shop “Good Rockin’,” he defines Sammy Penn’s drum set as “ultra fundamental” A bass drum, a snare drum, a tom-tom and also a cymbal affixed to the bass drum. As Tom bears in mind, he drove the band relentlessly as well as with an impressive complexity of rhythmic noises. This kit was simple yet the rhythm was anything, however!
This is Tom’s recollection of the recently of his life. “Sammy returned from a physician’s visit with the information that he had very high blood pressure as well as heart whisperings. Sammy dipped into Conservation Hall that evening as well as after another session with the Kid Thomas Band packed their gear on a bus outside the Hall on St. Peters Street and triggered with Sammy for an excursion via Georgia to Florida. After just one performance, the bus went back to the Hall with only the driver, the roadway supervisor and the body of Sammy Penn
. Talking to Barry Martyn, he rates Sammy Penn extremely in great drummers from New Orleans. Sammy played 4/4 on the bass drum and also not the more acquainted cut time of New Orleans drummers. George Lewis preferred that 4/4 noise and Joe Watkins played that way, however without the eruptive accents and complicated rhythms of Sammy Penn. Barry had the good fortune to sit in with the Youngster Thomas Band and discovered that he can not hear himself and had to change his quantity and design to suit the band.
So Sammy Penn was the drummer for Child Thomas as well as his Algiers Stompers as well as spent the major part of his playing life with that said band. As Barry Martyn claimed “When Joe James, as well as Sammy, died the band would certainly never ever be rather the very same again”
To hear him at his finest, you should pay attention to “Child Thomas Valentine Creole Big Band on American Music AMCD 49 as well as “Youngster Thomas and also his Algiers Stompers” on Riverside OJCCD 1833-2. My excellent joy is actually seeing the man at work on a DVD of the December Band generated by Huge Expense Bissonnette (perhaps still offered by contacting him on his Jazz Campaign internet site – jazzcrusade.com).
Sammy Penn was a one-off and we are lucky to have records to listen to. In Australia, the late fantastic Peter Clohesy was affected by him and also in Europe both Keith Minter, Emile Martyn and also Chris Marchant program indicators of having actually paid attention to this “initial”.
My following piece will be an interview with Les Muscutt -a superb banjo gamer from the U.K. that made a massive perception on the New Orleans jazz scene. Because of illness, he retired lately and also I make certain you will discover his story intriguing! P.S. A last-minute telephone call from Barry Martyn to say that his newest video on American Music AMVD4 will feature Kid Thomas with Sammy Penn, plus the Child Howard band and also lots of various other good ideas!
Article Source: Written By Geoff Gilbert
http://EzineArticles.com/3406430
