Daily News from New York, New York • 64

.11 LAM 11 1 1 I ii i ii yn -Mi i i um i is ii mt i J'r I 'v- a t- v. y. 1 1 Jr ii -iti Vi I- lVNXf 11 A-A 3 Jazz Buffs 4 v1 i.i iiEmiiiiiiiiiLfeirfc-wJfcraft Dixieland has realljr taken aver on Second and the kids from 18 to 80 are wild about it. A one buff 1 tears a rugY another amuses girls tA. with imitation of Bis; Chief Moore, the trombonist lwho sends them at the Central Plaza.

i By ROBERT SYLVESTER TTXIELAND jazz originated with Negro funeral parades in New Orleans, grew up in bawdy houses and saloons, and has finally been accepted as a concert art The music has found. favor in some strange in its day, but nobody connected with it ever suspected that two of its most successful shrines would be Jewish wedding halls in lower Second New York. a V- its What Dixieland jazz is doing at the (Central Plaza and Stuyvesant Casino has everybody," including the musicians, a little confused. Yet the fact remains that Friday night con-cert at these big halls often draw 1,500 or more jazz buffs. This attendance considerably exceeds the number of customers drawn on any one night by all the jazz saloons combined.

Second Ave. itself possibly still remembering the great theatre of Jaeo! Adler and Maurice Schwartz pays little attention to tha noises emanating from its two meeting halls. Cut the jazz fans pour-in from everywhere. life, but the story was to have a bitter ending. Within a year the old jaz- man was back in the New Iberia rice fields, where he died, and Williams, discouraged by repeated failure to revive other old-time jazz greats, went broke and committed suicide.

The fact that jazz hounds could find the Stuyvesant Casino, which they had never heard of before, impressed Crystal and Blum as well as another' youns jazz entrepreneur named Bob Maltz. A bit more than two years ago, Maltz Started Dixieland sessions at Central Plaza and soon thereafter moved across the street to the Stuyvesant. Crystal and Blum then came to the Central Plaza as bookers and "artistic directors' for Birns. The phenomenon has drawn one iKiuncer and -we roally den ncpd him." the attention of such interred parties as the New York Although the development of Second Ave. as a jazz center is police and a psychiatrist do- larirely the work of Jack Crystal fnsr research.

When, for in and Lou Ilium, two veteran Dixie land authoritms who run the fanned stance, some 700 youngsters packed into Central Plaza and Commodore Music Shop and have been promoting jam sessions Sot years, the naga began just after World War li and really started in Persistence Pays Backers at Last started dancing on tables while the loudest available the rice news of New Iberia, iju It was in the ric fields of New we've got TOO people we do $700 worth of drinks." The boys also ret $1.25 for admission to the hall, from the drop-in trade, hut regulars get in cheaper. They have issued thousands of Iberia that Gene Williams; a stu dent of New Orleans jazz, Itunk Johnson workine for labor- "We lost money every week for eight months," Crystal recalls, "and I expected Bernard to fold up. Instead, he seemed delighted with the whole idea, losses and alL So we stuck with it and now we're makinj solid profits and doing so well that we've started Sunday afternoon jazz concerts also. It's seven musicians played "High Society," the New York police naturally felt the place needed inspection. It was inspected by Police Commissioner Ceorge Monaghan and by Dis er's pay.

Bunk was one of tbe first "membership cards" which admit of the New Orleans jam jrreats and two people for $1.67, and they have built a mailing list of 20,000 names irom a series of giveaways and was one of the early teachers of the famed Louis Armstrong. Bunk himself wasn't quite sure how old he was when Williams found him, but he did know he had lost most wonderful. Families come and ranies wnicn distribute rare jazz records and other prizes to win trict Attorney Frank Hogan. ners. They have also reached out brine the kids." THE Central Plaza is wonderful in several respects, as Crystal oi nis teem and didn have a cor to considerable distances for par-.

i .1 net to play even if he had any wes ana me group trade. teetn. "IFe had the Jazz Annrrriatinn insists. For one thine, it is what Williams got together a fund which outfitted Bunk with, store Society of Schenectady," Crystal relate. "Now, there's a hardy night club owners call a cute operation.

Meaning that it can get the maximum money possible at teeth and a new horn. Then Wil ing In" and "Clarinet Marmalade and "That's a Plenty" and other hoary jazz classics. The tailgaters look upon bop and the "new sounds" of modern jazz with appalled contempt. And, it must ba added, vice versa. Thus, the theme song of Central Plaza and Stayvesant Casi no, on Friday nights, is "When The Saints Come Marching In." The published version of this old marching hymn is credited to Edward C.

Redding, but most jazzmen are convinced tha song just grew. Whatever its origin, it is scarcely a lyric of complication or intricacy. But the Dixieland buffs on Second Ave. know every word of every chorus, the principal one of which goes as follows: I am jutt a weary pilgrim Plodding through, this world of sin, Getting ready for that city if hen the saints tome marching in- When, the saints come tnarckiag When the saints tome marching Ok I want to be in that number When the saints come marching in. At Central' Plata, the opL-rf mob.

orty of them hired but, drove term hour to get here, danced all night, left here and visited a few of the jazz oaloons. liams brought the old jazs star to the very minimum of operating expense. "We have two waiters for "700 people, Birns explains. "That's all we need. We sell beer by the pitcher.

Any of our customers who got oaeie tn the but at 9 clock the next morning and drove seres hourt to get back home. That' the "They were impressed, says Bernard Birnir, who owns Central I'laza with hi father. "They greed that the concerts are a very healthy and happy way for kids let off steam." Although lh tanunl vititor might emili 6 pmuaded he it tit lunatic nnyltim en aia firtt risit to Central I'laza, th plaef hat ttever had any trrioui trouble. A youth t' liable to jump vp from kit table, grab a girl Mho earn with tome bod )f ehe, do fit' minute mf fat, acrobatic dancing, and then literati if fiina tha gal back into th arms of her etcort. A'o-bndu, including the etcort, tver take, offente, ll't jutt part of the trcitemcnt pattern.

"We have a much better punching record than El Morocco," Birns avers. "We've never had a serious fight In the place. The proof of this is that we only have 1 kind of fans ve like to have. You wants a pitcher is usually in such can't discourage them." a hurry that be runs and eets it himself. We also serve whisky.

There is doubtless no musitf fan New York and looked around for good setting for him. Nobody seems to know how or why he settled on the Stuyvesant Casino, but he did. The Johnson jazs band (the other members were Dixielanders almost as eld as Bunk) -was an artistic and financial success for a while. It wm also instructive for some of our modern jazz musicians who were surprised to learn from Bunk that "St. Louis Blues" was but not much is sold.

Lots of the brine their own bottles. We quite as violent as a jazz fan and this is partly because jazz fans are divided into several cults. The cult which patronizes Central Plaza and don't care what they drink as long as they behave. Experience has also taueht Stuyvesant Casino is variously Birns, Crystal and Blum to predict known as the "two-beat mob" and the "tailgate cats." originally written as a tango and that Johnson would only play it The tail eaters worshio Mew Or just how much money any crowd will spend for beer and drinks. "We eet (1 for each person," they ex- leans and Chicago jazz.

Their songs Bunk was afe for the rest of his 'plain. "It hardly ever vanes. IX are "When The Saints Come March.