Further information on the ” On The Levee” is found in

” 1940s-50s James Leigh ” and in ”Sidemen / Robin Hodes”.

After Bill Erickson took over the gig at Pier 23

the sessions were more popular with musicians than

ever before. The regular presence of a trio, rather than just a pianist, provided a real nucleus upon which visitors could augment; as often as not, solid bands of six or seven men played most of the night.

Across the street, at On The Levee, Kid Ory went on being (legitimately enough) resentful, but nothing came of it. As I’ve said, the basic trio was Erickson, a drummer, and, usually, a clarinetist. Bassists and trumpeters were especially welcome, and trombonists tolerated.

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Kid Ory was making a lot of personnel changes

across the Embarcadero. Early in 1960, well before Erickson came to work at the Pier, he had been in another band Ory had put together along with Bill Napier, and, for a time, Peter Allen.

(This had been half of Bob Mielke’s band, and the loss of manpower almost put him out of business.)

Twenty years after having been a pioneer revivalist in the Bay Area, with Watters, Turk,  and Co., the trumpeter Byron Berry had his turn on trumpet with Ory in 1962-63, and when he was not at On the Levee he was hanging out across the street at the Pier. The preponderant testimony of the musicians in question is that Ory was hard to work with in those days; some blamed this on his new wife’s firm hand in personnel matters.  One consequence was that he began forbidding his clarinetists to solo much above the low register, as if fearful that their higher flights would distract crowd attention from his bass clef growls. When Frank Goodie took his turn in Ory’s clarinet rotation, those were his orders; he didn’t stay long.

Heaven on the Side

A Jazz Life

By James Leigh

Published in Frisco Cricket Spring 2012.

Excerpted with permission from ”Heaven on the Side”, Chapter 20 © James Leigh 2000.