The Firehouse Five Story, Vol. 1 - The Firehouse 5 Plus 2

 

Fireman's Lament

The Firehouse Five Story

Volume 1

The Firehouse 5 Plus 2

Supervision: Lester Koenig

Recorded at Radio Recorder's Studio B in Hollywood, Calif.

Engineer: Lowell Frank

Cover Design: L. C. LeGoullon

Good Time Jazz Record Co. GTJ L-12010

1955

These selections were previously issued by GTJ on ten-inch long playing records L-1 & L-2. They have been remastered and reprocessed in 1955 using latest audio-engineering techniques for improved quality.

From the back cover: The FH5 Story, Part I

During 1949 a seven piece jazz band calling itself the Firehouse Five Plus Two burst upon a startled nation playing their own highly original version of jazz of the Twenties, which the smart money had pegged as deader than Prohibition. They became an overnight sensation, spearheaded The Great Dixieland Revival, and brought back the Charleston. At the year's end, when they hit the Mocambo, Hollywood's famed glamour club on the Sunset Strip, they had become the hottest thing in the band business. What is more remarkable, they did all this in their spare time, for they were not professional musicians.

Their story began several years before, at the Walt Disney studios in Hollywood, where a group of animators, writers, and technicians who loved jazz, used to gather in Ward Kimball's office at lunch time to listen to records, and play along with the phonograph. They had no intention of starting a jazz band, but one day the phonograph broke down; they decided to see what would happen if they sounded off without it; and they were in business.

At first they played for their own amusement at weekly get-togethers in living rooms. Then the word got around, and they were asked to play at friends' parties, and an occasional public dance sponsored by local jazz enthusiasts. The personnel of the band at that time included Disneyites Ward Kimball (trombone), Frank Thomas (piano), Clarke Mallery (clarinet), Jim MacDonald (drums), and Ed Penner (bass sax). One night at a party, Ward and Clarke met Johnny Lucas, a young Pasadena trumpet player, who impressed them so much that they invited him to their next session. Johnny became a fixture, and is heard on the first four recordings. Later, on a vacation rail-fan excursion on the old narrow gauge Denver-Rio Grande in Colorado, Ward met artist Harper Goff who "just happened to have his banjo with him." They struck up a few tunes (Ward had his harmonica), and the next informal session of the band found Harper firmly installed in the banjo chair.

At first, the band was known as "The Hugageedy 8" (a reference to their passion for antique cars), then as "The San Gabriel Valley Blue Blowers" (the Kimball's live in San Gabriel, a suburb of Los Angeles). Their third and final name came in round-about fashion: Ward and his wife, Betty, had long been ardent members of the Southern California Horseless Carriage Club, and rarely missed a caravan, for which they'd get out their linen dusters and goggles, and their 1913 Ford. Since the point of these outings was to have a good time, they decided to compound their pleasure by bringing the band along. But what to ride in? It had to be older than 1914 to qualify, and it had to hold seven musicians. After weeks of searching, a 1914 American La France fire-truck (see cover) was purchased from the city of Venice, California, for $225. It took six months to get it in shape, equipped with workable fire-fighting apparatus, and painted properly, Red fire shirts, white suspenders, authentic fire helmets were acquired, and so, early in 1949 the famous Firehouse Five Plus Two ("Available for dances, weddings, picnics, wakes.") emerged upon the scene.

Shortly after, they were the hit of a spectacular Horseless Carriage Caravan (sponsored by General Petroleum) to San Diego, with people dancing in the streets along the route; they played a benefit for the late Bud Scott, banjoist and guitarist for the Ory band; made their first two records for Good Times Jazz; the Beverly Carvern, a small night club specializing in jazz, hired them for a series of Monday night sessions.

The New Orleans influence on West Coast jazz, particularly the San Francisco division under the leadership of Lu Waters and Turk Murphy, has been strong for many years. It was inevitable the band would feel its impact. From the beginning they developed along New Orleans lines, with emphasis on an original and exuberant ensemble style. They'd heard the Oliver, Morton, Dodds and Armstrong records, and liked them. Even more important, they profited from association with such friendly New Orleans musicians as Kid Cry, Minor Hall, Ed Garland, Joe Darensbourg, Zutie Singleton and Albert Nicholas, who came to their sessions and played with them.

Up to this time, they thought their only appeal was to jazz fans. But they began to find ordinary people, who had never heard of the jazz cults, like the music when they heard it. From mid-summer on, they became increasingly popular, and wherever they played (an average of three times a week for dances, private parties, civic affairs, parades, and benefits throughout the West) they won new friends for jazz.

Many explanations have been offered for FH5's spectacular rise, ranging from "sociological" analyses to notions of jealous brethren in other less successful bands attributing their success to the fact they wear fireboats and ride in a firetruck. One analyst appears in print with the theory their popularity signifies a longing on the part of The Public to return to happier days of The Twenties, before the Great Depression, World War II, and A&H Bombs, and the Cold War. They have also been labeled "a reaction to bop." Perhaps the simplest explanation comes closest to the truth. They are in the unique and extremely fortunate position of playing only because they enjoy it. Their own enthusiasm or jazz, and enjoyment in playing, are contagious and have been responsible for making a great many people, for the first time, aware of the vitality and gaiety inherent in the traditional jazz style. Perhaps a good part of their success in this connection comes from the fact that they are not literal copyists of the past. They brought their own personalities, and a fresh, original approach to the jazz classics, taking them out of the museum and making them live again for a new generation.

Johnny Lucas and Jim MacDonald found it difficult to maintain the new and expanded FH5 schedule; Danny Alguire and Monte Mountjoy joined the band on cornet and drums. Both had been professional musicians who loved jazz but never had a chance to play it. When the FH5 offer came, they leaped at it, and remained with the band through the rise to fame which reached a peak at the year's end when they moved the Monday night sessions from the Beverly Cavern to the Mocambo. At the Mocambo, their revival of the Charleston and their uninhibited, happy music, put them in the national spotlight, and started them on an even more spectacular year in 1950. ( Part II of The FH5 Story is continued in GTJ L-12011) – Lester Young - October 31, 1955

Firehouse Stomp

Everybody Loves My Baby

Pagan Love Song

San

Fireman's Lament

Blues My Naughty Sweetie

Yes Sir! That's My Baby

Red Hot River Valley

Riverside Blues

Brass Bell

World Is Waiting For The Sunrise

Tiger Rag