HISTORICAL
FIRST TIME
RELEASE!!
KL-4     NICK LaROCCA - 1960
"LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT"
The Story Of Jazz As Told By
Nick & Discussion On BIX
BEIDERBECKE

    In 1960, a young writer/researcher named Phil Evans was busy working on a writing project
    that would last the rest of his life. Phil started his quest with full speed back in 1954, though
    he'd been poking around before that. He was collecting every living memory he could find on
    the life of BIX BEIDERBECKE. It was a journey that was to make him a life-long friend of
    almost every friend, family member or musical associate of BIX. By the late 1950's, Phil had
    reunited the surviving members of the Jean Goldkette Victor Recording Orchestra. Most of the
    boys hadn't been in touch with each other for many years. They were very, very thankful that
    Phil had reunited them, and he wanted to hear every story and find every fact that he could
    about the Goldkette Orchestra. To a man they were proud of that band, and considered Phil
    Evans, their scribe. In the 1960's Phil had the same relationship with the members of the
    Paul Whiteman Orchestra. He attended the "Members Only" Whiteman Reunions, and the
    boys made him a honorary member of the 1928 Paul Whiteman Orchestra. A true honor,
    indeed!

        The second week of June, 1960 brought a Reel-To-Reel tape to Bakersfield, CA., and to
    Phil. It was quite a remarkable tape. It was tape that had been sent from New Orleans. It had
    covered 2047 miles in a few days. It had also covered 43 years in a little over an hour. The
    words came from a man who didn't have very much time left in life, and he knew it. But he
    had something he wanted to say, something he NEEDED to say. And at the time, it seemed
    that nobody wanted to hear what he had to say. What he had to say was quite simple. He had
    invented Jazz., and he could prove it. What he needed was someone who would just listen to
    the facts. THEN they could judge him. Most "Jazz Critics"didn't even bother to do that. What
    they simply did was to dismiss Nick LaRocca, and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, as a
    cheap knock-off of the music said to have been born on Basin Street in brothels, and raised
    in smoky honky-tonk's in Storyville. What Nick LaRocca claimed was that jazz was NOT born
    in New Orleans. It was born in Chicago, discovered and played by New Orleans musicians
    while they were performing in Chicago.

     So, it was quite obvious that Nick wasn't going to get much hometown support or sympathy
    by popping out statements like that. Having fallen out with most of the other band members
    over the years, Nick was pretty much on his own with his claims. And the jazz "historians"
    tended to write Nick off as a nut case who had very little, if any impact on Jazz. Old interviews
    surfaced almost 40 years later, and on some of these interviews, a very frustrated Nick would
    lose his patience and said the dreaded "N" word. He did, and there is no doubt that. Which
    is something you just can't do. Even if you are dead, and have been for 40 years, you will pay
    the price. So Nick was taken to the gallows of Jazz History, and paid the price in the Ken
    Burns New History Of Jazz Series. This was the "new" history of jazz, not the real one which
    had been very well documented for over 70 years. This new history made many claims and
    stated many facts about the pioneers of this music. Facts that even they themselves didn't
    know about the music that they were playing and refining every day of their lives. We were told
    how and why a certain musician played what and the way that he did. We were told what they
    thought, and how they felt when certain recordings were made. These people were THAT
    good! And this now is the history of jazz that is presented in schools today. They gladly played
    a clip of Nick LaRocca using that terrible (and rightly so) "N" word, and dismissed him at
    once of being someone of any importance to jazz, or to anything else for that matter. They
    even scaled down the claim that he was the main influence of Bix Beiderbecke, a claim made
    by Bix himself on many occasions. But Bix is the "Poster Boy" of jazz fantasy. Since his death
    in

    1931, almost anybody can, and did write just about any story that they could make up about
    Bix, and make it stick. And Nick LaRocca? Well, he was shoved
     further into the void.

      Then that old Reel-To-Reel tape that was recorded in New Orleans re-surfaced. In 1999, Phil
    Evans passed away. He was a true "Gentle-Man" that not many people knew very much
    about. Many thought that they did by reading what a few "historians" had put into print. In
    this respect Phil suffered the same fate that Bix did by those who had a reputation to gain by
    a few well placed lies. These "writers" also made a good living by helping themselves to
    Phil's research without proper or any, credit. In the end Phil Evans died from a heart attack
    brought on by stress from a horrible depression over a bogus lawsuit filed by a pathetic
    individual who claimed that Phil Evans had stolen HIS research for Phil's 1998 book on Bix.
    The lawsuit ended up being a joke when it came to court a few months after Phil's death. In
    Federal Court this "writer" was shown to have used Phil's research verbatim at least 159
    times in his so-called "book". But his lawyers had made almost daily threats to Phil. They
    had filed injunctions to stop the sale of his book, a book of which he had every cent he owned
    tied up in. Another writer sent word to Phil that he would "own his house" if any of HIS words
    ended up in the new book! And what this person had published came straight from the Evans
    archives, which he then changed to fit his own agenda.

     It was just too much for him. His already frail health collapsed with a massive heart attack,
    and he died at 62. All he wanted to do was to tell the true life story of Bix Beiderbecke. And in
    the near future, he will have done just that. A HUGE book is being worked on at this writing.
    Hundreds of hours of interviews (such as this one) are being transcribed, as well as thousands
    of letters. The result will be that the life of Bix Beiderbecke can be told in the "first person"
    words of those who knew and loved him. No opinions offered, just their words. It's the only
    way that people will really get to know and understand Bix.  (See Bottom)

      Phil had a huge collection of Reel-To-Reel tapes that had been sent to him by scores of
    people over the years. Many even go back as far as the early 1950's. After his death, an
    amazing and wonderful discovery was made. Due to the ideal conditions in Bakersfield, and
    also due to being kept in a dark closet for many years, almost all of these tapes sound as
    good as they did on the day they were made. They are all wonderful time capsules of jazz
    history. But there was one tape that really stood out. And it wasn't just about Bix
    Beiderbecke!

      At the beginning of one of these priceless tapes, a proud voice declares,
    "This is the voice....of Dominick James LaRocca. Better known as "Nick" LaRocca. Leader,
    Organizer and Manager of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. The world's first Jazz Band. I am
    making this tape especially for Phil Evans, of Bakersfield, California. This is being done on
    June the Sixth, in the year of Nineteen Hundred And Sixty." This voice comes to us through the
    years as someone who is speaking to future generations, not to just one man. Nick then
    answers a few questions that had been presented to him about Bix Beiderbecke. He
    comments about Bix's recordings were from a tape that Phil had made for him. Many of these
    recordings of Bix were heard by Nick for the first time. For a man who wasn't too fond of those
    who played jazz after himself, the praise he freely gives to Bix is something to hear.

      Nick then gives Phil, and all of us a history lesson on jazz. He tells how and where Jazz got
    it's start, and by whom. His version of how he came to write "Tiger Rag" may not match the
    color of that in Jelly Roll Morton's version, but it is more believable. His admiration of Bix is
    exceeded only by his dislike for Joseph "King" Oliver. He plays old records from his own
    collection to demonstrate how the ODJB started this music known as Jazz. Also, how and by
    whom had stolen it from them. His knowledge of Bechet, W.C. Handy and many other
    musicians is vast. Nick seems to know this is his last chance. His last chance to tell his story
    in hope that Phil Evans will pass it on to those in the future who are seeking the truth. He does
    not use the "N" word on this recording. But he does use the word "Negro" on many
    occasions, which was a term that was commonly in use back in 1960.

         People are going to say and write what they want to about Nick LaRocca. But Nick
    was a very strong, and a very clean cornet player. He never misses a note on
    recordings, and he sounds as strong at the finish as he did when counting off a
    number. In the mid 1920's, Nick laid his cornet down for over a decade. And when
    the call came to re-organize his historical jazz band, Nick picked up his cornet again
    and roared back into the limelight with the same fire that he had displayed in 1917.
    Nick LaRocca deserves to be judged fairly for his talent as well as the historical
    events that are documented about the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. He was not a
    soloist. However, Nick LaRocca was one of the earliest and strongest players in jazz.

    Bix Beiderbecke thought so too, and that's good enough for me!
    ************************************************************************************************

    When the book on the life of Bix Beiderbecke is released, Kazoo Lips Productions will
    be releasing a Limited Edition of CD's made from the hundreds of hours of taped
    interviews of those who knew and those who worked with Bix. You will have the chance
    to listen to Jack Teagarden, Frank Trumbauer, Paul Whiteman, Jean Goldkette, Louis
    Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Bill Rank, Chauncey Morehouse, Bill Challis, Eddie Condon,
    Frank Signorelli, Paul Mertz, Steve Brown, Spiegle Willcox and countless others, as well
    as various members of the Beiderbecke family, Bix's friends and girlfriends. They were
    devoted to Bix and his memory, and quite protective of him for decades after his death.
    They were also quite verbal about those who had made up totally untrue stories about
    Bix, and put them into print. Even after all these years, there are still a few people out
    there who do not want this information to come out. For them, their claim to fame is
    based on their "superior" knowledge of Bix. This series of CD's will be coming directly
    from THE legendary collection of Philip R. Evans. They  will expose the so-called self-
    proclaimed "Bix Scholars" as nothing more than a bunch of fools regurgitating four
    generations of BS made up by a scant few wanting to get their name into print. To
    quote Bill Challis directly from a 1961 tape, "These stories get started by a
    couple of jerks. Then other jerks write about it, and the next thing you
    know, everybody thinks it's the truth! He DIDN'T deserve that! He was a
    very sweet guy, a GOOD guy! Talk about a guy that would give you the
    shirt off his back, even though you wouldn't want it, or his last cent,
    THAT was the Bix that I knew!"  You'll love it, I promise.

                                                              
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