Always a pleasure reading your posts, Tom. Thanks.
Ya know, Mark... a question arising from this "exercise" is influenced by my discovery yesterday of Nicholas Lemann's comments in Tom Bethel's Feb., 2021 Obit, and I think you have the unique insight to evaluate my strong suspicion with.... alacrity.
Excerpted from my post above.:
https://www.nola.com/news/courts/article_ad55ed42-7308-11eb-8194-57d5cd366e53.htmlFebruary 19, 2021
"...
Bethell did manage to write about jazz. His book “George Lewis: A Jazzman From New Orleans,” a biography of the jazz trumpeter, was well received. Nicholas Lemann, who had befriended Bethell when both worked for The Courier, said Bethell wrote a 10,000-word piece, never published, on the cornetist Buddy Bolden.
..."
My research indicates this area of music history attracted the interest of a narrow, exclusive following.
Hank knew Squirrel...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_O%27NealHank O'Neal -
"During a 40-year career in music, he formed two record companies, Chiaroscuro Records and Hammond Music Enterprises, built two recording studios (WARP and ..."
Of Squirrel, Hank wrote,
https://jazzlives.wordpress.com/2019/01/28/hot-music-good-stories-lasting-friendship-kindnesses-hank-oneal-recalls-squirrel-ashcraft-nov-2-2018/"..I first learned about Squirrel through EDDIE CONDON’S SCRAPBOOK OF JAZZ (a book Eddie did with Hank) and then through Squirrel’s home recordings, later issued on rare lps by . . . Hank. Here’s the story of Squirrel’s career — about fifteen years — as an archivist of home recordings, often aluminum, including performances by Johnny Mercer, Joe Rushton, Jimmy McParland, ..Pee Wee Russell, and Squirrel’s later playing career in Washington, D.C., and sidelights on Jean Bach, Jimmy Dorsey, and jazz reunions at Princeton University from 1975-79:.."
"...He was also the man who first introduced me to an active jazz musician, in this case, Jimmy McPartland. Later, he would introduce me to many others,
and simply because he made the introduction, I was accepted by these men and women without question..."
"...In 1975, Jack Howe liberated a funny little band, affectionately called The Sons of Bix, from cornetist Tom Pletcher. Jack was an amateur tenor saxophone player, who’d been part of the in the Princeton Triangle Jazz band with Squirrel in the 1920s. He augmented the SOBs with Princeton alumni musicians, aided by the likes of Spencer Clarke, Bob Haggart, Max Kaminsky, Maxine Sullivan and others. The band only had one certain engagement each year, to play a class reunion at Princeton.
It turned out, however, the band played the reunion of the Class of 1929 or the Class of 1930, every year until at least 1982. Squirrel actually played a little piano on all the dates until 1981. I recorded the performances, which, as often as not, were presented in tents. Squirrel and Jack then chose their favorite tunes, and I arranged for a few LPs to be pressed up and distributed to the dwindling faithful. The records are often spirited, but not landmark recordings. A friendly souvenir, but little more. Much to my surprise, some of them have been listed in Tom Lord’s landmark The Jazz Discography.
In those years, if I had to be in Washington, for whatever reason, Squirrel’s Watson Place apartment was always open, whether Squirrel and his wife, Patter, were in residence or not. I haven’t stayed in a hotel in Washington since 1960; but to confess, I only went back a few times after Squirrel died in 1981. The last time I was there was at the urging of his wife. She telephoned in the mid-1980s and said she was cleaning out files and had found some correspondence from me..."
Mark, in case you've read this far and are wondering what the point is,
https://paw.princeton.edu/memorial/tilbury-ogers-freeman-’29
Tilbury Ogers Freeman ’
29"BUCK DIED Apr. 11, 1991. He had prepared at Irving and Horace Mann Schools, New York Military Academy, and Barnard. At Princeton he was in the Glee Club and belonged to Gateway Club, Bert Seay was his roommate. Upon graduation he went to the National Acceptance Bank of New York, which later merged with the Bank of Manhattan. In 1942 he went to Hamilton Standard Propellers in Hartford. After participating in various business enterprises, he sold his interest in a booming firm and started traveling. His hobby continued to be music, and he served as president of the Plainfield Mendelssohn Glee Club, and was a soloist both there and in the Grace Episcopal Choir. In 1934 he
married Irena Alexandrovna Bouche, and she survives, together with a son, Tilbury O. Jr. .."
Edwin "Squirrel" Ashcraft was an authority on 20th century Jazz History. He certainly knew who George Lewis was. Tom Bethel authored the definitive biographer of George Lewis and quite likely was acquainted with Squirrel Ashcraft.
Squirrel also happened to be the boss of William Burke and Lloyd Ray who succeeded Burke as head of the NOLA office of CIA domestic contacts because Squirrel Ashcraft headed that CIA department.
Squirrel's Princeton class of 1929 classmate was "Buck" Freeman of Plainfield, NJ. His name came to my attention because it appears as a sponsor on George Bouhe's application for U.S. citizenship. George Bouhe died in Plainfield, NJ, the city of residence of his sister, Freeman's wife. Buck Freeman certainly knew Squirrel Ashcraft, as his roommate, Bert Seay was a Triangle Players member at Princeton and Buck Freeman attended the class reunions.
https://aarclibrary.org/the-jfk-case-the-twelve-who-built-the-oswald-legend-part-6-white-russians-keep-an-eye-on-oswald-in-dallas/
...De Mohrenschildt was part of St. Nicholas’ choir when married to his Philadelphia wife. The other church, St. Seraphim’s, was located at 4203 Newton Street in Dallas, where Igor Voshinin attended and services were in English. Voshinin didn’t like Bouhe because he was very publicly in everyone’s business, saying things like “Well, you know, I forget things – so I keep a file on everybody.”
https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80B01676R003500010014-0.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bix_Beiderbeckehttps://www.google.com/books/edition/Jazz_and_Blues_Musicians_of_South_Caroli/774fEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=squirrel+ashcraft+triangle+players&pg=PA9&printsec=frontcover
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/princeton-triangle-jazz-band-mn0001456742/biographyPrinceton Triangle Jazz Band | Biography & History | AllMusic
Two members, cornetist and tenor guitarist Bill Priestley and accordionist Edwin Squirrel Ashcraft, were good friends with Bix Beiderbecke, who attended the ...
http://archives.nypl.org/mus/24607Eddie Condon papers, late 1800s-2010 [bulk 1935-1973]
... Chicago who were inspired by the trumpeters Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke. ... of Condon's children), Gene Krupa, and pianist Squirrel Ashcraft.
