Timex All Star Jazz Show Celebration Part 3: Rehearsal With Gene Krupa, Bobby Hackett and Dizzy Gillespie

In case you’d like to catch up on this series devoted to the Timex All Star Jazz Show of January 7, 1959, we’ve already published a first part that shared the initial script and photos of the rehearsal that took place on January 5, and a second part that covered the first half of the January 6 rehearsal when Louis joined Duke Ellington and a host of jazz legends for what must have been an unforgettable jam session.

As glimpsed in the Maynard Frank Wolfe photos from that session, Gene Krupa had arrived from Chicago, having missed his scheduled time to rehearse with Louis and the All Stars the previous evening. All Stars drummer Danny Barcelona can also be glimpsed in the background of some of those photos, but he doesn’t seem to have played during the January 6 festivities. However, Barcelona did bring his cymbals and Ludwig drums, which Krupa would use when it was his time to rehearse (thank you to dear reader–and Armstrong super-fan–Bernard Flegar for this detail!). Thus, we’ll begin with a Wolfe photo of Krupa and crew bringing Barcelona’s drums over to the center of the studio:

Now, if you take a look in the background, you’ll spy Louis sitting down, talking to a balding man. Thanks to another devoted reader Thorbjørn Sjøgren for letting us know that that is none other than Timme Rosenkrantz, the Danish “Jazz Baron,” and a close friend of Louis’s who split his time between New York and Copenhagen. Thank you, Thorbjørn!

Photographer Wolfe must have seen the camaraderie between Armstrong and Rosenkrantz and headed over to that part of the studio to take some photos of the two old friends:

In addition to Rosenkrantz, you’ll see many other faces in the background of these photos, most of them the crew for the show. Here are two pages of names from Louis’s script listing everyone, good to share for the sake of the memory of all those present–if anyone can identify anyone else, let us know!

For good measure, as Krupa set up, Wolfe also got a photo of Bobby Hackett talking with Armstrong’s clarinetist, Peanuts Hucko:

Here’s Louis talking things over with Gene before they played:

As envisioned in the original script, Armstrong was to do one feature with Bobby Hackett and another feature with Krupa. As posited in part one, Armstrong added “Now You Has Jazz” to his plate during the first rehearsal, so it must have been decided to combine the Hackett and Krupa guest appearances into one single jam with the All Stars (yet another name would be added to this portion of the program, but we’ll discuss her involvement in the next part).

Wolfe explored the rehearsal space and shot from a variety of angles. Thus, there isn’t much to say other than please enjoy these photos of Louis Armstrong rehearsing with Bobby Hackett, Gene Krupa, Peanuts Hucko, Trummy Young, Billy Kyle, and Mort Herbert! (And if you look in the background, you’ll see Quentin “Butter” Jackson, Harold “Shorty” Baker, Paul Gonsalves, and Cat Anderson from the Ellington band, content to hang around and enjoy the music.)

A great glimpse into what Armstrong saw as he rehearsed–an audience!

George T. Simon can be seen checking his watch; goodness knows what time it was by this point:

Once everyone was content, Krupa, the All Stars, and Hackett were allowed to leave. But as Hackett prepared to make his departure, in walked another legendary trumpet (who happened to live in Corona, Queens), Dizzy Gillespie, wearing an overcoat (reminder, it was January 6 in New York City). Wolfe immediately captured a photo of the three trumpet titans in conversation, with Armstrong sweetly putting his arm around Hackett:

As the conversation grew from serious to hilarious, Wolfe snapped another photo of the laughter beginning to bubble over, Armstrong noticing Wolfe’s lens:

And then the topper; we’ll never know exactly what was said to evoke this response, but bless Wolfe for having his camera in the right place at the right time to capture it!

But then it was time to get down to business as Armstrong had to learn “Umbrella Man,” which had been in Gillespie’s book since he originally recorded it in 1951. Armstrong put on his glasses and Wolfe caught a few serious shots of him (again, notice Ellingtonians Johnny Hodges and Quentin “Butter” Jackson in the background; nobody wanted to go home that night):

Dizzy eventually took flight:

Louis watched intently as Diz blew:

A few more photos of Dizzy in action:

Louis had his script in hand as he watched Dizzy blow:

And when called upon, he was ready to sing:

After two nights of shooting one or the other, Wolfe finally got the two stars in one frame for a couple of memorable photos:

With that, the rehearsal was over and Wolfe retired his camera for the night. Louis and Lucille returned home to Corona, Queens and laughed their way through one more read-through of the latest draft of the script before heading to bed, well after midnight.

But we’ll close with something of a bonus. At some point that week, Gillespie spoke to New York Daily News columnist Kay Gardella about the show and Armstrong specifically. Gardella’s column ran in the News‘s late edition on January 6 and was run again before the show aired on January 7. Here’s the article:

Since it might be a little difficult to read, here’s a transcription:

Musical Clash Predicted When Satchmo & Diz Meet
By KAY GARDELLA
One of the most startling musical teams of the New Year -especially astonishing to jazz buffs–will be the combination of Louis (Satchmo) Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie Wednesday night on CBS-TV’s “Timex All-Star Jazz Show,” hosted by Jackie Gleason. Trumpeter Louis and trumpeter Dizzy just don’t see eye to eye when it comes to jazz- -they’ve kept up a musical feud for almost a decade, ever since the progressive, or bop style was launched back in the mid ’40’s.
It was John (Dizzy) Gillespie who was to the largest extent responsible for this jazz revolution. Dizzy insisted that Dixieland wasn’t necessarily the only sound of jazz, and Satchmo exploded!
Although the two were, and still are, personal friends, Dixieland-famous Louis Armstrong attacked–and still attacks–modern jazz.
Modest About Bop
Trumpeter Gillespie refuses to take credit for bop. Says he: “No one man or group of men started modern jazz. It happened in lots of ways. One of them was back in the ’40’s when a group of us was jamming it at Minton’s in Harlem. There was always a dozen or more cats who couldn’t blow at all but would take six or seven choruses to prove it. Thelonious Monk and I decided there had to be a way to curb this. So one afternoon before a session we worked out some complex variations on chords and melodies, and we used them at night to scare away the no-talent guys. After a while we got more and more interested in what we were doing to this music, and we explored it further until modern jazz, or progressive jazz, evolved.”
Despite the fact that most of the jazz public and critics have hopped on the Gillespie bandwagon, Satchmo Armstrong is still outspoken in his opposition to modern jazz. He has never played it- -although Gillespie did play Louis’ Dixieland style, in addition to his own, when on tour overseas.
Wife Has Say
Lorraine Gillespie, Dizzy’s wife, is the only one who refuses to take the Armstrong-Gillespie jazz feud seriously. Says she, “Louis and Diz constantly run off at the mouth, arguing about jazz, but I don’t think Louis means all he says against bop. Maybe he thinks it’s good for controversy. All I know is that after battling about it for hours, they’ll still go off together to the next room to listen to the same records!”
Dizzy admits that when he was growing up what he really wanted to play was swing. “I just couldn’t though,” he says, “and that’s how bop happend to me. I wanted desperately to play like Roy Eldridge (also in the “All-Star Jazz” cast), but I never quite made it. I’d get all messed up, so I tried something else and it came out bop.
He Still Studies
Dizzy continues to study privately today–he studied harmony and theory in college–and he is the first jazz-band leader ever to tour overseas with the official sanction of the State Department. This was in 1954, and in 1956 he again toured Europe and the Middle East.
His tours account for his rare appearances on television. “I’ve been away from TV too long,” says he. “And now television has done more for jazz in the past year than in all of the other years combined. These Timex shows are making Americans more and more the envy of the entire jazz world, because through them jazz now gets to everybody!”
Talks About Show
“What’s especially exciting about doing this show,” he grins, “is teaming with Satch. One of the numbers we’ll get together on is ‘The Umbrella Man.’ We’ll each take a stance and battle it out–Dixie against modern. It’ll be more fun arguing with music than words, anyway!”
Also in the cast of “Jazz Show” are Duke Ellington, Gene Krupa, Coleman Hawkins, the George Shearing Quintet, Jo Jones, Ruth Olay, and other top jazz names.

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That concludes what must have been a rehearsal for the ages on January 6, 1959. But everyone would be back the next morning for more rehearsing at CBS’s Studio 50, followed by a dress rehearsal and the live taping at 8 p.m. Wolfe would be there again and once again, took enough photos for two more parts. We’ll be back in a few days for part 4 (a big one if you’re a fan of Louis Armstrong and Jackie Gleason!)–more to come!