Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The Original Cellar Jazz Club

A Website devoted to the Original Cellar Jazz Club in Vancouver.


(Photo) Harold Land at the Cellar

Written by John Dawe in collaboration with Michael deCourcy and Gavin Walker.
Blog created by Gregg Simpson.

Photo Credits: Wally Lightbody,Vivian Cook, Don Cumming, Carol Hunter,
the Bill Boyle Collection.Extra thanks extended to musician & TV producer Jim Carney, without whose help the "Cellar" would not have been able to present many of the outstanding artists that appeared there.

All material(s) found on this blog: photographic or otherwise,
remains the sole property of the original owner or contributor and permission to use said material(s), must be obtained directly from the original owner(s)or contributor.



(photo) Joe Gordon,trumpet (lt-rt) Jerry Fuller, drums;
Freddy Scheiber,bass and Bob Nixon,piano.








The opening and the following success of the Cellar was a unique experience for us and Vancouver jazz fans in general.....there had been nothing like it before and it inspired others to open similar types of clubs in other parts of the city......
such as the "Black Spot" in Dunbar and the "Blue Horn" near Broadway and Alma....followed by others later.....not to forget Howie Bateman's "Inquisition Coffee House".

For many of us younger musicians with little previous jazz experience, it was a total gas to be able to sit back a listen and get to know all these great out of town players "doing their thing".....it was better than any music school and a hell of a lot more fun.

The Cellar had no liquor license and was known as a "bottle club". What we accomplished was phenomenal and it was all done on a "shoe-string" budget and the locals guys who played there made $10 bucks a nite, so none of us were getting
rich.... it was a a labour of love.





















The Story, by John Dawe

The original Cellar club was something just short of a miracle!!...... we took
a bare-assed concrete basement and turned it into what later became one of the
most important jazz clubs on the west coast........ in time it became known as
a great place to play with jazz players as far south as San Diego. It began as
an idea from a small nucleus of non-professional musicians out of the Ken Hole big
band and was created mostly to provide a place for musicians to practice, rehearse
play jazz for ourselves and hopefully for those who may wish to drop in to listen and socialize together.

Getting the place ready was no easy task and involved a lot of hard work and dedication. It was located a half block east of Main St. on Broadway beneath some stores on what looked like a back alley at 2514 Watson St. The main group of
people involved in getting the doors open and the place up and running were: Ken Hole, Wally Lightbody, Bill Boyle,Jim Kilburn, John Dawe, Jim Johnson, Al Neil,
Tony Clitheroe, Jim Carney, Dave Quarin, Ed Roop and Barry Cramer.

The basic design and decor of the club was left to the very creative abilities of architect John Grinnell, artist/designer Harry Webb, Jim Kilburn and Al Neil.

Art works were donated or loaned and hung at various spots throughout the club and "other" venues were tried at later dates,such as plays performed on Sundays
and poetry & jazz was also introduced. The club was registered under the "non-profit" Societies Act and the main core group were the " Charter Members" and the others were "Social Members". In order to make sure that all our expenses would be covered the Charter Members paid a yearly fee of about $60 and each had their
own individual keys.......after expenses all profits were banked and when enough money was built up we would then book in out of town jazz groups, mostly from L.A. and San Francisco.

The first opening month was Apr. /56 and we were only renting half the basement
and it's a bit hazy, but I think we had about 8 or 9 tables and probably about
18 or 20 members and friends showed up and the music was just various guys
sitting in and jamming. The following weekend however was an other story....
people were lined up to get in from the bottom of the stairs and spilling out into the parking area. We decided then to take a chance and rent the whole
basement at the exorbitant fee of ninety bucks a month!

This involved more work.......a larger bandstand, more decorating and lighting and new washrooms etc, and the place began to look very groovy.....this became the Cellar most people remember and news of the place was spread mostly by word of mouth and the U.B.C. Jazz Society .




Photo: (lt-rt) Al Neil (piano), Bob Frogge (vibraphone), Freddy Schreiber (bass),
Bill Boyle (drums), John Dawe (trumpet). Photo courtesy of Wally Lightbody








About this time Al Neil and Jim Kilburn formed their own groups. Al's was: Jim Johnson, tenor....John Dawe, trumpet....Tony Clitheroe, bass....and Bill Boyle, drums.......this group played the Cellar until about 1961. Jim Kilburn's group varied over the years, but was mainly.... Jim Johnson or Bill Holmes, tenor sax.....Tony. Clitheroe, bass....Bill Boyle or Chuck Logan,drums and at times Harvey Adams, bassoon and Dorene Williams, jazz vocals. A little later came the Bob Frogge quintet with Bob Miller or Freddy Schrieber, bass. These 3 groups sort of became the regular "house bands" for the Cellar and Dave Quarin also brought in an occasional group.

The food menu was a gourmet's delight (haha)..... hot dogs, saran wrapped sandwiches, coffee and pizza and NO table service...... hell, we were serving jazz, not food!! The doors usually opened about 10:30 and the bands started anytime after that......usually about 11pm and finished about 2 am.... sometimes followed by a late nite session, depending on who might fall by after their gigs.....there was really no official closing hour and we often hung around 'till sunup.

The first really exciting out of town group to be booked in was the
"Jazz Messiahs", who had been doing a gig in Seattle and had one free nite before returning to L A ....... this group knocked us all on our asses.....wow!!.....
Don Cherry, trumpet...George Newman, alto and the great Billy Higgins, drums.....
no one can recall the bass or piano player's names.



Photo: Don Cherry



Photo: Billy Higgins (Nov. 1957)
Photos courtesy of Wally Lightbody










About the end of /56 a new guy appeared in the Cellar.....BOB FROGGE!!.....
trying to describe him is impossible....when they made Bobby they threw away
the mold. He was the funniest, grooviest and most laid-back cat you'd ever
meet....... and he was totally insane ( in a very groovy way).... I don't know what planet he was from, but it wasn't in this galaxy, or the next ....Bob soon put together a quintet with himself on vibes, Al Neil, piano, Freddy Schrieber or Bob Miller, bass, myself trumpet and Bill Boyle, drums ......this group. stayed together until about 1960, when Bob's lifestyle finally caught up with him and he had to return to his home town of Kansas City.

The Paul Bley Quartet from L A did an interesting 4 or 5 day gig....... the first 2 days without a bass, as Charlie Haden had a serious drug problem and was in no shape to play.....a very young Dave Pike was on vibes...... it was a super group.
The next out of towners were the newly formed "MASTER-SOUNDS" from San Francisco with MONK, BUDDY and WES MONTGOMERY, filled out with Richie Crabtree piano and Benny Barth,drums, a good group but rather a poor man's copy of the MJQ.



Photo (lt-rt): Dave Pike, Carla Bley, Paul Bley, Don Franks, Dave Quarin,
Ken Hole in the parking area at the entrance to the Cellar
Photo courtesy of Wally Lightbody


In early 1957 a real surprise to us was the booking in of a then unknown (to us) alto player from L.A. named SONNY REDD. Besides being an excellent jazz player, he introduced us to a great(new)tune..."GREEN DOLPHIN STREET".....Miles' recording of this tune had not yet been released and this tune really knocked us out. Sonny laid the "changes" to this tune on us and naturally we all started playing it.....as I remember it, he was backed up by locals Tony Clitheroe, bass.... Bill Boyle, drums......and Fred Massey, piano. NB:Sonny was from Detroit, via New York and last played Vancouver in 1974 at Lucy's Jazz Workshop with drummer Roy Brooks - Gavin Walker)

The weekend of May 16 /57 brought in the" infamous" L.A. alto player ART PEPPER...
he did 2 nites with the Al Neil trio and the 3rd nite with Chris Gage...... the
last nite ART was 40 mins. late in showing, making everyone pretty nervous that
he wasn't going to show....... finally he burst thru the door, sweating profusely and obviously VERY stoned...... ha ha, he played his ass off !! By the summer of
1957 Don Cherry's "MESSIAH'S" were back in for 3 days with the VERY great
JAMES CLAY on tenor, Don Payne, bass and Billy Higgins, drums....... we were all somewhat in awe of this group.... at this time they sounded much like a combination of MILES' group and the "Jazz Messengers"....... wow! again!.....on the last day we all got together and went speed boating out to Horseshoe Bay and Bowen Island....fantastic weekend!!

The next really big time player booked in was the marvelous L.A. bebop pianist
LOU LEVY.......a big press party was thrown at the club beforehand for publicity
and to push Lou's new album.....also to help pay his expenses. It was arranged
for Lou to do a solo spot on a local TV show called "Club Date" and the FRED MASSEY quintet also appeared....Fred Massey's group had PAUL PERRY tenor, JOHN DAWE, trpt., TONY CLITHEROE bass & BILL BOYLE , drums.

On the Cellar gig Lou used Paul Ruhland, bass, and Ted Owen, drums. Next to appear was the great HAROLD LAND group for 3 days. Harold's guys ate most of their meals
at a "greasy-spoon" cafe on Kingsway called (haha)'UNCLE TOM'S ABIN".... those guys loved that place and went out of their way to "dine" there !!



Photo: and at the Cellar,1960 with Joe Peters, drums and Clarence Jones,bass)





In the fall of /57 DON CHERRY was back again......this time with a very startling group.....this was the first time that these guys had worked together as a group publicly and ORNETTE COLEMAN was more than a bit of a shocker!........they did a lot of Ornette's tunes, which at that time were still fairly conventional, but Ornette's solo style was extremely "unorthodox"....... you either dug them or you hated them, but after the 3rd nite most f us were starting to dig what they were putting down.



Ornette Coleman, Ben Tucker, bass (hidden)and Billy Higgins
Photo courtesy of Wally Lightbody






Around Jan./58 a management change took place........Wally and Ken moved off to follow other pursuits and they opened a very groovy jazz club called "THE SCENE" in Victoria........at times some of us would trek over there to do a weekend. Alto saxist Dave Quarin took over as the full time paid manager and guitarist Jim Kilburn stepped in as the new president of the club.

The club was now starting to get onto a high roll and a steady stream of excellent players were coming in .......some as singles working with local rhythm sections ........guys such as HOWARD ROBERTS, who surprised the hell out of all of us.......he was a stone-assed bebopper and the whole weekend just cooked..... he was backed by
Tony Clitheroe bass, and Bill Boyle drums. ...Howard's wife also sat in on drums occasionally.

Tenor player HERMAN GREEN brought an excellent bebop group in from San Francisco with an marvelous trumpet player named Richard "Notes" Williams and bassist
LARRY LEWIS.....the group was filled out with locals FRED MASSEY piano and Bill Boyle........they would do "CHEROKEE" every nite at an outrageous tempo and Boyle would come off the stand wringing in sweat and cursing!!



Photo: Dave Quarin Playing at the cellar, August,1958




Photo: "Makin' some steam" with the Al Neil Group, late /59
lt-rt.: Jerry Fuller, (drums, John Dawe (trumpet), Jim Johnson (tenor sax)
unseen is Bob Miller (bass) and, of course, the maestro, Al Neil (piano)



The club by this time had started to attract a large group of very colorful "regulars".......some real characters like LARRY GOON and "DAN-DAN"........Danny was an ex-airline pilot from Peru ........ between the two of them their alcohol consumption could have fueled a 747!

DON FRANCKS and FRANK LEWIS had become regulars at the club since it's inception.........Francks was an extremely talented up and coming actor and
Frank Lewis a very talented modern artist. Frank donated a fantastic floor to
ceiling self portrait that hung at the bottom of the entrance stairs.........
both these guys pulled off some outrageous stunts during some of their
Cellar visits.

There was a small group of chicks who were always hangin' out at the club and helping to make life a helluva lot more pleasant for us musicians......Carol Hunter...Vivian Cook...Doreen Williams...Lois Scott...Rae Sawyer and others......
Doreen worked the door for years and was a good jazz singer to boot and Viv Cook worked the kitchen for a while. One nite while working with Al Neil's group, Al peered out over the crowd, turned back to us, laughed and said,"hey man, where
are the bebop girls tonite?"....... ha ha, after that we usually referred to the chicks as "the bebop girls". Some of the other regulars were Sam Toren... Arnie Chycoski, Don Cumming, Ray Sikora, Birgit, Stan Perry, Bob Streeter...a very
young Gavin Walker and a very super couple of great people, artists Lloyd and
Mitzi Gibbs.



Photo: Bassist Larry Lewis,bassist with the Herman Green Quintet.



Photo: Doreen Williams singing with Al Neil(bottom left)and his trio










Another pretty colorful cat was trumpet player Dick Forrest...... he came to
town with Louis Bellson's big band....... he came for 1 week and stayed for
2 years!!!........ at that time Dick's whole life swung the whole gamut between
the hilarious and the absurd.......I think I spent too much time hangin' out with Dick! Word of the Cellar was getting to be known and talked about in other cities and in late July /58 a great young alto player arrived on the Vancouver scene......
Dale Hillary. Dale already had quite a bit of playing experience...... he had just done time at the Lennox School of Music and had already sat in with some big time players in NYC. He was a solid ball of nervous energy and he NEVER stopped talking, ha ha. I did a weekend with him at the club and we played an original jazz suite he had just written..... even that early on he was a pretty good writer and over the next few years turned out some really good jazz originals..........for the next few years. Dale made Vancouver and San Francisco his home bases.



Photo: Dale Hillary on alto sax with Philly Joe Jones in Cuba
(Bill Barron, tenor sax, Mike Downs, trumpet)



Around the summer of /58 a new phenomenon had surfaced.......the "BEAT GENERATION".......... it had started in San Francisco and had now moved
northward. It was a good thing for jazz clubs like the Cellar..... the college kids and other psuedo hipsters were into it and it brought a whole new group of people into the club........ things like poetry and jazz became the latest "scene". Most of us thought it was pretty "jive-assed" crap, but what the hell.....


HAROLD LAND returned for 4 days in Nov/58...... this group was absolutely phenomenal and probably the best to ever play the Cellar. The personel was: LENNY McBROWNE drums....ELMO HOPE piano. .... a then unknown SCOTT LaFARO bass...and Harold, tenor. Gavin Walker has documented a review of this band, which can be found
on the Vancouver Jazz Forum site: www.vancouverjazz.com. The group brought a "manager" with them and at the end of the gig the "manager" received the band's money and that was the last any one ever saw of the money or the "manager", leaving Harold and the guys stuck with no way to leave town. Harold put in a quick call to his old friend, the famous baroness Nica de Koenigswarter in NY to ask for some financial help....... the needed money soon arrived and the guys were on their way back to L.A. ......while at the Cellar this group was taped and is available on CD.



Don Cherry, Chuck Logan, and Dave Quarin
Photo courtesy of Wally Lightbody





Don Cherry showed up again in town, unannounced with no group, just his wife....during this time he stayed at Chuck Logan's home, mostly with his head buried in a "Theory of Music" book and kept a fairly low profile (around town).
He did a gig at the Cellar with Dave Quarin and sat in with both the Jim Kilburn and Al Neil groups at the annual jazz festival at the old Georgia Auditorium..... I remember him and I doing "Half Nelson" together......that was fun!.....he left town shortly after New Years. Dale Hillary returned from San Francisco and this time with a great new trumpet player named MIKE DOWNS. Mike hung around town for a while and we became good friends......he was a beautiful player and a super nice cat.



Around Feb./59 we booked San Francisco poetry and jazz artist KENNETH PATCHEN for a weekend......he was backed by the AL NEIL quartet with Dale Hillary on alto..... this gig was recorded by CBC radio and later released as an LP album on Folkways,FL9718 (This Lp has been reissued on CD from Locust Music)

More out of town players were coming in a steady stream......great players like PETE JOLLY, tenor player BILL PERKINS and JOE GORDON and bebop trombonist, Carl Fontana, backed by Tom Thorsburn, piano....Tony Clitheroe, bass and Bill Boyle drums........Hillary sat in on some sets with Fontana......I think every trombone player in town was there to catch Carl. Also bebopper Conte Candoli did a weekend.....he was backed by Tony Clitheroe, bass.... Bill Boyle, drums and Bobby Doyle, piano.



Artwork by Al Neil, now the cover of the re-released CD on Locust Music


Around mid /59 a new bunch of younger musicians started showing up. I think multi-talented DON THOMPSON was the first on the scene followed a little later by PJ PERRY, drummer JERRY FULLER and a very young GLENN McDONALD on tenor saxophone.

I was at the club early one nite warming up my chops before the gig and in comes PJ, horn in hand.......he introduced himself and then laid 2 requests on me.......firstly, could he sit in with us later on and secondly, could I please go to the liquor store and get him a bottle of 'cheep' wine, ha ha...... I said OK to both PJ showed a hell of lot of promise, but at that time didn't really know any really "hip" tunes......he came back 3 months later and it was a very different story and soon he put his own group together, which was: Al Neil, piano....Bob Miller, bass ....Me, trumpet.....and Jerry Fuller, drums. Miller soon left town and Tony took his place and Al was replaced by Don Thompson. PJ's playing moved ahead so rapidly that at times it was somewhat mind-boggling ! Some nites he played so fantastically that I would find myself saying....."shit!! how the hell am I gonna follow THAT" !!! ha ha. This group stayed together about 2 and 1/2 yrs. and it was nothing but a pleasure to have played with PJ and that great rhythm section!



Bob Frogge Quintet, ca. 1957
Photo courtesy of Wally Lightbody





PJ Perry in later years.











In Jan. 1960 MINGUS the "GREAT ONE" blessed us with his magnificent presence!.......he came down the stairs into the club all full of "piss and vinegar".......after about a half hour of listening to his rantings and a long list of "demands", Dave Quarin took him aside and told him to calm down and explained to him what the club was all about and that it was run by musicians, not gangsters, and told him to shut up........after that he cooled down and actually became a pretty agreeable cat.



Charles Mingus at the Cellar
photo: Mitzi Gibbs


One nite Charlie became highly agitated with a table full of noisy football players....he shot off the stand, grabbed one of them by the back of the neck and ran this mother up the stairs so fast he didn't know what hit him!....... they settled the rest of the dispute outside ...... I think Charlie won. He brought a great bunch of young players with him.......Lonnie Hillyer, trumpet..... a great alto player, Charles McPherson and Danny Richmond, drums. That summer brought back L.A. trumpet star Conte Candoli, backed up by locals Tony Clitheroe, bass....Jerry Fuller, drums.....and Don Thompson,piano..... between tunes, to rest his chops, Conte would break us all up with his weird and hilarious stories... while in town he also did a CBC TV thing, backed by the RAY SIKORA big band.

Drummer Bill Boyle related an interesting anecdote about Mingus' stay in Vancouver. Somewhere near the end of Mingus' run at the club, a few of the people at the Cellar were giving Charlie a ride back to his hotel late one nite about 5 am or so.....
Bill Boyle and a couple of the" bebop girls" were there and one of the girls was driving. Charlie is getting into "one of his moods" and is starting to rant on and on about something or another that has bugged him earlier in the evening
and his "descriptive" language is starting to become pretty "raw". The girl driving suddenly pulls over to the curb and comes to a screeching stop.....this is in the middle of the Cambie St. bridge! She whips her head around, looks Charlie square
in the face and screams at him....." listen you dumb son of a bitch, NOBODY uses language like that around ME......you either apologize and shut up or you can open that door and get out and start walkin' your fat ass home RIGHT NOW"!!

Needless to say, all conversation came to a very abrupt halt and there was absolute dead silence....Charlie's jaw dropped like a rock and Bill Boyle started shakin' in his boots, thinking that they were all going to die a violent death in the next few seconds (ha ha.) Anyway, it seems that Charlie had a sudden change of demeanor.....I guess he didn't exactly like the idea of walking home at 5am in a strange city, and all.......he immediately backed down and started apologizing profusely. Needless to say the rest of the drive was filled with pretty awkward and stilted conversation and everyone was relieved when Charlie finally got out.

August 16th /60 brought in the excellent guitarist BARNEY KESSEL and his Quartet. from L.A. for an unusual 6 day run. Unfortunately this group was a bit of a disappointment to us beboppers, musically speaking. Barney, at this time was
"cashing-in" on the then popular "soul-jazz" craze........it brought in the "mink-coat" crowd, who definitely did not like our uncomfortable metal chairs and wooden tables........Barney canceled out the last 2 days of his booking.



Lonnie Hillyer
(photo: Mitzi Gibbs)



Charles McPherson
photo: Mitzi Gibbs




Every once in a while something totally unexpected would take place.......for instance Jimmy Kilburn remembers one nite while rehearsing his group and in came OSCAR PETERSON and HERB ELLIS ...... Herb borrowed Jim's guitar, which he saaid ..."never sounded better" ....... Another time in early /59, Al Neil's group. was rehearsing quite late when thru the door came Ritchie Kamuca......Russ Freeman.....Monty Budwig.... Joe Gordon....Shorty Rogers....Shelly Manne....Frank Butler and Harold Land!!!...they had been doing a concert downtown and wanted to stay up all nite & just blow 'till plane time in the morning..... Joe Gordon asked to borrow my horn and what followed was some of the best spontaneous jazz I'd heard in a loooong time!!!..... they stayed on the stand till about 3:30 am and to top off the evening DON FRANCKS then got on the stand and did one of the most outrageously funny comedy routines ever........ we were all on the floor!!!

Once, out of the blue, when a few of us were just sitting around drinking and messing around, in walks L.A. bass player RED MITCHELL.... he just joined us, shared a few tastes, got up and played some piano and then disappeared into the nite..... what a nice cat. A couple of nites later, BUDDY DeFRANCO, PERCY HEATH and STAN GETZ dropped
by to just hang out........ The next morning at 8am!!!!, Francks banged on my door and dragged me (half asleep), outside to his marvelously restored 1929 vintage car and inside was Percy Heath and a VERY surly Getz.....we drove them to the airport.......during the short drive Getz smoked three joints and only spoke in "disinterested grunts".... Stan was truly "a nice bunch of guys".




(lt-rt) Don Friedman, Ben Tucker, Billy Higgins, Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, Nov. 1957. Photo courtesy of Wally Lightbody



Actor BARRY CRAMER was almost always there and he was a master of "putdown" humor........ he didn't much like bebop or Al's group and rarely hestitated to let us know that we (laughingly) "STANK"....... one nite when introducing
Al's group. he said....... "good evening, welcome to the Cellar, and now for your listening and dancing pleasure, Al Neil and his Jazz Messenger-BOYS" !!! ha ha........at another time (on a slow nite) he referred to us as the "Jazz
EXTERMINATORS"..... a very funny cat.



Arnie Chycoski.... superb lead trumpet



Jim Kilburn (Cellar Prez)





The following 2 yrs. 1961/ 62, so much was was going on musically at the Cellar and around town that it is hard to recall all of it......... AL NEIL was beginning to show definite signs of, shall we put it nicely (ha ha), moving off into "other"
directions. HAROLD LAND and his quartet was back in for a 3rd appearance at the Cellar and somewhere in this time frame altoist LEE KONITZ did a weekend with Tony Clitheroe, bass.......and STAN PERRY, drums. One nite in the summer of /61 after doing a TV show with RAY SIKORA's big band, backing jazz singer ERNESTINE ANDERSON,
someone had the great idea of "why don't we take the whole band up to the Cellar tonite and re-do the whole show at the club " ........and that's what happened......... it was great spontaneous things like this that made the Cellar such a gas place to hang out....... things like this just don't happen anymore. In Ray's band at that time, as far as I can remember was: ARNIE CHYCOSKI....DICK FORREST .... John DAWE.... BOB HALES (possibly) (trumpets)........RAY SIKORA and TED LAZENBY (bones)..... PJ PERRY....GAVIN HUSSEY....PAUL PERRY (saxes) and DALE HILLARY (baritone sax) and Don Thompson (piano), Jerry Fuller (drums) and Tony Clitheroe (bass).






By Aug. of 1962 things were staring to show signs of a downward slide......the main core of jazz players were all out of town doing summer gigs and others were heading off to Toronto and gigs elsewhere. On returning to Vancouver in September of 1962,  Dale Hillary and I did a gig at the Cellar and we couldn't even find a decent rhythm section !!!!........ it was PATHETIC !

This was the last time we played at the "GREAT PLACE"..... he and I headed to Toronto, where we worked for "the door" at the "First Floor Club"...... we both starved to death (ha ha).Dale spent most of the days looking to get "high" and I spent most of my time looking for food.


HAROLD LAND returned for 4 days

Photo: Ray Sikora Quartet: Chuck Logan (drums),Bob Miller (bass),
Doug Parker (piano), Ray (trombone) at The Cellar, early /59.
(Paintings by Richard Reid)




By the fall of /62 some of the original musicians were drifting away and recently found information in 2013, unearthed by researcher Marian Jago, informs us that the Cellar managed to keep the doors open under somewhat strained and shaky circumstances, until about September 1963.

 It was a great & memorable 8 year run but the club had become the victim of it's own success, and it was time to move on.

Some of the musicians I didn't mention are:
Roy Hornasty.....Earl Freeman....Lionel Chambers....Terry Hill....Chuck Knott....Bill Trussell ...Wally Lightbody.... Jack Reynolds...Jack Fulton.....Wally Snider...Don Clark...... Pete Thompson.....Jim Blackley... Bill Fawcett....Carse Sneddon.....Doug Parker.....Bob Hales.....George Ursan.... Ray Norris.....Blaine Wikjord.....Don Fraser Sr......Jim Wightman.....Lionel Mitchell..... Bob Mica....Claire Lawrence.....Ian MacDougall....Paul Ruhland..... Fraser MacPherson.....Glen Startup.....Lyle Carter....John Fredrickson....Allen Smith.....Al Del Bucchia....Terry Clarke....Vern Gish....Art Tusvick.....Wilf Wylie.....Charlie Hendrix....Mike Taylor....Blaine Tringham....Stew Barnett and visitors: Dizzy Gillespie.....Coleman Hawkins.....Roy Eldridge.....Leo Wright....Lalo Schifrin......Chris White and Rudy Collins

There were many hundreds of people that came through the door of The Cellar and if I missed you, my apologies - J.Dawe

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Musicans at the Cellar


Jack Fulton and Fraser McPherson, 1958



Wally Lightbody



Don Cumming and Chuck Knott




(lt-rt.) Bill Boyle, Tony Clitheroe, Jim Johnson, Jack Feyer, and John Dawe




(lt.-rt.) Fraser MacPherson, Bill Holmes, Earl Freeman, Bill Perkins, Chuck Logan, and Tom Thorsburn




Fred Massey





Bill Boyle





lt. Harold Land, tenor sax; rt. Amos Trice, piano





John Dawe playing at the Cellar with Bob Miller, bass





Tony Clitheroe, bass





(lt) Stan "Cuddles" Johnson, bass; (rt.) Art Pepper, alto sax






lt.John Dawe, trumpet, (rt) Harold Krause, piano





(lt-rt) Ray Sikora , (trombone) Bob Miller, bass,
Chuck Logan, drums , The Scene, Victoria, ca. 1960





The Mastersounds: (lt-rt.) Benny Barth, Monk Montgomery,
Buddy Montgomery, Richie Crabtree, The Cellar, 1959





(lt-rt) Eddy Roop, Tony Clitheroe, Bill Perkins,
Chuck Logan, Tom Thorsburn, The Cellar, 1960





lt-rt. Chuck Logan, Bill Boyle, Tony Clitheroe,
Harold Krause, John Dawe, The Cellar, ca 1958





(lt-rt) Dale Hillary, Ornette Coleman, Spanky de Brest,
Don Cherry, Mel Lewis
, New York, ca. 1959





Bob Frogge





Ray Sikora and Bob Miller





Jerry Fuller





Carl Perkins, piano, Curtis Counce, bass, Frank Butler, drums,
Harold Land, tenor sax and Jack Sheldon, trumpet, Unidentified club in L.A., 1957

Fans at the Cellar


The Cellar, ca.1959
(lt-rt: Jimmy Johnson, John Dawe, Bob Miller, Vivian Cook)




Glenn MacDonald plays as artist Frank Lewis paints a mural on a boxcar




Frank Lewis




Larry Goon






Just Foolin' Around:
(lt-rt.): Marguerite, Tony Clitheroe, Vivian Cook, John Dawe, Buddy Montgomery




Billy Higgins, 1957









Vivian Cook Jim Johnson, Carol Hunter and Bill Boyle at the Cellar
Vivian Cook and Jim Johnson, Carol Hunter and Bill Boyle at the Cellar