LU WATTERS CENTENNIAL

And the Anniversary of a Historic Recording Session

AUTHOR: By Doug Parker

Trumpeter, Lu Watters was born in Santa Cruz, California, on December 19, 1911, and began playing the trumpet/cornet at a very early age. In fact, this writer recalls reading that young Lucius was regarded as the most promising bugler at the military academy he attended.

At a very early age, Lu began playing professionally; in fact, he made his first recording in 1929, the year he turned 18, in San Francisco with Jack Danford’s “Ben Franklin Hotel Orchestra.” Later, he played with the band of Carroll Lofner, which included a drummer named Phil Harris. In 1938, Lu formed his own big band which played for a couple of years at Sweets’ Ballroom in Oakland, and included several musicians who later were to be colleagues of his in the famous Yerba Buena Jazz Band: Bob Scobey on the second trumpet; Bob Helm-clarinet and tenor sax; Squire Girsback-string bass; Russ Bennett or Clancy Hayes-guitar (Clancy also sometimes played banjo, an instrument which was NOT in favor at that time!;) and Gordon “Gramps” Edwards drums. The sound of this twelve-piece band was not unlike that of the Bob Crosby band, according to the CD insert we have of this ensemble; they mixed in such jazz standards as “Panama” and “Tiger Rag” with such popular tunes as “Stardust” and “Talk Of the Town”.

In 1940, Lu, tiring of the big band sound, got together with some like-minded colleagues, such as Helm, trombonist Melvin “Turk” Murphy, pianist Paul Lingle, and banjoist Pat Patton, to jam on the rooftop of the Mark Twain Hotel in San Francisco.

This lasted a short time, then Lu decided to put together a band which would feature the power and drive of two cornets, and so the Yerba Buena (the original name of San Francisco) Jazz Band was born. The original line-up of the band was as follows: Watters and Byron Berry-cornets; Murphy-trombone; Helm-clarinet; Forrest Browne-piano; Benny Johnson-banjo; Dick Lammi-tuba; and Gordon Edwards-drums. Between early 1940 and late 1941 there were a number of personnel changes; for example, Murphy left the band for a while, then came back, and Lammi was in and out. As Clancy Hayes, who replaced Benny Johnson, was not always available, due to being in demand for radio work, Lu hired Russ Bennett for what might be called “banjo insurance”.

By December 1941, the band was playing at the Dawn Club, located on Annie Street, an alley back of the well-known Palace Hotel. Dave Stuart, head of the newly-formed Jazz Man Record Company, hired the band to cut eight sides for his label, which LU WATTERS CENTENNIAL they did on December 19, on Lu’s 30th birthday. The personnel of the band by this time was: Watters and Scobey-cornets; Murphy trombone; Ellis Horne-clarinet; Wally Rose-piano; Hayes and Bennett-banjos; Lammi-tuba; and Bill Dart-drums.

At first, Stuart wanted all eight sides to be by the full band, but Lu talked him into including a piano solo by Rose with rhythm accompaniment of George Botsford’s “Black and White Rag.” That piece alone, paid for the recording session! (This may have been the most historic recording session since the ones by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in January and February, 1917)

The band was called back to record 14 more sides for Jazz Man in March 1942, this time with Squire Girsback replacing Lammi on tuba. By then, our nation was at war, and the band members expected to go into military service. Lu wanted the band to go into the Navy as a unit, but when they went to enlist, only he and Turk were taken at the time, though nearly all band members wound up in uniform. Wartime units of the “YBJB” existed briefly, but it wasn’t until 1946, when World War II was over, that the band was re-assembled and played at the Dawn Club. The famous “brass triad” of Watters, Scobey and Murphy, remained intact, with Rose, Lammi, and Dart back; Helm, the original clarinetist, returned to the band, with Harry Mordecai taking over the banjo chair. The Yerba Buena band recorded 36 sides for the “West Coast” record label, which Lu may have set up, of which eight selections were ragtime piano solos by Wally Rose, with rhythm accompaniment, and some new material was introduced, specifically five compositions by Watters (written while he was aboard the ship “Antigua”,) and two by Murphy.

In 1947, the members of the Yerba Buena Jazz Band left the Dawn Club and started their own place, Hambone Kelly’s, across the bay in the city of Albany. Several band members lived in rooms behind the bandstand, and many contributed their non-musical talents: Lu was the chef, Helm the bartender, Turk served as electrician, plumber, and general handy man, and Lammi was the projectionist, who showed movies during breaks.

By 1949, Murphy and Scobey went out on their own, and while Turk stayed with the style of ragtime-oriented jazz with its New Orleans roots, which has become known as the “West Coast” or “San Francisco” style, Scobey went off in a different direction. Mordecai left the band for health reasons, but the Yerba Buena band carried on, now consisting of Watters, Helm, Rose, Lammi, Dart, Hayes back in on banjo and vocals, sometimes joined by Pat Patton on the other banjo, and trombonist Don Noakes (who was replaced by Warren Smith of the Bob Crosby and Pete Daily

bands, but ONLY for their Mercury recordings, so Helm once told this writer.) Lu was out of action trumpet-wise for a while, so played the washboard in a quintet with Helm playing the only wind instrument, Rose at the piano, Lammi switching to string bass, and Hayes on banjo and vocals. By the end of 1950, the “YBJB” was a five-man band consisting of Watters (back on trumpet), Helm, Jerry Stanton at the piano, replacing Wally Rose, Lammi, and Dart, though occasionally, when his relatively-newly-formed band wasn’t getting much work, Turk would sit in with this now trombone-less band, occasionally joined by his trumpeter, Don Kinch.

Lu retired at the end of 1950, sold his trumpet, and worked as a chef, also pursuing his interest in geology, which manifested itself in a hobby of making jewelry from the stones that he found on the nearby beach.

In 1963, he briefly came out of retirement to join in the (ultimately successful) protest against PG & E’s plan to build a nuclear reactor on the San Andreas Fault near Bodega Bay, and not only sat in with Turk’s band at Earthquake McGoon’s, but recorded an LP with a band consisting of himself, Bob Mielke on trombone (Turk had come down with a cold and couldn’t play), Bob Helm, Wally Rose, banjoist Monte Ballou, tubaist Bob Short, and drummer Thad Vandon, with vocals by Barbara Dane. Your writer and some other diehard trad-jazz fans had the pleasure of visiting with Lu Watters at his home in Cotati, north of San Francisco, where he spent his last years. Lu Watters died in 1989, at the age of 77, after a battle with cancer.

He deserves much credit for reviving an art form considered dead, but bringing his own touch to it. The same may be said of his colleagues, most notably Turk Murphy, Bob Helm, Bob Scobey, Clancy Hayes, and Wally Rose. The first recordings by the Yerba Buena Jazz Band are responsible for the return to active playing of such New Orleans jazz greats as Willie “Bunk” Johnson, Edward “Kid” Ory, and Thomas “Papa Mutt” Carey.