Uploaded May 2014 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
JACK HUTTON's OBSERVATIONS AFTER THIS HISTORIC COLLABORATION AT ALEXANDRIA BAY, N.Y., May, 2014
I'm not ashamed to say I'm prouder of this collaboration with Neville Dickie than anything I have ever played or recorded before. We were playing together at the Grand International Ragtime/Jasstime Festival at Alexandria Bay, N.Y., May 23-25.
We had never played together before, but we are both great fans of what Willie "the Lion" Smith and Don Ewell played in their classic 1960s duets, and especially their 1945 recording in Toronto. That's why I introduced "I Found A New Baby" with the same intro that the Lion used on the Toronto recording. Neville picked up on it immediately!
What you are hearing here are tapings from two different sessions. The first was on Friday night, with me (Jack) on the left. The second, a much more relaxed but more upbeat version, was Saturday afternoon with our positions reversed. Our joyous antics deserve to be shared far and wide because echoes of both Willie and Don Ewell can be heard in what we play. Neville was gracious enough to step back when I attempted Don Ewell's semi-classical solo. The delightful thing about our weekend-long collaboration was that we never played anything the same way twice and that is true of these recordings!
I will be forever grateful to Neville for a highlight of my entire life, and to Wayne and Nancy Paul for arranging it!!
Jack Hutton, Bala, Muskoka, Ontario
JACK HUTTON's OBSERVATIONS AFTER THIS HISTORIC COLLABORATION AT ALEXANDRIA BAY, N.Y., May, 2014
I'm not ashamed to say I'm prouder of this collaboration with Neville Dickie than anything I have ever played or recorded before. We were playing together at the Grand International Ragtime/Jasstime Festival at Alexandria Bay, N.Y., May 23-25.
We had never played together before, but we are both great fans of what Willie "the Lion" Smith and Don Ewell played in their classic 1960s duets, and especially their 1945 recording in Toronto. That's why I introduced "I Found A New Baby" with the same intro that the Lion used on the Toronto recording. Neville picked up on it immediately!
What you are hearing here are tapings from two different sessions. The first was on Friday night, with me (Jack) on the left. The second, a much more relaxed but more upbeat version, was Saturday afternoon with our positions reversed. Our joyous antics deserve to be shared far and wide because echoes of both Willie and Don Ewell can be heard in what we play. Neville was gracious enough to step back when I attempted Don Ewell's semi-classical solo. The delightful thing about our weekend-long collaboration was that we never played anything the same way twice and that is true of these recordings!
I will be forever grateful to Neville for a highlight of my entire life, and to Wayne and Nancy Paul for arranging it!!
Jack Hutton, Bala, Muskoka, Ontario
