Second Timex All-Star Jazz Show Celebration: The Rehearsals, Part 3

Welcome back to our series on the second Timex All-Star Jazz Show of April 30, 1958. In case you’re just joining us, here links to Part 1 and Part 2, which covered initial studio rehearsals featuring the likes of Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, Gene Krupa, Chubby Jackson, George Shearing, Ruby Braff, Jack Teagarden, Jaye P. Morgan, and the bands of both Hampton and Armstrong.

Today, we move over to CBS’s Studio 50 on Broadway and 53rd Street for the final dress rehearsal. Maynard Frank Wolfe was there again and we have many more of his previously unpublished photos to share. We’ll begin with Armstrong and Jack Teagarden rehearsing their “Jeepers Creepers” spot, with Pops keeping his hair in place with the aid of a handkerchief.

The man on the right is clarinetist Tony Parenti:

The CBS camera is in place, getting a feel for the action:

Here they are, blowing; that’s Cozy Cole on drums:

Wolfe then walked around the band to get a different vantage of Teagarden, Parenti, Ruby Braff, and host Gary Moore:

Pianist Marty Napoleon can be glimpsed in this next image:

Wolfe then went to a higher place in the studio to get this shot of Armstrong and Moore going over their lines:

By the looks of it, it appears they were getting ready to rehearse the finale, which would feature just about all hands on deck. Armstrong takes his place and sizes up the situation with George Shearing on piano, Jack Teagarden on trombone, Gerry Mulligan on baritone saxophone, and Chubby Jackson on bass, being joined by the members of Lionel Hampton’s Orchestra (Ed Mullens, Eddie Williams, Dave Gonsalves, Arthur Hoyle (tps), Wade Marcus Jr., Lou Blackburn, Lawrence Williams (tbs), Leon Zachery, Leo Moore, Leroy Thomas, Bobby Plater, Andy McGhee, Sonny Shaw (reeds), Oscar Dennard (p), Billy Mackel (g), Julius Brown (b), Curley Hamner (dr)):

Here’s another photo without the boom microphone in front of Gerry Mulligan’s face:

Ready to get to down to business, Armstrong reaches for the handkerchief atop his head….

…and off it comes! He’s holding it in his left hand in the photo below; Lionel Hampton can also now be spotted on the left side, wearing a fedora:

Armstrong smiles as he takes it all in; I like how almost all eyes are on him, even though he’s not playing (Mulligan is soloing):

Armstrong continues enjoying the scene as Mulligan solos, while pianist Shearing consults with bassist Jackson, perhaps making sure they agree on the same set of 12-bar blues changes:

Armstrong seems to get some advice from a stagehand as Teagarden solos in these next two photos:

Finally, it’s time for Pops to blow!

As Wolfe’s camera starts shifting to the left, we finally see drummer Gene Krupa in the fray:

As Wolfe pulls even farther back, we see that Krupa was not alone; Cozy Cole is now in front of him, though he’s obscured by a camera (and don’t forget about Hamp’s drummer Curley Hamner way in the background):

As Wolfe gets more of the left side of the stage, we can now spot the Dukes of Dixieland playing along in the upper left hand corner, while even Garry Moore is playing a set of drums of his own (with “John Phillips Sousa” on the square bass drum head!):

Hampton, blurry in mid-leap, but still worth sharing for the excitement depicted:

Looks like Hampton is trying to get Louis’s attention:

Do I spy Hampton’s forefinger in the air? Is he signaling for “wo-wo-wo-one more” as Armstrong used to tease?

Looks like that might have ended a complete run-through; Armstrong positions himself next to Hampton and Moore seemingly struts across the stage, satisfied:

For the next run-through, Wolfe made his way down to the stage to take some closer shots; notice Pops on the right, enjoying Hamp in full flight:

Louis and Teagarden watching intently:

Wolfe then got even closer to capture these photos of Hampton:

Armstrong applying his special lip salve:

Armstrong still fixating on his chops as Hampton gets ready to go back into battle:

Krupa in position:

Finally, a shot where Cozy Cole is visible, though still looking away from the camera:

Jack Teagarden, way in the background, is beaming while watching Hamp in action:

Louis gets back in on the act:

Wolfe then spun around the piano and captured Armstrong having a moment with pianist Shearing:

This just has the look of Louis telling a dirty joke, doesn’t it?

In the next photo, another photographer can be spotted:

That’s most likely famed photographer Sam Shaw. I don’t know what became of the photos Shaw took–they’re not featured on his family’s excellent website–but he did share one set of contact sheets with Louis and Lucille Armstrong. Since we don’t have the rights to Shaw’s photos, we’re not going to share the individual images, but we do think it’s worth sharing the full contact sheet as Shaw seemed to be as taken with the Armstrong-and-Shearing moment as Wolfe was:

Shaw also captured vocalist Jaye P. Morgan, who was part of the finale, but absent in any of Wolfe’s stage rehearsal photos. Wolfe did at least capture the aftermath of the joke, with Armstrong and Shearing sharing some moments of great warmth and hilarity:

Armstrong then made his way over to the other side of the stage and indulged in more jocularity with Hampton and Krupa, all captured by Wolfe’s camera:

Slightly blurry but Krupa is now getting up to join in the story:

By the way, big thanks to loyal reader–and Armstrong and Krupa fanatic–Rich Noorigian for letting us know that an earlier version of this post featured many of these images flipped! They’ve been fixed now–thanks, Richie!

Those are all the photos we have of Louis during the dress rehearsal, but for the sake of completeness, here’s a few Wolfe took of Gerry Mulligan, with bassist Henry Grimes visible in the background:

All that was left was the show–and we’ll have the full video, a few more photographs, and responses by critics in our next post!