Another Happy Birthday To Our Dear, Departed Sid Bulkin

Vic Damone - As Time Goes By

Play Song And Help Gia Win!

Moulin Rouge

Leslie and Kelly wrote this song and recorded it for their mom and dad. Hope you enjoy it.

One Year Later

It's been a year since Sid passed away. It has been a wonderful opportunity for me to keep this blog up and running for him.

It's still hard to get songs up on the blog that featured him as a drummer. Here's a fun link to Allen Eager's "Perdido," except it's just a 30 second bit.

Found this interesting piece about Maynard Ferguson and Sid:

By way of background, with close friend tenor saxophonist Willie Maiden as his partner, Maynard used the steady studio gig at Paramount as a means of bankrolling a library of big band arrangements. Both were twenty-six years old in 1955 when they began building a library with arrangements that could be adapted to different set ups for the traditional big band. Funding some arrangements was one thing, but they lacked the necessary financing to put together a band to actually play them.

Until, that is, “Fate” in the form of Maynard’s friend, drummer Sid Bulkin, intervened. As Primack tells it in his Mosaic insert notes:

“… Sid Bulkin met with Birdland owner Morris Levy and Vik Records A&R man Jack Lewis. Levy and Lewis were looking for someone to briefly front a Birdland Dream Band, and Bulkin successfully served as Maynard’s intermediary.”

When Ferguson went to New York in 1956 to meet with Levy and Lewis, his big band book consisted of arrangements by Jazz’s best: Manny Albam, Jimmy Giuffre, Bill Holman, Willie Maiden, Johnny Mandel, Marty Paich and Ernie Wilkins. Once in New York, he would add charts by Al Cohn.

With a book like this, it’s no wonder that Levy and Lewis agreed to put up the money for a Birdland Dream Band that was to initially include:

Trumpets: Maynard [and valve trombone], Al DeRisi, Nick Travis and Joe FerranteTrombones: Jimmy Cleveland, Sonny Russo [or Eddie Bert]Alto Sax: Herb Geller Tenor Sax: Al Cohn and Budd JohnsonBaritone Sax: Ernie WilkinsPiano: Hank
Jones; Bass: Milt Hinton; Drums: Jimmy Campbell [or Don Lamond].

Pretty cool, my uncle Sid!

Charlie Rice In Trouble

Charlie Rice has never been in trouble before. He's lived a long time -- he's 88 -- and spent most of his life traveling the country and the world as a jazz musician. So saying he's never been in trouble before is really saying something.

"Never gambled, never smoked, never drank, never did drugs, not even reefer," says Rice, a great- grandfather of six who was married to the same woman, Lucy, 62 years until she died four years ago.

But Charlie Rice is in trouble now.

He began his entertainment career in the 1930s as half a tap-dancing duo, Struts and Struggles (he was Struts), and then turned to drums after he saw a set at a pawn shop at Sixth and South in Philadelphia in 1941.

The drummer did gigs with Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. Entertained in Korea with a USO jazz band during the war. Played the Apollo with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Louis Jordan. Toured Europe and cut albums with Chet Baker.

And, according to a state indictment, he stole gas from the Camden school board.

Less than $200 worth, but be cause he was charged under the official misconduct statute, that's enough to have him fired from his public job as a maintenance man, lose his pension and, maybe, face jail just as he approaches his 90th birthday.

"Once the evidence comes out, it will show Charlie was given permission to use the gas," says Michael Pinsky of Westmont, Rice's lawyer.

Pinsky's involvement is a measure of Rice's standing in the jazz world.

He is the longtime attorney for, among others, Joseph Ligambi, considered by the Philadelphia police and the New Jersey attorney general to be head of the Philadelphia crime family once run by Angelo Bruno and Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo.

The veteran criminal defense attorney doesn't usually bother with third-degree crimes charged against superannuated public employees like Rice.

"It's a shame they're coming down on this old guy," says Pinsky.

Pinsky was persuaded to get involved by a Philadelphia group called the Jazz Bridge, begun by jazz singers Suzanne Cloud and Wendy Simon. They raise money to help out jazz artists who, like Rice, face "crises."

"We discovered that many of the old jazz greats were in trouble," says Simon. "They needed help, usually with medical bills."

This will be the Jazz Bridge's biggest challenge, because Pinsky doesn't come cheap, and the lawyer says he has to go to trial on this one. No plea deals because, if Rice pleads, the pension and the medical insurance are gone.

Those benefits are why Rice gave up his lifelong devotion to jazz performance and took a job with the Camden school board 26 years ago. He became a pump jockey, filling up school district vehicles from the board's pumps.

Three years ago, the school board's pumps were contaminated with groundwater, so the district began using pumps belonging to the city in an open maintenance yard across town. Rice used the pumps but, Pinsky says, because there was no shelter, he sat in his own car, running the heater in winter and the air conditioner in summer.

"He was told he could top off his tank when he used his car like that," says Pinsky.

Rice, who lives with his daughter in Camden, was indicted last month along with 11 other public employees, mostly state officials. Five city workers in Newark -- including a sanitation worker charged with stealing nearly $45,000 in gas -- were indicted earlier this year.

Announcing the indictments, Attorney General Anne Milgram said some public employees "literally took a free ride." Pinsky says Camden owes Rice money.

"We're not only going to win this case, we're going to insist that Charlie gets reinstated with back pay," says Pinsky. His client was suspended without pay from his $33,000-a-year job after the indictment. Spokesmen for the Attorney General's Office and the Camden school board would not comment.

Simon, once a singer for the jazz group 52nd Street, says Jazz Bridge is reaching out for help to as many performers and fans as possible.

"Everybody likes Charlie Rice," she says. "He needs help now."

Hat Tip to Bob Braun from the Star-Ledger. Follow the link if you want to Help Charlie Rice.

Oy, What A Show!

Four more songs performed by a fabulous 17 piece big band, conducted by Pat Longo. These are all songs that were favorites of Sid, and were performed at a tribute concert at Charlie O's on May 26, 2008.

I hope you enjoy them as much as Sid did.

Pat Longo's Big Band Tribute To Sid Bulkin

The opening and second songs by a big band conducted by Pat Longo, in tribute to Sid, at Charlie O's on May 26, 2008.

More to follow as I work on conversions from the Mini DV tape to digital, and further editing of the digital performances.

For those of us that were at the concert, the band was tight and hot, and I am glad to finally be able to put the live performances up on Sid's blog.

Pat Longo Tribute To Sid Bulkin A Success!

The tribute to Sid Bulkin at Charlie O's was fabulous. A 17 piece big band, heavy on the horns, with tight arrangements of songs that were Sid's favorites. All directed by Pat Longo.

More pictures. When the videos get here, they will be uploaded, as well.

Some of the family with Pat.

Tribute to Sid at Charlie O's

LA Jazz Calendar - All SoCal Neighborhoods

Monday, May 26, 2008
Pat Longo Hollywood Big Band - Tribute to Sid Bulkin
8:00 PM
Charlie O's
13725 Victory Blvd.
Van Nuys, 91401
Map this location!
(818) 994-3058
$20 cash cover charge

I know it says 8:00 A.M. so I will call and verify that it really is supposed to be P.M. We all know musicians do not work at 8 a.m., let alone get up at 8 a.m.! Once I confirm that it really is 8:00 p.m., I'll change the entry.

UPDATE: I confirmed it is from 8:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. The band will do two, one-hour sets, with a half-hour break.

The Sticks And The Fedora

For more pictures and videos of Sid's funeral, check out Carrie's Bar & Grill, "The Sticks And The Fedora."

Mark Spiro Tribute To Sid Bulkin

Mark Spiro's tribute to Sid Bulkin, "New York State Of Mind." "... the New York Times and The Daily News."

Walter Heath At Sid Bulkin Funeral Tribute