by Eli Newberger
Dave Duquette, Eli Newberger, “Red” Klippert, Ray Smith, Tony Pringle, Tommy Sancton
The “International House” jam sessions in New Haven led to the creation of two notable New England jazz ensembles.
In 1967, after Carolyn and I left New Haven for our Peace Corps service in West Africa, the core of our coffee house regulars continued to play together. Where previously we’d call ourselves the International Feetwarmers if we needed a name for a gig, once they replaced me on piano with Bill Sinclair, they changed the name to the Galvanized Washboard Band. Art Hovey, my Yale Band tuba section buddy from 1959 to 1962, has described this story with rich detail and humor. Lots more fine players were involved in this transition!
Also, there’s this MA story. Herbert “Hub” McDonald, a banjo player in New Haven, somehow found my address in Upper Volta and sent me a clipping from the New Haven Register about the Galvanized WB. The article mentioned our International House jam sessions. At the time, I was planning to start a pediatric residency at Boston Children’s Hospital in July, 1969. The Register reporter noted that the band was occasionally featuring on clarinet a young Harvard student from New Orleans, Tom Sancton.
After we arrived in Boston, I called Tommy to say hello. He recognized my name and mentioned that he’d recently met an English cornet player, Tony Pringle, who shared his preferred style, drawing on the legacy of his teacher, George Lewis, whose recordings energized the British trad revival of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Tommy suggested that we get together. We did, and the Black Eagles’ Monday evenings at Passim followed in 1970, adding Jim Klippert on trombone and Ray Smith on drums.
Shortly after Tommy graduated from Harvard and left for Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, in the summer of 1971, cornetist Gid Loring asked me to play a pick-up gig on tuba at the Manchester Boat Club. Afterward, I came back to the band and suggested we try moving me to tuba and engaging the terrific pianist in Gid’s group, Bob Pilsbury. Frankly, I was sick of punching out 4/4 bass lines on the piano that I could just as well play on the tuba, As we had a party coming up on the Peter Stuyvesant (the boat next to Anthony’s Pier 4 Restaurant that went down in the blizzard of 1978) we asked Bob to join us.
It worked! So, in an burst of creative imagination in the Fall of 1971, we added the word “New” to “Black Eagle Jazz Band,” and my career as a jazz tuba player took flight.
Dave Duquette was the banjo player in the band that first played at Passim. As I remember it, he couldn’t balance the every other week Monday evening gigs with his day job in CT, and after a few months had to quit. We learned of a guy in Marblehead who’d previously played with a group at the Frog and Nightgown in NC, Peter Bullis. He stepped in with great success.
Similarly in that year, Ray Smith had to quit the low-paying Passim gig for a much better one paying steady at the Bell Buoy in Scituate. Coincidentally Pam Pameijer just walked in one night shortly before and asked to sit in.
Whoever was pulling the strings up there was looking down kindly at this music!