Gutbucket?

[frederick.sitter]

I didn't get any response to my previous post, so let's try it
under this subject...

Can anyone here help me learn something about "gutbucket,"
apparently a style of New Orleans jazz prevalent in the 1910s
and 1920s? Specifically, I'm looking for something by Jelly
Roll Morton with a "Billy Cato ride," and music by Muggsy
Spanier.

Post or email. Thanks for any and all pointers!

:):( :):( :):( :):( :):( :):( :):( :):( :):( :):( :):( :):(
Fred Sitter |
201-984-7164 | "I'm too old to be a young talent."
fr...@cbnewsg.cb.att.com| - Artie Shaugnessy
att!attmail!sitter |

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[FROGMORE]

frederick.sitter <fr...@cbnews.att.com> writes:

>I didn't get any response to my previous post, so let's try it
>under this subject...
>
>Can anyone here help me learn something about "gutbucket,"
>apparently a style of New Orleans jazz prevalent in the 1910s
>and 1920s? Specifically, I'm looking for something by Jelly
>Roll Morton with a "Billy Cato ride," and music by Muggsy
>Spanier.
>
>Post or email. Thanks for any and all pointers!

Well, an obvious one is Louis Armstrong's Hot 5 "Gutbucket Blues".
I've been told by New Orleans locals old enough to know that
a "gutbucket" was literally a bucket full of animal guts and similar
not highly desireable butcher's leavings, that for some poorer
New Orleanians was a cheap source of meat for dishes like beans &
rice, gumbo, etc. I've read a different explanation of the term
in a recent source, saying that a gutbucket was a drip catcher under
a beer tap, but I tend to think the first explanation as being the
usage in teens -twenties New Orleans. I don't know that "gutbucket"
originally refered to any type of music or style, other than indicating
low down and dirty, that is to say hot and bluesy music, perhaps as
perfered by the poorer and rougher social classes.

[Stan Brager]

"Gut bucket" - according to John S. Wilson in the Time-Life "Giants of
Jazz" series featuring Louis Armstrong - is a bucket placed under
the spigot of a wine or beer barrel to catch the drippings or "gutterings".
The custom was made famous by Louis and His Hot 5 on November 12, 1925
with their recording of "Gut Bucket Blues". This was at the beginning of Louis'
greatest recording periods when he defined the basic language of jazz. Since
that time, there have merely been extensions albeit great ones.

The other tune you refer to by Jelly Roll Morton is "Billy Goat Stomp". This is truly
a wild romp for the Hot Peppers. It was recorded on June 4, 1927 and is available on RCA's
"The Jelly Roll Morton Centennial". There's a bit of hokum on this recording
as was the prevailing style for many performers. But also some fine solos
by Johnny Dodds, Gerald Reeves, Morton and others.

Hope this helps.

Stan Brager

[heink...@gmail.com]

I am curious if your original question stems from the play "Laura" by Vera Caspary and George Sklar. Yours is the only post I can find when I also look for this reference from the play, in which a number of the characters are referred to as "gutbucket connoisseurs," and discuss records by Muggsy Spanier and Jelly Roll Morton (particularly "the only one with a Billy Cato ride"). I've not been able to find any information on Billy Cato, and I'm wondering if he is a fictional musician created for the story. I realize this post was from a number of years ago, but, as I said, yours is the only one I can find that references these things.