Writer's Page

Thanks to Sandy Frakes, assistant to the station’s General Manager, I was able to meet and talk to Chuck Niles before his Noon broadcast. I was told he was hiding, but we soon found him in the record/CD library pulling his show selections.

Sandy: Chuck, there’s someone here to meet you.

TC: I just wanted a couple minutes of your time.

CN: Oh sure, that’s what they all say...

Sandy: No, really, he drove all the way from Arizona, made an appointment and all.

TC: Could we get a picture together?

CN: Well, okay. You want these CD’s I’m holding to be in the picture?

TC: Sure, we’ll catch you preparing for your show.             

                                        

CN: Preparing?!

TC: I basically had two quick questions. First off, are you familiar with “Sunshine” Sonny Payne, the announcer who does the “King Biscuit Time” blues radio show in Arkansas? He started that show in 1941 and is still doing it each weekday. I met him a few years ago, here’s a picture of us together. After meeting him, you were the next long-time announcer I wanted to meet.

CN: No, I haven’t heard of him. And good for him for still being there. I started a “couple” years after that.

TC: I’ve been in radio 28 years now in Phoenix, and 19 of those were in jazz, just like the format here. 

CN: Phoenix you say? There’s a pianist there, Armand Boatman. I think we have one of his albums here. Do you know him?

TC: Yes, I do. I even got a chance to play drums with him once. Not bad for a blues drummer.

CN: Who else do I know in Arizona? Did you know Bud Shank just moved to Tucson? I don’t know why, out there in the desert. And what’s-his-name? Mahronic?

TC: Chuck Mahronic. Yes, a very well-respected educator and great pianist.

My other question would be about Sleepy Stein. I’ve only heard about him, never heard him on the air. Can you tell me about him?

CN: He was a tough old guy, could be tough on you too. He just died a couple years ago at about age 90. KNOB was the first jazz station in LA. Right around ‘57. He didn’t actually own it, may have had an interest. I’d been at KFOX doing a Sunday show, just to keep my foot in the radio side of broadcasting while also at Channel 9 as the afternoon movie host. It’s a long story. But Sleepy brought me over to KNOB. I remember well, right here in Long Beach, in the days before freeways, driving up to Sleepy’s house on a hill, getting some albums, and driving them in my sports car all the way to the station.

TC: I heard he got his name by replacing an announcer named “Wide Awake Wally,” or something like that.

CN: I don’t know about that, that was before my time. I started in radio here about ‘56.

TC: You know, I like your flow on the air. Not only is all your music good, but you know how to sequence it. There’s a jazz announcer on the network today, Bob Parlocha, and his music is good but his pace and delivery are a little choppy. Not so with you.

CN: Let me tell you something else about that Bob Parlocha. He snores! I know because a while back, on one of these jazz cruises, they asked If I knew him and if they could have us room together. That’s when I met him. Now, I may snore too, but that guy....the next year they almost did it again but I heard, luckily, that he’d gotten married and had his wife on the cruise.

TC: Look, Chuck, here’s proof I know Armand, here’s a picture of us I together.

CN: Oh, yes. And here's an LP of his in our library. I need something more current of his.

TC: Maybe we can get you a fresh CD.

CN: That’s just what I need. Another new CD. I need more CD’s like I need a hole in the head.

A voice from the next room: It would be an improvement in your case.  You have mail, Chuck, more CD’s.

CN: Let’s see here, one from Frankie Laine. He’s gotta be 90 by now. Obviously still recording.

TC: You know I had a chance to interview him on radio about 7 years ago.

CN: What else is here? A lot of the new releases I get are of young lady singers. Some pretty good.

TC: What percentage of them would you say can cut it, in your opinion?

CN: That’s a good question. Maybe 10 to 20%. All of the local ones I like I also get out to hear. Karren Allison is one of the best. You know why? Because she can also play piano and knows how to work a room. In San Francisco you have Kitty Margolis.

TC: It sounds, by the way you and the other announcers talk, that you get out quite often to hear live jazz.

CN: Oh yes, and I’m paying for it now (rubs head). I’m going out to hear Tommy Newsome tonight. After LA, the big time with the “Tonight Show,” he moved back to where his wife wants to live, Carolina Beach. And he’s a good husband. Goes with her despite no real music scene there.

I’m not originally from here but have been around long enough to play some woodwinds. I even played “cocktail” drums once just to get a paying gig and it worked.

And some of the big-name music people I’ve gotten to know are still doing well later in their careers. Like good writers for example. And I’m trying to think of someone like Hoagy Carmichael who, with the right hit, can live off just that one song ....David Raksin, there’s an example. He still gets out often around here and “Laura” set him up for life. Art Hamilton, there’s another one still around here. He wrote “Cry Me A River” and had a huge hit. When Julie London was still living. Let’s see, he and Barney Kessell were on that session, very good and successful musicians.

I’m still selling shows around town (assembling musicians for live music), I don’t do too bad, for such a BS business. Well, you’re in it, you know. And I did a little teaching at one time, very little.

TC: Clarinet?

CN: No, jazz history. Some of the colleges around here. Well, I gotta go to work.

TC: Here’s my card. Just in case you ever want to come to Arizona to visit Armand, or Bud, or Chuck.

Thank you for your time. I get to listen to you on the internet at home now. You’re my new hero. I told that to Charlie Hunter once and he told me to “Get another one!”

CN: (laughing) Well, I’m afraid I don’t play enough of Charlie. Gotta do something about that.

On the way out of the KKJZ Long Beach studios, Sandy Frakes noted that I "caught Chuck on a good day."

 Reba Russell finally visited Phoenix at the Rhythm Room, May 29th 2011:
                                                                 
http://rebarussell.com

DON’T HOLD BACK! Reba (Rebecca, Becky) Russell at Rhythm Room. Power, control. For my money the most incredible unknown performer ever. Sings every word with unlimited energy and everything she’s got. A natural talent, never hits a note off-key. She handles all her own business, has her own record label, does mostly original music. Her band (together 20 years now) was finally able to make Phoenix thanks to the Silver City NM Blues Festival bringing her this far west. I’m happy the room was pretty full. 

I sat with some of Reba’s family who lives here, mostly cousins. They had no idea of what her music or show was about. But I'm a BIG fan after seeing her in the south a few times.  A shy inner child in the midst of immense intensity, I’ll bet she gave me a hug just to put me out of my misery. 

Russell’s band headed back home by bus to Memphis the next day which carried all 5 band members and all their equipment. Meanwhile I’m listening to her eighth album “8” repeatedly. It now appears she plays character parts in the songs she sings, still originals but relating the story of some band member or other. She’s 53, Wayne is 62. Don’t know how they do it, hard living night after night. It's clearly “to thyne own self be true” to an extreme.

It inspires me to give the future everything I’ve got. If SHE can do her thing, maybe I can do mine too.  Days later I kept telling the story of taking a drink to Reba when a close friend walked in.  "I see you're up to your same old tricks."


--Tom Coulson