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Dick Vartanian, a trumpet player, was one of many San Francisco jazzmen who served in World War Two and returned home to see if they could make a living playing music. He and a clarinetist, 
Paul Breitenfeld, had become good friends at Polytechnic High School. The war behind them, the young Army veterans attended San Francisco State College, worked gigs in and around the city and played together for a time at the Feather River Inn, a resort in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We see them pictured above at a 1949 jam session at San Francisco State. Breitenfeld changed his main instrument to alto saxophone, changed his last name to Desmond and hooked up with a pianist named Brubeck. Full disclosure: Mr. Vartanian was an invaluable source when I was writing Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond.
Vartanian switched to piano and worked for decades with his trio and as a soloist in a variety of Bay Area clubs and restaurants. Approaching his 90th birthday, he has published an account of
his life. It is in a little book called Ivories and Brass. It tells of his early days jamming with Desmond and Jerome Richardson; travails and pleasures of life as an Army musician; encounters with Harry James, Jonathan Winters, Victor Borge, Vernon Alley and Frank Sinatra (among many others); the Chinatown club owner who insisted that he wear a turban; a wild horseback ride with the 11-year-old Natalie Wood; and songs that he wrote for a revue starring Johnny Mathis before Mathis became a pop star. The book is rough-hewn, readable and replete with wry reflections. It is short and priced accordingly.
To hear one of the Mathis songs from 1955 and see a picture of Vartanian and Mathis together, go here.
Funny to see Dick Vartanian’s name in print. A name that I knew in the 50s & 60s. I was married to a man named Jack Shore who was a close friend of Paul Desmond. Jack had a penchant for adding a Y on the end of his friend’s name. Paul was always Pauly to Jack.
My second relationship was with a man who was a composer, bass player, guitar player, and father to my son Jeremy. He was David “Buckwheat” Wheat, co-inventor of the Boo-Bams, co-composer of the national anthem of most jazz singers, “Better Than Anything.” When Buckwheat first came to the S.F. Bay Area, one of the first musical relationships, besides his co-conspirator, Bill Loughborough, was with Jerome Richardson.
This piece evoked a deluge of memories. Living in the Bay Area during that period gave me some incredibly rich musical experiences. I became a huge jazz fan as soon as I was on my own. And my mother, who had been a band singer before I was born, gave me the following advice, “Never date a musician.”
I will see if I can find Dick’s book and resurrect more.
My best friend was Ann Richards who married Stan Kenton. She worked with the same band leader that my mother had sung with 20 years earlier, Johnny Wolohan. It all took place at the El Patio Ballroom on the corner of South Van Ness and Market. It ultimately became The Fillmore West.
I only see the book on Kindle. Do you know if there is a print edition?
Follow this link. You should see a choice of Kindle or paperback.
THANKS FOR THE GREAT ARTICLE ON ONE OF MY VERY FAVORITE PEOPLE. DICK VARTANIAN IS KNOWN FOR DISCOVERING AND HELPING JOHN ROYCE MATHIS GET STARTED IN CLUBS IN SAN FRANCISCO. BUT, HE IS ALSO A CELEBRATED AND POPULAR MUSICAL ARTIST ON HIS OWN—GREAT PERSONALITY AND SHOWMAN.