{"id":5453,"date":"2014-02-06T14:13:30","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T22:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=5453"},"modified":"2014-02-12T10:46:09","modified_gmt":"2014-02-12T18:46:09","slug":"vout-meet-slim-gaillard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2014\/02\/vout-meet-slim-gaillard\/","title":{"rendered":"Vout!  Meet Slim Gaillard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[contextly_auto_sidebar id=&#8221;zM5a8Ti6hcMfFbnN8aenImwnrEy8mM6l&#8221;]<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Slim-Gaillard.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Slim-Gaillard.jpg\" alt=\"Slim Gaillard\" width=\"184\" height=\"214\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-5454\" \/><\/a>In a gathering of people even younger than I, when I mentioned Slim Gaillard three of them said in unison, &#8220;Who?&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Flat Foot Floogie,&#8221; I explained, &#8220;Cement Mixer, Putti Putti,&#8221; &#8220;Matzoh ball Oroony,&#8221; and&#151;just to make sure they understood&#151;&#8221;Poppity Poppity Poppity Pop Go De Motorcycle.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Their blank stares made me realize that there must be other folks in the 21st century in need of remedial cultural education. We&#8217;ll begin with an audiovisual aid.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"440\" height=\"355\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qphs31yLcZk?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>\nThat was Slim Gaillard on <em>The Tonight Show<\/em>. The music as he walked off was the theme during Steve Allen&#8217;s tenure as host of the program, so it was probably the mid-1950s. By then, Gaillard had behind him a couple of decades of success that began in the late &#8217;30s with Slim and Slam, a duo of Gaillard and bassist Slam Stewart. Their big hits were &#8220;Flat Foot Floogie&#8221; and &#8220;Cement Mixer,&#8221; novelties executed with superb musicianship. Columbia&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Groove-Juice-Special-Slim-Slam\/dp\/B000002ADF\/?_encoding=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;tag=rifftidougram-20\"target=\"_blank\">The Groove Juice Special<\/a> CD has 20 of their recordings. Later, Gaillard teamed with another bassist, Bam Brown. Their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B0000046T6\/?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;qid=1391720680&#038;s=music&#038;sr=1-1&#038;tag=rifftidougram-20\"target=\"_blank\"><em>Laughing In Rhythm: The Best of the Verve Years<\/em><\/a> has several tracks that include the great bop pianist Dodo Marmarosa and such other guests as Ben Webster, Dick Hyman, Ray Brown and Milt Jackson. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Slim-Gillard-at-Birdland-1951\/dp\/B000053F3P\/?_encoding=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;keywords=Slim%20Gaillard%20at%20Birdland%201951&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;qid=1391721161&#038;s=music&#038;sr=1-1&#038;tag=rifftidougram-20\"target=\"_blank\"><em>Slim Gaillard at Birdland 1951<\/em><\/a> is a collection of performances when he was a regular at the New York club, with Art Blakey, Eddie &#8220;Lockjaw&#8221; Davis, Terry Gibbs, Brew Moore and others sitting in. <\/p>\n<p>Well aware of Gaillard&#8217;s musicianship, the fathers of bebop, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, were happy to be guests on his recording session in Los Angeles on December 29, 1945. Gaillard is the pianist and raconteur, Jack McVea the tenor saxophonist, with Bam Brown on bass with Zutty Singleton playing drums in this blues titled &#8220;Slim&#8217;s Jam.&#8221; <\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"440\" height=\"355\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OxH6MSy58vc?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Accurate information about Gaillard&#8217;s earliest years is hard to come by. <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Slim_Gaillard\"target=\"_blank\">This <em>Wikipedia<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Slim-Gaillard-old.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Slim-Gaillard-old.jpg\" alt=\"Slim Gaillard old\" width=\"133\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-5455\" \/><\/a> article<\/a> seems to have what is available. If you would like to sample Gaillard&#8217;s extensive output of recordings, <em>YouTube<\/em> has dozens of them. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/results?search_query=Slim%20Gaillard&#038;sm=3\"target=\"_blank\">Go here<\/a>. In his later years, Gaillard sometimes worked as an actor in television shows including <em>Marcus Welby M.D.<\/em>, <em>Charlie&#8217;s Angels<\/em> and <em>Mission Impossible<\/em>. He continued to appear in clubs in the US and Great Britain. He died in London in 1991 at age 75.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[contextly_auto_sidebar id=&#8221;zM5a8Ti6hcMfFbnN8aenImwnrEy8mM6l&#8221;] In a gathering of people even younger than I, when I mentioned Slim Gaillard three of them said in unison, &#8220;Who?&#8221; &#8220;Flat Foot Floogie,&#8221; I explained, &#8220;Cement Mixer, Putti Putti,&#8221; &#8220;Matzoh ball Oroony,&#8221; and&#151;just to make sure they understood&#151;&#8221;Poppity Poppity Poppity Pop Go De Motorcycle.&#8221; Their blank stares made me realize that there [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}