BLAST FROM THE PAST: THE ORIGINAL BLACK EAGLE JAZZ BAND

My old friend and former bandmate Tony Pringle recently sent me this photo of one of the earliest appearances of our Black Eagle Jazz Band in Peterborough, New Hampshire, in 1970. (That's me on the right sporting an afro and a Harvard crew shirt.) Other members of the band are Pringle on cornet, Ray Smith on drums, Jim Klippert on trombone, Eli Newberger on piano, and Dave Duquette on banjo.
Tony and I put the original group together in about 1969. Tony, a computer engineer, had recently arrived from Liverpool (via Ohio) and was looking for musicians who shared his passion of George Lewis-style New Orleans jazz. Somebody gave him my name, so he showed up at my dorm at Harvard one day and we immediately decided to put together a group of like-minded musicians in the Boston area. The guys in this photo were the first "generation" of the Black Eagles.
Soon after this photo was taken, Pam Pameijer took over on drums;  Duquette moved to Texas and Peter Bullis filled the banjo chair. That was the group that recorded with Chester Zardis on bass in 1971 and played that year in the second New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, with Kid Ory on the front row. Ory shook our hands after the concert and praised the band—an unforgettable moment. Later that year, I graduated and left for Oxford, Klippert moved to California, and the band continued under Tony's leadership as the New Black Eagle Jazz Band. More than four decades later the NBEJB is still playing and prospering.

TOMMY SANCTON GIGLIST, APRIL - MAY 2011

Wednesday, April 13: Palm Court, 1206 Decatur Street, 8 – 11 pm. With Lars Edegran Band, featuring Jason Marsalis on drums.

Sunday, April 17: Preservation Hall, 726 St. Peter Street, 8 – 11 pm. New Orleans Legacy Band.

Sunday, April 24: Preservation Hall, 726 St. Peter Street, 8 – 11 pm. New Orleans Legacy Band.

Wednesday, April 28: Palm Court, 1206 Decatur Street, 8 – 11 pm. With Clive Wilson's New Orleans Serenaders

Thursday, April 29: New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Fesival; Economy Hall Tent. Time tba. With Clive Wilson's New Orleans Serenaders

Sunday, May 1: New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Fesival; Economy Hall Tent. Time tba. With the Tommy Sancton New Orleans Legacy Band, featuring Jason Marsalis

BLACK EAGLE REUNION BAND ON FQF

The Black Eagles are back in town! Well, some of them, anyway. The band's original front line (cornetist Tony Pringle, trombonist Jim Klippert and myself on clarinet) will be reunited with Black Eagle banjoist Peter Bullis at the Palm Court Jazz Café on Wednesday, April 7, 8 - 11 pm. We will be joined by Lars Edegran on piano, Kerry Lewis on bass and Frank Oxley on drums. (Cf. article in this week's Gambit:http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/tom-sanctons-black-eagle-reunion-band/Content?oid=1658579

This will mark the first time the original Boston-based Black Eagles have played together in New Orleans since our appearance at Jazzfest in 1971, the year we recorded our first album with the legendary Chester Zardis on bass. The Jazzfest gig will live forever in our memories because Kid Ory was sitting on the front row and shook our hands after our set. (Woody Allen was also on hand, waiting in the wings with the Galvanized Washboard Band.)

After I graduated from college and left Boston in 1971, the band was reorganized as the New Black Eagle Jazz Band and went on to fame (if not fortune) with U.S. and European tours and numerous recordings. And they're still at it 40 years later! (Check their website: blackeagles.com)

In addition to the Palm Court gig (1206 Decatur Street), the Black Eagle Reunion Band will play on the French Quarter Festival on Sunday, April 10, 1:15 - 3:15, 600 block of Bourbon Street. Copies of our now historic 1971 CD will be on sale at both venues (also available through the blackeagle website).

Y'all come!