From Martha’s Vineyard Arts & Ideas - July, 2021
The musician has come a long way from his Jug Band days.
Jim Kweskin Jug Band, 1966. Left to right: Fritz Richmond, Jim Kweskin, Geoff Muldaur, Maria Muldaur. —Courtesy Geoff Muldaur
“It all started with Garvin Bushell,” writes Geoff Muldaur in the introduction to his new two LP boxed set, His Last Letter. “One night, when I was a teenager, I made it down to Jimmy Ryan’s on 52nd Street to hear the De Paris Brothers. At the time, Ryan’s was the last club standing on that famous strip and it featured traditional, New Orleans-style jazz. Bushell was playing clarinet in the band. After a few tunes, Wilbur De Paris called for “St. James Infirmary.” Bushell reached back, and placed his clarinet on a stand … then picked up an odd-looking wooden tube with holes and shiny keys and strapped it on. It was a bassoon. Just to see this was a shock, but to hear it in this context, even more so … Bushell put the double reed to his mouth and out came the most beautiful tones … ancient, bucolic sounds like a shepherd calling in the fading light to his beloved stragglers. I was spellbound. It was the perfect choice for the mood of the song; nothing could have sounded better.
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