One weekend late in 1954 two of my buddies and I were enjoying a three-day pass at a luxurious “R & R” hotel in the Japan Alps, a welcome respite from our onerous duties in the U. S. Army. Whenever I visited such a hotel I invariably made a point of inspecting the Guest Register, looking for familiar names.
This time I didn’t find any I recognized, but the comment of one soldier from Pittsburgh rang a bell – “Wish I was back at the Midway, diggin’ the Deuces”. “The Midway” referred to Pittsburgh’s most popular jazz venue at the time, in the heart of the Golden Triangle. “The Deuces” referred to “The Deuces Wild”, the area’s most popular jazz group. I, too, wished I could join the anonymous jazz fan, at least for an evening.
Pittsburgh’s Jazz Legacy is, properly, based on a group of giants who established international reputations – Erroll Garner, Billy Strayhorn, Billy Eckstein, Roy Eldridge, etc. – people whom we were eager to hear when their concert tours passed through the city. At the same time there was another level of outstanding musicians who stayed home and performed regularly around the city. The Deuces Wild were the epitome of this group. Their story deserves to be recorded and remembered.
The story begins at Miller’s Café, 725 Liberty Avenue, in late 1946 or early 1947, when four local musicians combined for an ongoing gig. John Walton, Dick Brosky, Joe Wallace, and Reid Jaynes elected to call themselves “The Deuces Wild”, a very appropriate name for a group that would thrive on personnel versatility in the decades to follow.
Walton grew up in Clairton and was a protégé of Rotilio Rotili, a high school band director who also inspired Flo Cassinelli, Spider Rondinelli, and Benny Benack. A tenor saxophonist, Walton toured with the Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw bands in the early 1940s before deciding to return to Pittsburgh to pursue his musical future.
Percussionist Brosky graduated from Mt. Lebanon High School in 1941. Following service with the 94th Division in Europe he joined the local jazz scene as well. He is credited with naming the group in response to a request from Lenny Litman, their manager.
Bass player Wallace was the elder statesman of the group. He was born in 1908 and joined the Pittsburgh Symphony in 1935, then served forty-five years with them. In his spare time, he functioned equally well in the jazz environment.
A product of Wilkinsburg High School, pianist Reid Jaynes elected to focus on music after experiencing a very short career working for Bethlehem Steel. Prior to the organization of the Deuces, his claim to fame was being half of a twin piano team at Mercur’s Music Bar; his partner was Erroll Garner.
By June 1947, Miller’s Café had been remodeled and sported a new name, the Carnival Lounge. In addition to the Deuces, the Carnival regularly imported outstanding national jazz figures – Eddie Heywood, Roy Eldridge, and Slam Stewart, to name a few.
At about this time the Deuces added a trombonist, twenty-year-old Tommy Turk, recently discharged from service in the U. S. Army. A member of a musical family in Johnstown and the Conemaugh High School band, his remarkable talent made him a natural for the group.
The Golden Triangle was a hotbed of entertainment in those days. In addition to the Carnival and Mercur’s, the March 16, 1948, Post-Gazette entertainment page had advertisements for Vic Damone at the Copa, Henny Youngman at Jackie Heller’s Carousel, Guy Lombardo at the Grotto, and the Red Ketter Trio at the Horseshoe Music Bar. Add to this Mary Martin in “Annie Get Your Gun” at the Nixon Theater and you have massive competition for your entertainment dollar.
In April, 1948, Norman Granz brought his “Jazz at the Philharmonic” concert series to the Syria Mosque. Litman arranged for Turk to perform with them; his set with Flip Phillips was so impressive that Granz signed him for a JATP tour. In the next nine years he participated in their annual tours, returning to the Deuces the rest of the time. During his first sabbatical, the Deuces added guitarist Joe Negri as a replacement.
By now the Deuces had attracted national attention. Visiting giants like Stan Kenton and Benny Goodman dubbed them “America’s Greatest jazz Combo”. Bassist Joe Wallace had been replaced by Danny Mastri, whose day job was as a barber in Coraopolis.
The Deuces found a new home in October, 1949, at the “new” Carnival Lounge at 122 Sixth Street; Dizzy Gillespie and a fifteen piece band helped them christen this venue. Two months later they were back at 725 Liberty in a newly remodeled room called the Midway Lounge.
In May, 1950, the Deuces made a big hit substituting for the Slam Stewart Trio in a concert at Syria Mosque, greatly impressing George Shearing and Charlie Parker, headliners on the bill. In November of that year Reid Jaynes temporarily left the Deuces to pursue an independent career; his replacement was Bobby Negri, an equally capable pianist.
Early in 1951 Jaynes recruited vocalist Jeanie Baxter to perform with him, Brosky, Mastri, and tenor saxophonist Flo Cassinelli at Nick Andolina’s Point View Hotel, on Brownsville Road in Brentwood. Other newcomers included drummers Spider Rondinelli and Carl Petttica. By now the pool of Deuces Wild regulars and part-timers had grown too large to be accommodated by a single venue. Half of them moved to the Point View; the remainder stayed downtown.
Cassinelli was a valuable addition to the versatile pool. Born in 1916 into a musical family, he had an interesting career before joining the Deuces – small band member, studio work with KQV radio, steel worker, night club impresario, and member of General MacArthur’s 33rd Division Band in the South Pacific.
In June, 1951, the “downtown” Deuces moved to the New Midway Lounge on Penn Avenue in the Elks Building. It soon became Pittsburgh’s primary jazz venue, hosting, in addition to the Deuces, Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, and Coleman Hawkins. An interesting feature the next summer was a battle of the bands between the “Original” Deuces Wild and the current version led by Tommy Turk.
Other additions to the Deuces pool included bassist Harry Bush, whose day job was managing a print shop; pianist Ray Crummie; and trumpeter/vocalist Jimmy Morgan. Various combinations of these musicians performed at a variety of venues – Bali Kea, in Brentwood; the Blue Moon, in East McKeesport; and the Sunrise Inn, in Turtle Creek – always advertised as the Deuces Wild. It appears to have been an informal, congenial cooperative.
In September, 1954, Turk announced he was permanently moving to the Point View venue with a quintet including Brosky, Bush, Morgan, and Crummie. The following year various combinations of the Deuces were booked at Don Metz’s Sky Vue, at the Hide-A-Way Inn on Route 51, at My Brother’s Place on Liberty Avenue, and at the Cow Shed at Conneaut Lake, consistently billed as “Sensational Recording Artists”. Harold V. Cohen reported that their record of “Sweet Mist” and “I Want a Little Girl” was now available on the record shelves.
By now I was home from the Army and had passed the mantle of saving the Free World from the Red Menace to another set of draftees. In the next seven or eight years Dick Rothermund and I frequently visited local jazz venues on Saturday nights; the Point View and the Deuces Wild were our favorites.
An advertisement for the Point View, in the Pittsburgh Press dated January 10, 1956, reported that the Deuces would be supplemented that week by “Lum Sams, Pgh’s Ella Fitzgerald”. “Lum” was LaMese Sams, a Bridgeville girl who had gained fame as “the singing steelworker” as part of the Bob Trow Quartet, a popular vocal group that also included Warren Carson. Lum had just concluded a long engagement with Joe Negri at the Cove, on Route 51. Her story warrants a column of its own; unfortunately I don’t currently have enough information about her to support one. There is a YouTube of the Trow Quartet performing “Soft Squeeze Baby”, on which she is featured.
Through the remainder of the 1950s different combinations calling themselves the Deuces Wild performed at numerous venues in the Pittsburgh area. Deuces Wild engagements advertised in local newspapers in the 1950s and 1960s include many long-forgotten venues — the I.B.A. Club in Coraopolis, the Blue Moon, The Sportsmen’s Mural Lodge in McKees Rocks, Lenny Litman’s Lounge on Route 19 North, Crawford’s Grill, the Hollywood Show Bar in East Pittsburgh, the Cove on Route 51, the Chateau on Route 88, Cappy’s Stardust Lounge on Street’s Run Road, and the Stanton Club in East Liberty.
In 1958 the Deuces moved to Conneaut Lake for their fourth annual summer engagement at the Cow Shed, and Dodo Marmarosa took over the piano chores; their personnel for that engagement included Dan Mastri on bass, Spider Rondinelli on drums, Flo Cassinelli on tenor saxophone, and Jeanie Baxter on vocals. This gig is recorded for posterity on the seldom heard 45 rpm disc “Jumpin’ at the Cow Shed”. Fortunately it is available currently on YouTube.
In 1959 Tommy Turk decided to seek fame and fortune in Las Vegas. Periodically he would return to Pittsburgh for a reunion with his Deuces buddies. In 1977, one of his visits produced an excellent LP, “The Truth”, at Nino’s East in North Versailles. The rest of the band on this record included Casinelli, Jaynes, Bush, and drummer John Schmidt.
By this time public tastes had moved away from jazz and the Deuces’ reign was approaching its end. The last evidence I can find of them in old newspaper clippings is a short notice dated September 8, 1978, that “the original Deuces Wild will bring their talents to … Sonny Daye’s Stage Door 2 … in Whitehall”. That apparently was the end of an era which brought accessible jazz to my generation for over three decades.
Between 1946 and 1978 about three dozen Pittsburgh musicians earned the right to say they had played with the Deuces Wild in about three dozen different venues, for which the about three dozen surviving jazz buffs of my generation are grateful.
When I finally perfect my time machine and am able to relive memorable days in my past, one of them will certainly be a Saturday night at the Point View, “diggin’ the Deuces”.
One weekend late in 1954 two of my buddies and I were enjoying a three-day pass at a luxurious “R & R” hotel in the Japan Alps, a welcome respite from our onerous duties in the U. S. Army. Whenever I visited such a hotel I invariably made a point of inspecting the Guest Register, looking for familiar names.
This time I didn’t find any I recognized, but the comment of one soldier from Pittsburgh rang a bell – “Wish I was back at the Midway, diggin’ the Deuces”. “The Midway” referred to Pittsburgh’s most popular jazz venue at the time, in the heart of the Golden Triangle. “The Deuces” referred to “The Deuces Wild”, the area’s most popular jazz group. I, too, wished I could join the anonymous jazz fan, at least for an evening.
Pittsburgh’s Jazz Legacy is, properly, based on a group of giants who established international reputations – Erroll Garner, Billy Strayhorn, Billy Eckstein, Roy Eldridge, etc. – people whom we were eager to hear when their concert tours passed through the city. At the same time there was another level of outstanding musicians who stayed home and performed regularly around the city. The Deuces Wild were the epitome of this group. Their story deserves to be recorded and remembered.
The story begins at Miller’s Café, 725 Liberty Avenue, in late 1946 or early 1947, when four local musicians combined for an ongoing gig. John Walton, Dick Brosky, Joe Wallace, and Reid Jaynes elected to call themselves “The Deuces Wild”, a very appropriate name for a group that would thrive on personnel versatility in the decades to follow.
Walton grew up in Clairton and was a protégé of Rotilio Rotili, a high school band director who also inspired Flo Cassinelli, Spider Rondinelli, and Benny Benack. A tenor saxophonist, Walton toured with the Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw bands in the early 1940s before deciding to return to Pittsburgh to pursue his musical future.
Percussionist Brosky graduated from Mt. Lebanon High School in 1941. Following service with the 94th Division in Europe he joined the local jazz scene as well. He is credited with naming the group in response to a request from Lenny Litman, their manager.
Bass player Wallace was the elder statesman of the group. He was born in 1908 and joined the Pittsburgh Symphony in 1935, then served forty-five years with them. In his spare time, he functioned equally well in the jazz environment.
A product of Wilkinsburg High School, pianist Reid Jaynes elected to focus on music after experiencing a very short career working for Bethlehem Steel. Prior to the organization of the Deuces, his claim to fame was being half of a twin piano team at Mercur’s Music Bar; his partner was Erroll Garner.
By June 1947, Miller’s Café had been remodeled and sported a new name, the Carnival Lounge. In addition to the Deuces, the Carnival regularly imported outstanding national jazz figures – Eddie Heywood, Roy Eldridge, and Slam Stewart, to name a few.
At about this time the Deuces added a trombonist, twenty-year-old Tommy Turk, recently discharged from service in the U. S. Army. A member of a musical family in Johnstown and the Conemaugh High School band, his remarkable talent made him a natural for the group.
The Golden Triangle was a hotbed of entertainment in those days. In addition to the Carnival and Mercur’s, the March 16, 1948, Post-Gazette entertainment page had advertisements for Vic Damone at the Copa, Henny Youngman at Jackie Heller’s Carousel, Guy Lombardo at the Grotto, and the Red Ketter Trio at the Horseshoe Music Bar. Add to this Mary Martin in “Annie Get Your Gun” at the Nixon Theater and you have massive competition for your entertainment dollar.
In April, 1948, Norman Granz brought his “Jazz at the Philharmonic” concert series to the Syria Mosque. Litman arranged for Turk to perform with them; his set with Flip Phillips was so impressive that Granz signed him for a JATP tour. In the next nine years he participated in their annual tours, returning to the Deuces the rest of the time. During his first sabbatical, the Deuces added guitarist Joe Negri as a replacement.
By now the Deuces had attracted national attention. Visiting giants like Stan Kenton and Benny Goodman dubbed them “America’s Greatest jazz Combo”. Bassist Joe Wallace had been replaced by Danny Mastri, whose day job was as a barber in Coraopolis.
The Deuces found a new home in October, 1949, at the “new” Carnival Lounge at 122 Sixth Street; Dizzy Gillespie and a fifteen piece band helped them christen this venue. Two months later they were back at 725 Liberty in a newly remodeled room called the Midway Lounge.
In May, 1950, the Deuces made a big hit substituting for the Slam Stewart Trio in a concert at Syria Mosque, greatly impressing George Shearing and Charlie Parker, headliners on the bill. In November of that year Reid Jaynes temporarily left the Deuces to pursue an independent career; his replacement was Bobby Negri, an equally capable pianist.
Early in 1951 Jaynes recruited vocalist Jeanie Baxter to perform with him, Brosky, Mastri, and tenor saxophonist Flo Cassinelli at Nick Andolina’s Point View Hotel, on Brownsville Road in Brentwood. Other newcomers included drummers Spider Rondinelli and Carl Petttica. By now the pool of Deuces Wild regulars and part-timers had grown too large to be accommodated by a single venue. Half of them moved to the Point View; the remainder stayed downtown.
Cassinelli was a valuable addition to the versatile pool. Born in 1916 into a musical family, he had an interesting career before joining the Deuces – small band member, studio work with KQV radio, steel worker, night club impresario, and member of General MacArthur’s 33rd Division Band in the South Pacific.
In June, 1951, the “downtown” Deuces moved to the New Midway Lounge on Penn Avenue in the Elks Building. It soon became Pittsburgh’s primary jazz venue, hosting, in addition to the Deuces, Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, and Coleman Hawkins. An interesting feature the next summer was a battle of the bands between the “Original” Deuces Wild and the current version led by Tommy Turk.
Other additions to the Deuces pool included bassist Harry Bush, whose day job was managing a print shop; pianist Ray Crummie; and trumpeter/vocalist Jimmy Morgan. Various combinations of these musicians performed at a variety of venues – Bali Kea, in Brentwood; the Blue Moon, in East McKeesport; and the Sunrise Inn, in Turtle Creek – always advertised as the Deuces Wild. It appears to have been an informal, congenial cooperative.
In September, 1954, Turk announced he was permanently moving to the Point View venue with a quintet including Brosky, Bush, Morgan, and Crummie. The following year various combinations of the Deuces were booked at Don Metz’s Sky Vue, at the Hide-A-Way Inn on Route 51, at My Brother’s Place on Liberty Avenue, and at the Cow Shed at Conneaut Lake, consistently billed as “Sensational Recording Artists”. Harold V. Cohen reported that their record of “Sweet Mist” and “I Want a Little Girl” was now available on the record shelves.
By now I was home from the Army and had passed the mantle of saving the Free World from the Red Menace to another set of draftees. In the next seven or eight years Dick Rothermund and I frequently visited local jazz venues on Saturday nights; the Point View and the Deuces Wild were our favorites.
An advertisement for the Point View, in the Pittsburgh Press dated January 10, 1956, reported that the Deuces would be supplemented that week by “Lum Sams, Pgh’s Ella Fitzgerald”. “Lum” was LaMese Sams, a Bridgeville girl who had gained fame as “the singing steelworker” as part of the Bob Trow Quartet, a popular vocal group that also included Warren Carson. Lum had just concluded a long engagement with Joe Negri at the Cove, on Route 51. Her story warrants a column of its own; unfortunately I don’t currently have enough information about her to support one. There is a YouTube of the Trow Quartet performing “Soft Squeeze Baby”, on which she is featured.
Through the remainder of the 1950s different combinations calling themselves the Deuces Wild performed at numerous venues in the Pittsburgh area. Deuces Wild engagements advertised in local newspapers in the 1950s and 1960s include many long-forgotten venues — the I.B.A. Club in Coraopolis, the Blue Moon, The Sportsmen’s Mural Lodge in McKees Rocks, Lenny Litman’s Lounge on Route 19 North, Crawford’s Grill, the Hollywood Show Bar in East Pittsburgh, the Cove on Route 51, the Chateau on Route 88, Cappy’s Stardust Lounge on Street’s Run Road, and the Stanton Club in East Liberty.
In 1958 the Deuces moved to Conneaut Lake for their fourth annual summer engagement at the Cow Shed, and Dodo Marmarosa took over the piano chores; their personnel for that engagement included Dan Mastri on bass, Spider Rondinelli on drums, Flo Cassinelli on tenor saxophone, and Jeanie Baxter on vocals. This gig is recorded for posterity on the seldom heard 45 rpm disc “Jumpin’ at the Cow Shed”. Fortunately it is available currently on YouTube.
In 1959 Tommy Turk decided to seek fame and fortune in Las Vegas. Periodically he would return to Pittsburgh for a reunion with his Deuces buddies. In 1977, one of his visits produced an excellent LP, “The Truth”, at Nino’s East in North Versailles. The rest of the band on this record included Casinelli, Jaynes, Bush, and drummer John Schmidt.
By this time public tastes had moved away from jazz and the Deuces’ reign was approaching its end. The last evidence I can find of them in old newspaper clippings is a short notice dated September 8, 1978, that “the original Deuces Wild will bring their talents to … Sonny Daye’s Stage Door 2 … in Whitehall”. That apparently was the end of an era which brought accessible jazz to my generation for over three decades.
Between 1946 and 1978 about three dozen Pittsburgh musicians earned the right to say they had played with the Deuces Wild in about three dozen different venues, for which the about three dozen surviving jazz buffs of my generation are grateful.
When I finally perfect my time machine and am able to relive memorable days in my past, one of them will certainly be a Saturday night at the Point View, “diggin’ the Deuces”.
