Dick Wellstood on working with Sidney Bechet

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Dick Wellstood discusses musicians that have originated in New Orleans

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Dick Wellstood discusses early influences

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Q: “Who did you learn to play from, people like Don Ewell? Guys who were around?”

A: “I used to really admire Don Yule back when he played. He used to try to be like Jelly Roll Morton or a spin-off of Jelly Roll Morton and he played with Bunk Johnson back in the 40s. And he made those, what I always thought were quite nice lovely ... in those times, I thought they were wonderful trio records with Bunk Johnson were they played 'In the Gloaming' and 'I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen' and these sort of, you know, strange songs like that. And yeah, it was a really nice sort of development of Jelly Roll Morton and I used to like it. I thought it was very musical and I have a sort of a funny record of me in a band with Bob Wilber playing a very elaborate arrangement of 'How High The Moon' and me playing chorus on 'How High The Moon' in which I tried to play like Don Yule playing like Jelly Roll Morton, so I have that at home some place. It's kind of strange, I mean, footnotes to jazz, but you know, anyway. Yeah, I always actually preferred his Jelly Roll-inspired playing more than his sort of stride playing. I thought that ... but he went through big emotional thing I think with Morton. The people who were around Bunk Johnson really got all wound up in some kind of mystical thing and I don't know what it was, but it was pretty deep experience of some sort and Don stopped playing like that afterwards and then he got into a stride and you know he went out on the road with Teagarden in the 50s and he kind of changed so ...”