The Last Jug Band Breakfast
#351 / Flood Time Capsule: 2012
When we came in for our annual "jug band breakfast" at the great Coon Sanders Nighthawks Reunion Bash a dozen years ago this week, we had no idea it would be the last time.
For more than a decade, The Flood had had a standing Saturday morning date with that wonderful rowdy bunch of traditional jazz fans who came from all over the country for their annual jam session/gab fest in Huntington. Our contribution was to bring a host of hokum tunes and a slew of kazoos for playing along.
The trad jazz appreciation group had been formed decades earlier, named in honor of the Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra of Kansas City, the first jazz band to gain national recognition after its 1918 founding by drummer Carleton Coon and pianist Joe Sanders.
Huntington chapter chief Dale Jones, leader of the city’s own beloved Backyard Dixie Jazz Stompers, had a hunch his reunion regulars would get a kick out of the hokum portion of The Flood’s eclectic repertoire, and he was right.
From year 2000 onward, The Flood rolled in with kazoos and weird sing-along, jokes and stories. The jug band breakfast was always a highlight of The Flood’s calendar.
The Last Time
Financial and logistical burdens of running the gathering, though, finally caught up with the good ol’ Coon Sanders reunions, and later that year, Jones sadly announced the run had come to an end.
The Floodery
Usually The Flood had a packed stage for the gig — no one wanted to miss the fun at Coon Sanders — but as it happened, we didn't have a full boat for the May 2012 festivities.
David Peyton had injured himself in a gardening accident and couldn't make the do. Sam St. Clair had family obligations that kept him away as well.
To sit in on harmonica, we called on the man Sam likes to call his “over-study.”
The incomparable Jim Rumbaugh had been jamming regularly with the band in its two years’ of Bowen House parties, so he knew everything on the set list for the morning.
When it came to a sub for Peyton… well, that was impossible. There was only one Dave Peyton, and no one would dream of trying to fill his shoes when it came kazoory.
However, we did take the opportunity to call our buddy Norman Davis up to the stage to conduct his own version of our traditional how-to-kazoo seminar. Click the button below for audio of that moment:
And while we’re at it, here’s a trio of songs from the fun at that last Coon-Sanders assembly:
No Video, Some Video
If we had known May 2012 would be the last go-round, we certainly would have been taken pains to film that show, but, alas, there is no video.
However, we do have some of Pamela Bowen’s video from the previous year. Here’s a typical moment from the May 14, 2011, jug band breakfast:
We’ll never forget our friends at Coon Sanders Nighthawks.
More from 2012
Finally, if you’d like a taste of what else the band was playing in those days, use your Radio Floodango sound machine and set the dial back to 2012:
