Deed I Do - Merle Kocch session

Deed I Do – Merle Koch session 1986

I met Bob Newman many years ago when he was a member of California’s Fulton Street Jazz Band and I remember some great sessions with that band.
In 1982 Fulton Street played the Reno Festival and met pianist Merle Koch. Merle had been a friend of Pete Fountain and had lived and played with Pete for many years in New Orleans. Several years before Merle had settled in Virginia City in Nevada, near Reno. There he had opened a jazz club, called the Silver Stope. A couple times a year he would invite some of his old jazz friends over for a weekend of jamming. Merle liked clarinettist Bob Newman and invited him over for many of these sessions.

In 1986, Merle was suffering from terminal cancer of the throat, it was going to be the last weekend that Merle would play with his friends at the Stope.

In this tune we see Merle together with Dick Cathcart trumpet, Eddie Miller tenor sax, Bob Havens trombone, Bob Newman clarinet and completing the rhythm group are Bunky Jones bass, and V.J Bourgeois drums.