The Master of Masters, Dave Bartholomew has died at age 100

1st July 2019   ·   0 Comments

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

“They never gave me a gold record – can you imagine that?” Dave Bartholomew, an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once incredulously exclaimed and then laughed. “I did okay though,” added the legendary trumpeter, bandleader, composer, producer and arranger, who helped create and spread New Orleans “big beat” sound especially when teamed with pianist and vocalist Fats Domino. Dave Bartholomew, a brilliantly influential pioneer in the early days of rock ‘n roll, died on June 23, 2019 at the age of 100.

Bartholomew, who composed and arranged such million-selling hits for Domino as “Blue Monday,” “Ain’t that a Shame,” and “I’m Walkin,’” began his musical career blowing trumpet in traditional jazz bands. He recalled playing on the riverboats with noted leaders like pianist Joe Robichaux and trumpeter Papa Celestin with whom he also made the rounds on the chitlin circuit hitting spots in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. He once explained how he used this background while working with Domino.

“On the Fats Domino material I was actually playing what we call tradition music,” he offered in 1999 when he was included in New Orleans Magazine’s Jazz All-Stars. “But what happened is I didn’t have the roving clarinet and trombone. Instead, I put the horns together in what’s called a riff. It was simply an extension of New Orleans street music.

“I made the music to fit Fats so we could get them (the tunes) together to sell – it was a commercial thing,” Bartholomew explained in 2004. “I took the music and sounds that we heard from the street and arranged it to fit dance halls and also to fit Fats. He was a natural.”

Fats was certainly not the only one who benefited from Bartholomew’s expertise as an arranger and producer. A mainstay in engineer Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Recording Studio since the late ‘40s, Bartholomew had a hand in such major hits as Lloyd Price’s “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” Shirley and Lee’s “Let the Good Times Roll” and Smiley Lewis’ “I Hear You Knocking” plus Little Richard made a trip to the studio to record his killer “Tutti Frutti.” Bartholomew also rang up his own hit record, 1949’s swinging “Country Boy” that featured him as a vocalist. “I’m not really a singer,” he confessed though he stood before many a microphone throughout his long career.

“I was always the first one to get to the studio,” said Bartholomew, who was always noted for being a professional and perfectionist. “You kept people focused session after session,” offered Matassa, who worked alongside Bartholomew at J&M and was a close friend, during a 2004 story-filled interview at Dooky Chase’s Restaurant. “Though it didn’t interfere with it (the music) being funky.” The two musical icons went on to share laughs about Fats coming into the studio with a bottle of wine and when saxophonist Lee Allen, who they acknowledged had late night gigs at the Brass Rail, might show up and sleep on the floor. They’d wake him when it was time for his solo.

Bartholomew, whose father played “bass horn,” was born in Edgard, Louisiana though the family soon moved to New Orleans. Money was scarce so he dropped out of school in the 9th grade in order to take care of his mother and three sisters. He said he was just a kid when he began playing with Robichaux and at 17 worked with violinist, bandleader and instrument repairman Claiborne Williams and pianist Fats Pichon.

Freelancing was the trumpeter’s bread and butter and he remembered he was working on Bourbon Street making “$3.00 a night or maybe 50 cents more” when he was drafted into the army where he played in the military band and honed his arranging skills. One of his first gigs on his return was at the Dew Drop Inn where he sat in with the group. “I could play,” an always confident Bartholomew declared. “I was something to be reckoned with.” He recalled that there was a white guy in the audience with “two beautiful, colored Black women” and he walked up to the bandstand and said, “I want you to get a band. I thought he was just showing off for the women,” Bartholomew remembered. Two months later the guy called the neighborhood grocery as the trumpeter didn’t have a phone and said he wanted to talk to Dave about the club. Sure enough Bartholomew was hired to lead his own band at a spot called the Greystone. “I never looked back,” Bartholomew declared. “I just picked the best musicians that included Frank Fields on bass and Earl Palmer on drums.”

The musical relationship between Bartholomew and Domino got its jump start when Dave signed with Imperial Records as a talent scout. He took the label’s owner, Lew Chudd, to a small club in the 9th Ward called the Hideaway to hear Fats who was gaining a reputation as piano player. In 1949 Imperial released “The Fat Man” that stands as the first of an incredibly long list of songs created by this remarkable team.

“Lew felt I was a genius but I wasn’t a genius when he would send me a check,” Bartholomew said with a laugh though obviously still resenting being what he considered underpaid. “I have yet to make a million dollars,” he proudly added that his kids all graduated from college. As a family man, he took care of his kin since childhood – “I was hustling every day.” As an astute business man, he said, “I always paid my musicians. New Orleans musicians are all hungry. I’ve been through it.”

From the start, ambition and the love of the music drove Dave Bartholomew. He recalled thinking of the time when he first led his own band at the Greystone: “I’ve got to be somebody.” Even he, with all his confidence and admitted bravado, probably couldn’t have imagined that his name would be forever so deeply etched in the history of music in New Orleans and far beyond.

As Cosimo Matassa wisely told him: “It ain’t bragging if you can do it.”

A funeral service for Dave Bartholomew will take place on Monday, July 8, 2019 at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church, 5029 Louisa St. A public visitation is from 9 until 11:45 a.m. followed by a mass from noon until 1 p.m. There are plans for a musical tribute at a future date.

This article originally published in the July 1, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.