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01/24/12
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My brothers and I took music in the mid 50s at the Berl Olswanger studio on Union Avenue. My brothers were known as The Greene Twins and they played the guitars and sang in programs all over Memphis and the Mid South. I learned "The Berl Olswanger Way" from Betty Hines who sang and taught there for years. She gave all of us voice lessons. It was a fun time in our lives. Though I never excelled in piano, I still remember the chords and principles of playing "The Berl Olswanger Way."
10/19/11
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I was a good friend of Mr. Olswanger's son, Bo. We were sent to the principal's office in the 5th grade for painting our shoes and cutting our hair in Miss Vickery's art appreciation class. Blue & Yellow paint on the shoes. A dadaist act.
I remember buying sheet music at Mr. Olswanger's store. Mrs. Olswanger was a wonderful kind woman with beautiful red hair. I was invited to several weekends at their country cottage. Mrs. Olswanger bred & raised beautiful Irish Setters.
Mr. Olswanger, so accomplished a musician & leader of a nationally recognized & recorded band, finally told my mother, a concert level pianist & organist, that I was a hopeless case in reading music—with the saving benefit of a perfect ear & pitch. That mercifully ended the various fruitless lessons on violin, piano and clarinet.
I got a guitar, which was a natural move as I, and pre-teen & teenage Memphis, were enthralled by Tommy Burke & The Counts who were making garage band magic with their version of "Stormy Weather." I gather that Burke teaches German at CBC. MUS had a band called The Shades who were more instrumental group than vocal.
Then of course we had Dewey Phillips and his Red, Hot & Blue showcasing all oeuvres from rhythm & blues, rock n roll, country & rockabilly. Sam Phillips and Wink Martindale on WHBQ.
Memphis was, in the 1950s the place for the post war U.S. music revolution. I vividly recall that and my tastes today are informed by that. Mr. Olswanger was very in touch with this, being so accomplished an artist and bandleader himself. His store was a hangout because we could take a bus or our bikes safely down to it as well as to Pop Tunes. And after meeting Ricky Ferguson I had the pleasure on several Saturdays to sit inside the WDIA offices and watch B.B. King and Carla Thomas and her father Rufus and other notables like Jimmy Reed & Bo Diddly have their records played on air and be interviewed. You could also safely go to a concert which I did with several others [I think Bo was one of them] to Ellis auditorium to see Hank Ballard & the Midnighters whose current hits were "Annie Had a Baby" followed by "Finger Popping Time."
And then there was studio wrestling on TV or, if you got in, on Saturday with "Sputnik" Monroe with his wife being the second in his corner, both having the same hairstyle.
I am so glad I took the time to google up Berl Olswanger last night.
08/16/11
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I am trying to locate an Olswanger fan that might know where I can find a picture of Berl's trumpet player, David "Pee Wee" Wamble for my scrapbook. I was a big fan of Berl's and worked with Pee Wee in Memphis.
Thanks for any assistance.
07/27/11
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Absolutely fabulous website. What a brilliant musician/arranger Berl Olswanger was. The music is as alive, sophisticated, and movement-inducing today as when it was first created. What a musical genius. I shall return again and again to listen to the music, particularly when in need of an uplift or a new "spring to my step" and spirit.
07/13/11
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I was lucky to friends of art sutton. I was 16 or 17 ., and mr sutton needed a bass player. .he called jesyln hudson (my grandmother) and she said i could do it if she wrote out the charts , the job was at the peabody. I was able to pull it off. later mr olswanger needed a bass player and mr sutton recommended me. i got the job without an audition. my lucky day . I was with the band for 3 or 4 years , i later moved to LA.I learned so much being in his band . It was the foundation that i needed to do well in CA.mr olswanger was a great man. with a god given genius talent.he could carry on a conversation with someone and play at the same time and even change keys without missing a note.
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