Big Boy, Life and music of Frank Goudie

By Dan Vernhettes with Christine Goudie and Tony Baldwin
Multi-instrumentalist Frank"Big Boy" Goudie's career spanned more than four decades, during which he lived and worked in Europe, the United States, and Latin America. Having never played in Chicago or New York or even recorded in the U.S. prior to 1958), Frank Goudie has been understandably, if unjustly, overlooked. However, his life was a rich and fascinating one, and he left a large and diverse recorded legacy, most of which we have been able to trace.

From the moment he arrived in Paris in 1924, Frank Goudie played in a wide variety of bands, alongside American, French, Caribbean, Guyanese and Brazilian musicians. The present work reconstructs his life's journey, from his youth in rural Louisiana, through his years in France, Great Britain, Belgium, Egypt, Germany, Switzerland, Latin America and, finally, San Francisco. It also includes a comprehensive discography of more than 250 titles. Although Goudie made a number of records in Europe, a large body of live recordings from his last Californian years has been unearthed by San Francisco researcher Dave Radlauer.


Here are some of the names of Big Boy's colleagues, famous or forgotten, that you will find in these pages: Willie Lewis, Bill Coleman, Noble Sissle, Tommy Ladnier (new photograph from 1930), Peter Ducongé, Sidney Bechet, Eugene Bullard, Arthur Briggs, Crickett Smith, Glover Compton, André Ekyan, Django Reinhardt, Stéphane Grappelly, Bricktop, Florence Jones, Oscar Aleman, Freddy Johnson, Booker Pittman, Harry Cooper, Jerry Blake, Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins, Jack Butler, Adelaide Hall, Freddy Taylor, Leon Abbey, Abel Beauregard, Peter Wanderley, Bobby Jones, Claude Austin, Charlie Lewis, Bertin Deprestre Salnave, Oscar Calle, Gabriel Dorès, Jenny Alpha, Bob Mielke, Bill Bardin, Bill Erickson, Amos White, Burt Bales, Jim Leigh, Albert Nicholas, Earl Hines, and many others. We examine the activities of Hugues Panassié and Charles Delaunay, and the concerts of the Hot Club de France, as well as the places where jazz developed in Paris (e.g. Le Grand Duc, Chez Florence, The Music Box, the several Bricktop's, etc.) which are shown on a vintage map of Montmartre.

http://www.jazzedit.org/English/EBb/Big-Boy.html