Posted with permission from the Hamilton Spectator
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Feb 15, 2012
Brant Inn
By Jeff Mahoney
Walking out onto the sloping grounds of Spencer Smith Park in Burlington, at its far western reaches, I ask Stewart Brown where the old place used to stand, expecting him to point into the distance, where the lake meets the shore.
I know the Brant Inn looked out over the water, one of its countless charms.
But Stew answers, “Right about here.”
Standing beside the recently installed Brant Inn plaque, we’re still a ways yet from the beach.
What gives?
“That’s all landfill,” he explains, referring to the considerable tracts of park, field and breakwater that now drop away from Lakeshore Road to the south.
If we’d been standing in the same spot 74 years ago, we might’ve heard the sounds of Benny Goodman floating over our heads (Benny pulled in a fat two thou for that gig) or watched as young Doc and Dick Washington fell out of a tree and into the Brant Inn’s outdoor Sky Club.
The branch broke. They couldn’t get in to see Goodman because they were black.
Such different times. Yet, when you stand where it was, by the stately plaque that recalls details of its colourful history, you can still feel the ripples of that not-so-distant past. Like the place, the time was not as far away as it may seem.
It’ll feel very close on May 12, when a group of Brant Inn enthusiasts puts on a concert to commemorate the legendary lakeshore nightclub.
The concert was Bert Allen’s idea. Stew Brown got right behind it. Stew’s the former Spectator writer, drummer and Brant Inn champion who wrote Brant Inn Memories, a richly evocative chronicle (from which the tree story comes), covering its heyday from the 1920s to the 1960s — Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Sophie Tucker, Oscar Peterson, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Guy Lombardo, even Jayne Mansfield. Everyone but Sinatra.
But where do you find a band these days, a 20-plus-piece ensemble, to re-create the incredible swing music of those times and that place?
Russ Weil’s renowned Hamilton All Star Jazz Band, all teens and 20-somethings, is champing to get their embouchures around this timelessly robust material. A perfect joining of generations.
I got together recently with Russ, Bert and Stew, as well as Ken Davy from the Burlington Historical Society. The society sponsored the plaque, installed in November, as well as Stew’s 2008 book and video.
You could feel their excitement. A chance to relive the inn. Russ, director of the jazz band, is already poring over musical choices.
“We want a repertoire that defines the inn,” he says. “But it has to be more than a concert.”
There’s also the lore. Stew is ringmaster of the circus of memory that still swirls around the place.
His father, Gordon Brown, was reed man for the Gav Morton Orchestra, house band at the inn for years, and so the place is tangled up with Stew’s personal heritage. When he was a boy, his family vacationed in the old housekeeping cabins (you had to clean up before the next renters moved in) on Lakeshore Road by the inn.
“Interspersed with the songs, there’ll be pictures and memories on the screen,” says Stew.
For a touch of historical fidelity, they’ve lined up TV/radio personality Alex Reynolds as host. He introduced acts, Stan Kenton among them, for the CBC’s weekly national broadcasts from Brant Inn back in the day.
The organizing group is asking you for memories (we’ll print some in this column) to be highlighted during the concert, orally and on screen, and they’re also looking for local musicians who played at the Brant Inn.
The Brant Inn concert happens Saturday, May 12, 7:30 p.m., at Redeemer University College, 777 Garner Rd. E., in Ancaster.
To submit memories (and please do) or make inquiries, email Russ Weil at businessmanager@hamiltonallstarjazz.org. It promises to be a soaring, sentimental show.
jmahoney@thespec.com
_________________________________________________
Feb 15, 2012
Brant Inn
By Jeff Mahoney
Walking out onto the sloping grounds of Spencer Smith Park in Burlington, at its far western reaches, I ask Stewart Brown where the old place used to stand, expecting him to point into the distance, where the lake meets the shore.
I know the Brant Inn looked out over the water, one of its countless charms.
But Stew answers, “Right about here.”
Standing beside the recently installed Brant Inn plaque, we’re still a ways yet from the beach.
What gives?
“That’s all landfill,” he explains, referring to the considerable tracts of park, field and breakwater that now drop away from Lakeshore Road to the south.
If we’d been standing in the same spot 74 years ago, we might’ve heard the sounds of Benny Goodman floating over our heads (Benny pulled in a fat two thou for that gig) or watched as young Doc and Dick Washington fell out of a tree and into the Brant Inn’s outdoor Sky Club.
The branch broke. They couldn’t get in to see Goodman because they were black.
Such different times. Yet, when you stand where it was, by the stately plaque that recalls details of its colourful history, you can still feel the ripples of that not-so-distant past. Like the place, the time was not as far away as it may seem.
It’ll feel very close on May 12, when a group of Brant Inn enthusiasts puts on a concert to commemorate the legendary lakeshore nightclub.
The concert was Bert Allen’s idea. Stew Brown got right behind it. Stew’s the former Spectator writer, drummer and Brant Inn champion who wrote Brant Inn Memories, a richly evocative chronicle (from which the tree story comes), covering its heyday from the 1920s to the 1960s — Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Sophie Tucker, Oscar Peterson, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Guy Lombardo, even Jayne Mansfield. Everyone but Sinatra.
But where do you find a band these days, a 20-plus-piece ensemble, to re-create the incredible swing music of those times and that place?
Russ Weil’s renowned Hamilton All Star Jazz Band, all teens and 20-somethings, is champing to get their embouchures around this timelessly robust material. A perfect joining of generations.
I got together recently with Russ, Bert and Stew, as well as Ken Davy from the Burlington Historical Society. The society sponsored the plaque, installed in November, as well as Stew’s 2008 book and video.
You could feel their excitement. A chance to relive the inn. Russ, director of the jazz band, is already poring over musical choices.
“We want a repertoire that defines the inn,” he says. “But it has to be more than a concert.”
There’s also the lore. Stew is ringmaster of the circus of memory that still swirls around the place.
His father, Gordon Brown, was reed man for the Gav Morton Orchestra, house band at the inn for years, and so the place is tangled up with Stew’s personal heritage. When he was a boy, his family vacationed in the old housekeeping cabins (you had to clean up before the next renters moved in) on Lakeshore Road by the inn.
“Interspersed with the songs, there’ll be pictures and memories on the screen,” says Stew.
For a touch of historical fidelity, they’ve lined up TV/radio personality Alex Reynolds as host. He introduced acts, Stan Kenton among them, for the CBC’s weekly national broadcasts from Brant Inn back in the day.
The organizing group is asking you for memories (we’ll print some in this column) to be highlighted during the concert, orally and on screen, and they’re also looking for local musicians who played at the Brant Inn.
The Brant Inn concert happens Saturday, May 12, 7:30 p.m., at Redeemer University College, 777 Garner Rd. E., in Ancaster.
To submit memories (and please do) or make inquiries, email Russ Weil at businessmanager@hamiltonallstarjazz.org. It promises to be a soaring, sentimental show.
jmahoney@thespec.com