About Dixie Doodlers

Dixie Doodlers may be a funny name for a top rated 1920s style Dixieland Jazz Band in Wisconsin. Music with bright melody, awesome harmony and energetic rhythm, played by musicians who strive for perfection, there's no doodling around. Dixieland music is a style of instrumental jazz associated with New Orleans, characterized by a relatively fast two-beat rhythm, and played as a group and by solo improvisations. There's no doodling around killing time when the Dixie Doodlers are performing, working, recording or practicing. Their weekly rehearsals include work to seriously practice new tunes and prepare their incredibly huge repertoire of 546 tunes for performances. You could say they doodle with jazz styles, but only their band name has Doodlers in it. Enjoy Dixieland music at your anniversary, birthday, ceremony, concert, corporate gathering, dance, dinner, event, festival, mall, party, parade, picnic or special occasion. Keep Dixieland Music Alive. Reasonable rates. Please hire the Dixie Doodlers. Contact Mark Kranz at 262-679-9475, New Berlin, Wisconsin.

CD and Tunes

Per Your Request - Meet the Doodlers CD: Mahogany Hall Stomp 4:13 Sidewalk Blues 5:30 Coney Island Washboard 5:23 Dixie Doodler Stomp 2:36 Big Lip Blues 4:40 Tia Juana 5:50 Hot Tamale Man 5:44 Louisiana Fairytale 3:25 Chattanooga Stomp 6:05 Ma - She's Making Eyes at Me 4:30 Mandy Make Up Your Mind 5:53 New Orleans Shuffle 5:19 Take My Hand Precious Lord 3:27 San 4:23 Since My Best Gal Turned Me Down 5:26 Take Your Tomorrow 6:39 Over an hour and 19 minutes of music, Order the Dixie Doodlers Per Your Request CD, $15.00, includes domestic shipping and handling if you mention you saw this web site. Greg Kalkhoff works to record, mix and master tunes. We have already sold CDs in Germany and Slovakia! Here are a few unmixed samples made while recording for our new CD. • Kansas City Kitty, Walter Donaldson - 1929 in G. Popularized by Rudy Vallee. Some sections have six or seven sharps for trumpets and clarinet. Andy and Gary take dueling solos on trumpets. Time 4 minutes (MP3, 5.6 Megabytes). • Mahogany Hall Stomp, Spencer Williams - 1929 in Eb. Named for Madam Lulu White's "Mahogany Hall," one of the finest bordellos in Storyville. Time 4 minutes and 23 seconds (MP3, 6.2 Megabytes). • New Orleans Shuffle, Whitmore - 1920s in Ab. Recorded by Bob Wilber's Wildcats 1948 and the Titan Hot Five 1996. (MP3, 5.0 Megabytes) • San, McPhail and Michels - 1920 in F. Time 4 minutes, 25 seconds (MP3, 4.1 Megabytes) • Since My Best Gal Turned Me Down, Howard Quicksell and Ray Lodwig - 1927 in Bb. Quicksell was banjoist with Jean Goldkette Orchestra, Beiderbecke, Trumbauer, etc. Also wrote Sorry. Lodwig played trumpet on some of Bix's sessions c. 1930, such as I'll Be A Friend With Pleasure. Recorded by Bix Beiderbecke 1927, Pee Wee Russell, Gene Krupa 1938, Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra (Sy Oliver arr.) 1934, etc. (MP3, 5.0 Megabytes) • Take Your Tomorrow, J. C. Johnson and Andy Razaf - 1928 in F. Recorded by Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra (Bix, Lang, Bargy, etc. Vocal: Trumbauer and possibly Austin Young) 1928. (MP3, 6.1 Megabytes) We can play over 546 tunes (PDF 21k) in The Firehouse Jazz Band Dixieland style. But especially enjoy these 205 tunes (PDF 13k). One lady in an audience, requested the Just Because Polka followed by Happy Birthday, which is not on our list. But we capably played both with delight.

Gigs and Facts

Dixie Doodler Gig Schedule (PDF 20k). We played on August 19, 2007, for the political congressional rally of Jim Burkee and Jeff Walz at the American Legion in Cedarburg. Was on TV 6 and 58. Did you see us in the Brookfield July 4, 2007, Parade? We met Beverly Taylor, celebrity with TV Channel 6. Greendale Gazebo Dixieland Program on June 30, 2007, for an audience of 500. The Madison Jazz Society enjoyed our program on March 25, 2007. Here is their letter (PDF 47k). Performed for the Caribbean Beulah Brunch (JPG 40k) for 3 hours on July 9, 2006. Performed at Bix Fest 2006 (PDF 11k) on March 11, 2006, at the Racine Marriott, and released our new CD. WLIP-AM (1050 Kenosha) broadcast the program live. Photo 1 (JPG 35k), Photo 2 (JPG 32k). Baker's Ice Cream Parlour & Eatery, 15175 W. National Avenue, New Berlin, plays cuts randomly from the Dixie Doodlers CD. Listen for the seven piece Dixieland music and it is us! Please say hello to owner Patrick Baker. Read the Dixie Doodlers special newspaper article (PDF 13k) written by staff writer John Schultz with photographs by Bob Bailie, in the New Berlin Citizen and Frankln Hub, December 8, 2005, editions. Also an article and photographs of our Fall In to Art Festival music in Thiensville on September 9, 2006. Our musicians also perform in several other musical groups from restaurant bands to classical ensembles, jazz groups to theatrical pit orchestras. We can perform on the main stage, in the background, in a street setting or roving around. Three Dixie Doodlers have Masters Degrees and three are Army Veterans. Gary Lavann and Richard Regent were in the Walker Junior High School Band with Henry Canitz. Photograph (PDF 104k) taken May 3, 1956. Richard, clarinet, is on riser 2nd from left. Gary, trumpet, has blond hair.

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