Dick Ames fell in love with jazz when it was America’s popular music in the 1930s. He went on to play cornet with a college dance band, became a lawyer, formed a Dixieland-style ensemble that lasted more than 60 years and founded the Jazz Appreciation Society of Syracuse.
Ames died in his sleep on Dec. 28, 2017, at his Fayetteville home. He would have celebrated his 98th birthday on Dec. 30.
Four years ago, “The American Rag” published a lengthy profile of the then-95-year-old Central New York bandleader headlined, “Jazz of all trades.” That idiomatic metaphor referred to Ames’ multi-faceted role in the Upstate trad-jazz scene.
As the founder of the still-extant Jazz Appreciation Society of Syracuse in 1971, he presided over countless JASS board meetings. He wrote the club’s by-laws and applied for non-profit status. When a concert approached, he ordered and delivered stage decorations. He hauled and set up the sound system, then ran the board during the performances.
“We knew – we didn’t have to guess – we knew that people would love this music if they ever got an opportunity to hear it,” he said of the club’s formation. “They weren’t going to hear it on the radio. They weren’t going to hear it on TV. They weren’t going to hear it anyplace unless we did something about it, bringing good bands here to get people hyped up about traditional mainstream jazz.”
Before long, JASS hosted appearances by big names such as Maxine Sullivan, Slam Stewart and Doc Cheatham and bands like Jim Cullum’s Happy Jazz Band. In the early-1980s, Ames finagled a weekly Friday-evening gig at Syracuse’s Dinkler Motor Inn, and the club flourished.
As if running JASS and booking performances wasn’t enough, Ames played cornet while leading his own Bear Cats Jass Band, personally recreating the authentic sounds of America’s most spirited music. The Bear Cats’ theme song is “Blue Turning Grey Over You,” the beautiful but bittersweet ballad from 1929.
The Bear Cats will perform at a celebration of Ames’ life at 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27, at Eastern Hills Bible Church, 8277 Cazenovia Road in Manlius.
Several years ago, the JASS board appointed Ames as its President Emeritus.
Ames’ enthusiasm for the music extended far beyond Central New York. In 1987, he became a founding member of the American Federation of Jazz Societies where he served for many years on the board of directors.
After serving in the Army Air Corps during World War II and attending law school at Syracuse University, he married Isabel Wagner and started a family. In 1957, he picked up his cornet again to accompany a minstrel show fund-raiser for the Lions Club in Fayetteville. The band debuted at the Wellwood School on March 1 and March 2, 1957.
The musicians – and especially Ames – had so much fun that they named themselves the Dixie Dandies and in 1959 the band appeared on the nationally televised show Ted Mack & The Original Amateur Hour.
The Dandies released an LP in 1963, and played major festivals from Boston, Mass. to Washington, D.C. Around 1970, the name was changed to the Bear Cat Jass Band.
In 1992, the Bear Cats became the first Central New York recording artist to release a double-CD boxed set, A Breath of Fresh Air, which showcased 31 tunes from “Waitin’ For Katie” to “Black Bottom Stomp.”
At the Bear Cats’ 50th anniversary performance on March 4, 2007, at the Quality Inn in Liverpool, state Sen. John DeFrancisco presented Ames with a two-page senate resolution honoring the group’s five decades of music-making.
