Jeff England and Bill Clark grew up in Clinton, four blocks apart, and have lived in Columbia for most of the past 40 years but didn’t meet for the first time until six months ago.
Jeff’s dad was a good third baseman on the Clinton semi-pro baseball team when Ol’ Clark was a young umpire, and Jeff’s wife, Laura Lea, is the daughter of the man I unsuccessfully managed in three attempts to win the world heavyweight bowling championship, Dick Creber.
Until six months ago, I had never heard of Jeff England.
My, how things have changed!
The Clarks’ erstwhile son-in-law, Joel Anderson, invited his in-laws to hear his Joel Anderson Ensemble at the Jazz restaurant, and it was there that we met the co-owner, Jeff England.
Joel next invited us to join him to eat red beans and rice and listen to Reunion Jazz.
"These guys are the best Dixieland jazz group around," Joel said. The red beans and rice weren’t too bad either. Just ask Eliot Battle; he handles them for lunch at least three times a week.
Reunion Jazz was indeed worth an evening out, and the trombone player was, you guessed it, Jeff England. He was flat-out good.
The obvious question: "How did Jeff England get from South Second Street in Clinton to Reunion Jazz and escape Ol’ Clark for four decades?"
First, let me tell you about Reunion Jazz.
The group, normally six members who come from Kansas City and St. Louis to join with three Columbians, all were students at the University of Missouri in the late 1960s. They played with a variety of local jazz bands, seldom coming together as a single unit.
Jeff England came to MU in 1965 and played for two years with Marching Mizzou, including a trip to the Sugar Bowl. Hearing "Dixieland" in New Orleans accelerated his interest in an art form he had already come to enjoy.
He started playing with Banjos, Buckets and Brass at the Village Inn, where he teamed with the likes of Jim Roller on the trumpet and the late Larry Graebner, the Tribune’s managing editor, on the tuba.
Jeff later moved over to the 18th Amendment to play with the Sixieland Rascals. He teamed with clarinetist Larry Garrett, banjo player Rich Howard and Bill Dineen on the trumpet. All except Graebner are at least part-time performers with Reunion Jazz today.
Garrett, who now lives in Kansas City, spent most of his time playing with the Shingle Shakers at Shakey’s Pizza with pianist Dan Kelley, Kenny Vale on the tuba, Bus Entsminger on the baritone saxophone and Mark Hulse on the banjo.
Kelly, the alleged business manager for the Reunion Jazz, had never played "Dixieland" until Pete Kersten needed a piano player at Shakey’s. A mainstay with the Single Shakers was Mike Thaman, the tuba and string bass player. They had been grade-school classmates in St. Louis.
By 1971, the old gang had graduated and moved on with life. Every 10 years or so, they would get together for a weekend for old time’s sake and enjoy the memories of a great time in their lives, making foot-tapping music.
Jeff earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1969 and an MBA in 1972, both from MU, then settled in for 26 years with 3M in Columbia, seldom playing the trombone in public.
Garrett had been in the advertising business in Kansas City "for way too many years" and said, "I can’t play the clarinet like Pete Fountain, but I look a lot like him."
Rich Howard had been with Missouri Book Services since 1978 and is still Bob Pugh’s main banjo player at MBS.
Kelley had been with AT&T for many years and manages the capital budget and tracking programs in St. Louis. He’s been singing in barbershop quartets since high school and is the lead vocalist for Reunion. He directs his church handbell choir and plays the organ in several St. Louis churches.
Jim Roller left MU with a medical degree, practiced for five years in Hannibal and has been a dermatologist in Columbia for a quarter century. He’s listed as "Dr. Jazz" and is Reunion’s answer to Louis Armstrong.
Mike Thaman played the tuba for three years with Marching Mizzou, made a trip to the Gator Bowl and reunited with Kelley, his grade-school buddy, at Shakey’s. He’s president of Frontenac Financial Group.
Considering the fact that these guys seldom practice together and simply show up and play as if they’ve been together for the past 40 years is truly amazing.
They play several gigs a year at Jazz, a weekend at the St. Louis Fair in July and a weekend at the Lake of the Ozarks in August.
Their next stop at Jazz will be Feb. 5 Fat Tuesday, the last day of Mardi Gras and will return to Jazz again on Feb. 29.
Friday is their favorite night out, so the Boone County Historical Society has announced "Dixieland Fridays" and has scheduled the Reunion gang for April 4 and May 2, when Kelley gets to sit down with ragtime history at the J.W. "Blind" Boone Piano. The group is preparing a special program for the occasion. For tickets, call the historical society at 443-8936.
Back to Jeff England. He and Ol’ Clark actually grew up a decade apart in Clinton. He was born in 1947; Ol’ Clark joined the army in 1951, and Jeff was only 7 when yours truly last spent a summer in Clinton.
Jeff became a trombone player when his mother marched him into the junior high music director’s office and said, "Teach him to play an instrument."
The music director looked at his mouth and said: "It will fit the trombone best." And it has.
He and Laura Lea have two sons. Matt is the manager of Jazz and will soon be opening a new Jazz in Omaha. Scott teaches legal writing at the University of Alabama. Both are Hickman High graduates, and neither is a saxophone star. Laura Lea is a licensed practical nurse at Boone Hospital Center with a background in cardiac care.
It took a while, but we have finally closed that four-block gap in Clinton Jeff and I.