"FEEDBACK AND FOLLOW-UP"
RE: TOMMY TUCKER
"Thank you for your graciousness. My mother sincerely enjoyed her conversation with you.
I may be able to also give you a feel for who my dad was. It is hard to express how much I and everyone else around us adored him. He was very kind, gracious, thoughtful and honest. He was a perfectionist. Listen to I Don't Want to Set the World On Fire or I Love You (Oh, How I Love You). They are extremely restrained in their tempo and delivery. He was always directing musicians (as well as his family) to slow down. Always making each moment more gentle.
He taught us so much about music. When everyone else was listening to bubble-gum music, when I opened the door of our house, Stravinsky was filling the room. He taught me about the counterpoint of Bach, the elegance of Mozart, the tone scale of Schoenberg, and the romanticism of
Rimsky-Korsakov. Once he sat down at the keyboard at my house and wrote out 14 or so variations of chord progressions for the Blues on empty sheet music.
As a result, music in my life has been much enriched."
- Trudy Tucker Thomson
Christopher Popa follows-up:
I was very privileged to speak with Tommy Tucker's wife, Virginia 'Dare' Tucker. And I was delighted to also hear from their daughter, Trudy.
Lastly, a portrait of Tommy Tucker [ l. ] when he was older, and became an Associate Professor of Fine Arts at Monmouth College in New Jersey.
". . . Just called my mother . . . She thinks he did meet Bulowski there in Texas and maybe joined up with him. Together they went out to California and became
[ The ] Californians . . . and at some point Bulowski dropped out [ of ] the
picture . . . Discovering history is a pretty wild adventure, isn't it? . . . I am now pretty convinced that my dad was born in 1903. And my mother in 1918, because she told me the other night she was 15 years younger than him . . . I do think they cared more about family than
fame . . . " - Trudy Tucker Thomson
return to Tommy Tucker: "The Fundamental Things Apply"
go to Big Band Library homepage
With Duppler, as "Tommy Tucker," clearly at the helm in this photo [ r. ], he stands in front of an 11-piece band plus girl vocalist, ca.late 1930s. Eventually, by 1944, the band grew to 15 pieces plus several vocalists.
photograph courtesy of Trudy Tucker Thomson
and used with permission
In the February 1996 issue of Joslin's Jazz
Journal, there is a photograph of the band posing around a car, with the same man wearing the light suit in the driver's seat and the same man in the dark suit on the passenger side. Curiously, the copy of the photo sent by Trudy [ r. ] shows a bear (!) in the driver's seat. Other than the bear which takes the place of the driver, perhaps inserted as a gag, Joslin's and Trudy's photos appear to match exactly.
photograph courtesy of Trudy Tucker Thomson
and used with permission
Christopher Popa continues:
Roger D. Kinkle's report that Joe Bulowski was the first '"Tommy Tucker" seems to have added credibility from a photograph which Trudy has shared, of the band, The Californians, posing on the beach [ l. ]. Duppler is at the extreme left, evidently in the role of a sideman, holding a trombone. Bulowski, as leader, could be either the man in the dark suit or the light suit.
photograph courtesy of Trudy Tucker Thomson
and used with permission
photograph courtesy of Trudy Tucker Thomson and used with permission
