Capturing Butch
at his best

By Diane Prokop
Times Staff Writer

It was a Saturday night on a Tuesday afternoon in Frankford last week, when Joan Oliveto opened her defunct jazz restaurant mozaic for one last encore to serve as a backdrop for a documentary featuring Frankford’s own Butch Ballard.
Ballard, 89, laid down the beat for all the jazz greats — including Count Basie, Duke Ellington and old "Satchmo" himself, Louis Armstrong.
The legendary drummer was filmed by Jeff Kaufman of the Santa Monica-based Langley Productions for a documentary film on the Savoy Ballroom in New York’s Harlem neighborhood and legendary drummer Chick Webb.
In addition to offering world-class entertainment, the Savoy, which was torn down in 1958, was also the first place in America that blacks and whites could dance and eat together, Kaufman said.
He hopes to have Savoy King ready to market in time to mark Webb’s 100th birthday.
Born in 1909, (though some histories dispute the year) William Henry "Chick" Webb, was tops among Swing Era drummers. Duke Ellington mentored Webb, who formed his own orchestra at the age of 19. Webb went on to discover, mentor and virtually adopted one of the smoothest jazz singers of all time – Ella Fitzgerald.
"Chick was not only the first great modern jazz drummer, but a phenomenally courageous person. He had childhood spinal tuberculosis was a hunch-backed dwarf in constant pain, one of the swing bandleaders of all time. It’s a real personal story of triumph," Kaufman said.
The film project is a personal one for Kaufman, who has also shot interviews with A-Tisket, A-Tasket co-author Van Alexander (who was mentored as a teen by Webb), Lindy Hop dancer Frankie Manning, pianist/composer/educator Dr. Billy Taylor, and jazz historian Gary Giddins.
During his Internet research, the filmmaker came across Ballard and his role in modern jazz.
"Butch saw Chick play as a child and was knocked out by him, as was everyone else. Later Butch played with Cootie Williams, who was originally in Chick Webb’s band, and went on to play at the Savoy," Kaufman said.
Kaufman found Butch to be fascinating. The folks at Mellon Bank, who bestowed Ballard with the 2006 Mellon Jazz Community Award, helped in connecting Kaufman to the Frankford drummer.
"Good Lord, it doesn’t get no better than this," Ballard said before starting to play.
Oliveto, who closed her Frankford Avenue restaurant and jazz venue in December despite her best efforts to make a go of it, opened the building so it could be used as a setting for some of the documentary filming.
During last week’s taping, black coffee, wine and some garlic crackers were passed around among the folks who sat at tables in mozaic and listened to Ballard perform such jazz favorites as Satin Doll and Caravan. Accompanying him was his piano player Sam Dockery and bass player Mike Boone, who stood in for Ballard’s regular bass player, Dylan Taylor.
"We’re preserving our history and two legends, Butch and mozaic," said Megan Forrestal, former president of the Frankford Business and Professional Association, who showed up to watch the filming.
Though Saturday nights were huge at mozaic, with Ballard and his ensemble performing at least once a month, they weren’t enough to keep the restaurant afloat. Oliveto closed the doors on Dec. 7, roughly 15 months after she’d started the venture at 4524 Frankford Ave.
Fran Tomlin, a longtime Butch Ballard fan who recalled being a youngster and visiting the place when it was Deener’s Meat Market, lamented the passing of the restaurant.
"This should have been kept open by some miracle," she said. "This place is precious." ••
Reporter Diane Prokop can be reached at 215-354-3036 or dprokop@phillynews.com