Jim Dawgs: The Early Years of Ike Quebec

When writing about anyone beyond the most critically acclaimed, longest-lived jazz artists (and by no means limited just to jazz or artists), online biographical information can be sparse and repetitive. So it is for Ike Quebec, sometimes referred to online as “Ike Abrams Quebec,” who was born in Newark, new Jersey on August 17, 1918. thanks to Barbara Kukla’s invaluable Swing City: Newark Nightlife, 1926−1950, his birth name was Isaac Abrams. Where did “Quebec” come from? According to Kukla, who interviewed many Newark music veterans before her book’s publication in 1991, “he used the name ‘Quebec’ as far back as anyone remembers.” “Don’t know where it come from,” said a distant family member.

Quebec started out as a tap dancer, winning an amateur contest at Miner’s Theater in downtown Newark when he was 16. He picked up piano while with a traveling show—Harlem on Parade—and gigged at the Waverly Tavern and at all-night rent parties, and sounded like the great stride master Donald Lambert. At some point, he picked up the tenor saxophone, which he supposedly taught himself to play by locking himself in a room for weeks. He stated playing dates in New York with Roy Eldridge, Benny Carter, and Frankie Newton, among others, eventually moving there. He also spent time up at Minton’s Playhouse with musicians like Thelonious Monk, Kenny Clarke, and other bop pioneers, although his style remained an amalgam of Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster—aggressively swinging on up-tempo tunes and breathy and romantic on ballads. In 1944, he joined Cab Calloway’s big band, with which he remained affiliated on and off until 1951.

1944 was also the year he made his first recordings under his own name for Blue Note records. While with Blue Note, he became close to Alfred Lion, who began using him as an informal A&R man and talent scout. Reputedly, he brought Monk and Bud Powell to Lion’s attention. His friendship with Lion would later play an important part in his later career as well. He also made a couple recordings for Savoy, a Newark-based label that later also issued many key bop records by Charlie Parker and other modernists but was owned by a much less savory character than Lion.

Years ago, Mosaic Records issued The Complete Blue Note Forties Recordings of Ike Quebec and John Hardee, which had all of Quebec’s early Blue Note recordings. (I’m sure the researchers at Mosaic had lots of biographical and other info about him, but I don’t have access to the liner notes, alas.) That set is long out of print and pricey but, thanks to the late, lamented French Chronogical (sic) Classics label, Ike Quebec 1944−1946, many of these early Blue Notes and Savoys can be had on the used CD market at a less exorbitant price.

Quebec’s first recordings are outstanding, aided by sidemen like Tiny Grimes and Ram Ramirez. Tiny’s Exercise is a nice composition (year later, he did an excellent version on Profoundly Blue, a long out-of-print album on Muse). Indiana is a nice up-tempo romp, Blue Harlem was a hit when it came out, and She’s Funny That Way is a good example of Quebec’s early ballad style. Later recordings also featured a larger group with Buck Clayton (I Found a New Baby is especially noteworthy). The Savoy recordings featured both more traditional (Johnny Guarnieri) and distinctly modern (Bill de Arango).

By the late Forties, Quebec’s recording career petered out, as did his life in general, thanks to the epidemic of substance abuse that beset the music in those days. As far as the author of Swing City was concerned, his career ended there (in an appended biographic dictionary of Newark musical artist, she even has him dead by 1953.) Reports of his demise were exaggerated, though. In the late 1950s, thanks to his continued connection to Alfred Lion, he would experience a renaissance that continued until his death. In a future blog post, I’ll be talking about the series of 45s he made for Blue Note that revived his career. Meanwhile, here’s a sampling of the early Ike Quebec. In order; Blue Harlem, If I Had You,  , and Jim Dawgs (Ike's nickname).