I came across an intriguing/puzzling little detail in Cary Ginell’s book, Milton Brown and the Founding of Western Swing. On page 176, he quotes Fred “Papa” Calhoun (pianist for Milton Brown and the Musical Brownies) in discussing Brownies’ fiddler Johnny Borowski – “He also played them little tin whistles. He’d get two of them, one in F and one in C and play harmony, he’d play them both at the same time. And he’d play hot choruses on them.” (We’re talking about the mid-1930’s, so a “hot chorus” would be an improvised jazz solo.)
However, a footnote on p.263 says, “Borowski can be heard playing ‘hot penny whistle’, sometimes known as a ‘potato whistle’, on ‘Cross Patch,’ recorded with Derwood Brown’s Musical Brownies (Decca 5413-BN). The instrument was probably an ocarina.”
(Derwood brown took over the band after Milton was killed in an auto accident.)
I’ve never heard “Cross Patch”, but could anyone mistake an ocarina and a tin whistle? (Of course, when you consider the quality of sound engineering in a record cut in a hotel room in the 1930’s, I suppose anything is possible.) More intriguing, what is a “potato whistle”? That sounds like it would describe an ocarina, just by the shape of the instrument. (Hoosier Hotshots, anyone?) Is anyone familiar with ocarinas being referred to as pennywhistles? Or did Borowski play tin whistles on other occasions (unrecorded), but ocarina on this record? (A plausible explanation, I think.) The last member of the Musical Brownies, Cliff Bruner, died two years ago, sad to say, so there’s no one to confirm Ginell’s speculation.
And does anyone here play two whistles at a time, in harmony? (Can two ocarinas be played at the same time? Perhaps with a big enough mouth . . .) Could Papa Calhoun have mistaken an ocarina for a “tin” whistle? I’m stumped, folks. Can anyone help me out?
Thanks.
Tom Bingham
