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Jimmie was waiting for his birthday. James
Nechampkin signed up with the U.S. Army as soon as he could. His older
brother George was in combat and would eventually become Master Sergeant
of the 24th Engineering Company, stationed in Yokahama. Maddin grabbed
his licorice stick in one hand and bag in the other and headed off to
basic training. From boyhood performer in Sheboygan, to Fort McClellan
in Anniston, Alabama. He got a nice welcome. His ear was nearly slit off
by white locals because he had just been playing in a black juke joint.
Then the war ended. Instead of the invasion of Japan, Jimmie served
during the occupation.
On the way over to Japan the seas were rough. "We'd go up on the
deck for air - I'd vomit and then keep playing for the guys. There were
600 guys in the hold, sleeping and vomiting. Basically, when I wasn't
vomiting from seasickness I was playing clarinet."
Older brother George was waiting as Jimmie got off the transport
ship with his duffel. "Jimmie, this is Master Sergeant Sholoupka, what
do you want to do?" George Nechampkin and George Sholoupka were best
friends. Nechampkin was from Wisconsin. Sholoupka was from Illinois.
They were both Master Sergeants and collectively had some sway. "I want
to play in a band," said Maddin. "Do you want your own band? No? You
just want to be in a band." "I said to him: 'Look, I want to be in a
band, you guys decide the best way for me to go.' So we started hitting
clubs. We'd hit five, six clubs a night." Sholoupka eventually gave me a
pass to charge against - all expenses paid."
The Master Sergeants took Jimmie all over Japan in a jeep. They
went from Mount Fuji to Ginza. They hit the finest Geisha houses in the
biggest city and entertained in high society homes, and in villages
where nobody had seen a white person. "In many cases I was the first
person to play American jazz and popular music for them. All the
Japanese musicians welcomed me with open arms. The Geisha are not
prostitutes you know. They are musicians and entertainers of the highest
culture and are extremely dignified. They might play a Samsung and I'd
blow my clarinet. They loved it and I did too. We all did. Mamasan would
always appreciate that we came. Since George spoke fluent Japanese there
was never a problem. This happened many nights. We'd go all over the
place in George's jeep. One day they asked me: 'How'd you like to be in
the 1st Cavalry Division Band?'"
MacArthur's Adjunct, General Chase, had the dance hall under his
command. "He loved the band. The band must have given him pleasure
because with the demands of his job, he still came to hear the band most
mornings." The band played officers and non-commissioned clubs, dinner
dances for ambassadors and Generals "I saluted General Zukov in the
toilet - he loved my playing! We did official things like marching
around the Emperor's Palace every month, and we played official events
for ambassadors. Warrant Officer Churchill was the Marching Band
leader."
We had different bands for different types of events. I really
liked Sergeant Hatfield who led the swing band. He played First
trumpet."
"We performed in the largest non-com club in Tokyo - the Grand
Cherry. It had been a Japanese officer's club that the Americans
converted for the non-coms. It was the nicest club I'd ever seen - and
huge." Maddin proceeded to play his usual set - but the tunes of Louis
Jordan had not been heard live in Japan. "They went nuts, absolutely
nuts in that joint. I played all my stuff, you know. I had played it in
high school and in all those homes in Sheboygan society, and with my
brother singing on the road every summer, and I knew all that bullshit
from playing casuals. So I could play pop tunes, all kinds of stuff.
Anyway, you can imagine how big that went off in that huge non-com
club!"
We know Jimmie. We know.
Read
Volume #10 |
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