St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1945-08-03
Musician Eddie
Haywood and the
Mariiuana Menace
By Don De Leighbur

-
By Don De Leighbur
NEW YORK-How much actual
good does a stick of "tea" do a jazz
musician? Does the weed really
give him inspiration? Does its po-
tency increase the capacity of the
musician to create and to bring to
the fore hidden harmonies, impro-
visations that he could ordinarily
not do if he were sober and had
clear head? I wonder. So do
thousands of others who are noting
with alarm the many run-ins Ne
groes and white musicians are hay
ing with the FBI on charges of
possessing marijuana.
am thinking out loud about the
Eddie Haywood case in Hollywood
where the budding young piano
genius and his base player, Johnny
Simmons, were taken into custody
by Omen for alleged narcotics vio-
lation.
Here was boy-Heywood-
had the world in a jug and the
stopper in one hand. He was in
a position to demand anything. His
meteoric rise from an insignificant
start in New York to absolute star
dom based on the recording, the
ultra modern version of "Begin the
Beguine," placed him among the
foremost producers and creators of
modern music. For him to be in
volved in to what is, at best, a vile,
nauseating situation and thereby
endanger not only his own career
but the happiness of his family
doesn't make sense.
Krupa Buildup Under Way
We all know the case of Gene
Krupa, the former Benny Goodman
drummer sensation, who is back on
the road toward the top, what with
press agents, smart managers, and
other agents busy burying the sor-
did details of the popular must
clans encounter with the law on
narcotic charges, so that within a
few months the public will have
completely forgotten the incident.
But Haywood, Simmons, and
other Negro musicians who may be
caught with weeds are not in the
position to make a comeback like
Krupa. To begin, they are Negroes
and it is twice as hard to re-estab-
lish Negro as it is a white man
because the white man has every
thing to work with and the Negro
usually has very little.
Currently there have been nu-
merous raids in Gotham's fabulous
Sind Street, world center of Jazz
and swing music. These raids have
been made in search of hidden
caches of 'hemp," otherwise mari
juana. 1t has been brought to pub
lie attention that numerous "tea"
pads have been in operation in
swing alley, and that the habit was
spreading from the close music cult
to otherwise innocent patrons and
guests at the various clubs in which
these musicians play.
Not Issue of Color
This is not an issue of color but
one in which the well-being of all
is concerned. The 18-year-old debu-
tante, out to hear the swing must
clan in person that she has heard
on her recording machine at home,
is suitable prey for dealers in "tea"
who work on her or him, if a boy is
concerned, pumping them with the
fantastic idea that the reason the
musicians play so we'll is that he
INDUCES in "tea." They work this
gag to a fare-thee-well and, con-
sequently, hundreds of new con-
verts TO the weed are springing up
every day.
The old users of "tea" continue
the habit, become loose in morals,
and wind up many times as sexual
derelicts in some phase of crime
that will find them incarcerated on
grave charges.
1t is to be hoped that Haywood
pulls through this mess. In fact,
the whole musical world is pulling
for him. Basically there are few
nicer fellows than Eddie Haywood,
Jr. The boys undeniable genius
has endeared him to many and the
question is whether his friends of
the fair-weather variety will stick
to him in this need of need.