<Begin Segment 8>

RP: So let's talk about some of the folks who made up the Jive Bombers. Start with the trumpet section.

YS: Bruce Kaji and Trucko... you know, it's funny. I never, can't remember what his last name was. And Bill Wakamatsu, played lead trumpet and he was one hell of a singer too. And trombone, we had had only one trombone player at the time and that, his name was Roy... I can't remember his last name though. Then, then later on we got another fellow that played small baritone horn, the upright baritone horn. And he played the, I don't know whether he got a bell trombone, because it was the same fingering, I can't remember. But, I don't know whether his picture's in that Jive Bomber picture or not. And Gordon Sato and Yoshitaro Murakami, and Rabbit or Katayama, Rabbit Shoji's his name, and then myself. It was four saxophones. And then Kiyo Nishi on piano and Joe Sakai on bass and I can't remember the drummer's name.

RP: Joe was already a professional musician.

YS: Yeah. Yeah, he was. He was quite a bass man. Yeah, he was a good bass man.

RP: So here you all get, you kind of get thrown together into this camp in the desert and you end up coming together as a band.

YS: Yeah, yeah.

RP: How did you guys come up with the name Jive Bombers, do you remember?

YS: I don't remember. I really don't remember.

RP: Who was your leader? Did you have a leader, a bandleader?

YS: Oh, you mean that ran the rehearsals and whatnot?

RP: Right.

YS: It might have been Bill Wakamatsu. But we'd all put our two cents in, though, you know.

RP: So you'd have your rehearsals up at the music, music hall?

YS: Yeah, music hall.

RP: And I know you were, all of you were into the big band sound.

YS: Yeah.

RP: Are there any particular artists that you, that you played a lot of?

YS: Well, you know, of course, they had a lot of dances in camp. And of course they played mainly the old records, you know, through a P.A. system. And you would dance to that and of course you'd try to get the ones that were, everyone liked and we'd, like we were dealing this one music store in Los Angeles, we'd try to get the arrangements, the musical arrangements from 'em. You wouldn't believe it but you know the arrangements back there that were written for all these parts, like four saxes, or five saxes, three trumpets, three bones, and a full rhythm section, they were seventy-five cents apiece. We called 'em stocks. I don't know whether... they were stocks is what we called 'em, and everybody in the country were using 'em. You know when I went back to Iowa when I was playing then I was reading stocks, you know, all the bands. And that's what we were, we tried to get the same type of music or we would... well, of course, you couldn't get the original arrangement like you hear on the record because this guy that was arranging these, he wrote it the way he wanted to write it. This guy named Jack Mason was a terrible arranger I thought. [Laughs] But when he's the only guy that's writing that particular chart, well, you gotta use it, right? [Laughs]

RP: So who influenced your playing while you were at Manzanar?

YS: Well, you hear these saxophone solos, you think, god, I'd like to play like him, or whoever. All these, on the different, well, they're all different guys on different recordings. But I liked the sound of the tenor when they made their, took their solos and whatnot. That's why I started out on the tenor saxophone.

RP: So did you play any other saxophone or other instrument?

YS: Oh ,yeah, yeah. But then you get to a point where in order to get jobs you gotta play 'em all. Or you gotta own all the horns, you know. So when I was playing alto, tenor, and also I had a baritone. When they needed a baritone I'd play baritone.

RP: How about soprano?

YS: Yeah, I had, yeah, in fact, within in the last year I bought a soprano but they're an instrument, they're a breed in themselves, I tell you. Their sound is altogether different. In fact, I was monkeying around with it 'cause I'm trying to get a mouthpiece for it. I picked up a soprano and, but then I got thinking yesterday, man, I think I ought to get rid of it.

RP: So there, at the time you were, you were playing with the Jive Bombers there was no auditorium in the camp.

YS: Yeah.

RP: Were you...

YS: Playing in the mess halls. You know they take all the benches out of there and the tables out of there. See, we used to stack 'em outside or, yeah. Yeah, we'd stack 'em outside and then of course, you know, because the dining room was two barracks put together with the middle knocked, the middle part just knocked out of it. And yeah, that's where... and then later on of course that auditorium that's up there now? That didn't come in 'til I graduated out of that building. I don't know whether I was the first group, class of '44 was the first year that graduated out of that building or not. Because they built that later on, you know. And I played in there a couple times. That was about it because the building came, was so late.

RP: What was it like playing in a mess hall with a band like yours?

YS: It was all right, yeah, yeah.

RP: How about...

YS: It might have been loud, you know what I mean? [Laughs]

RP: Not, not really suited for acoustics but...

YS: No, no, no.

RP: Do you remember any special parties or dances that you performed for? You know, something special?

YS: Hmm... no, not really.

RP: How often would you be playing? Every weekend? Or...

YS: Well, it seemed like there was a, some club or some group in the camp usually had a dance not necessarily with a band or just with record and a P.A. system and... just about every week, or every other week they would have a, these dances. These clubs would put 'em on. And I don't know, I can't remember when we actually went and played every week, or every other week or somethin' like that. Hard to remember.

RP: But the band, not only did you play music, did you develop a camaraderie with certain members of the band that you hung out with when you weren't playing music?

YS: Yeah, yeah.

RP: Who were your guys in the band that you liked to hang with?

YS: Well, Gordon was one of 'em. 'Course, we were in the same class together and then Rabbit was also in our class. And Bruce, yeah, Bruce and even Trucko. Kiyo was a year behind us and Yoshitaro was, he was already, I think he was a year ahead of us. So, yeah, well, we'd get together. Because some of 'em, some of us were also in the band in the high school band.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.