He was Mindy’s dad on Mork & Mindy, Palindrome on Quark, and pretty active in acting roles for 70 years. I wasn’t aware of his musical talent, but I remember seeing him in all sorts of TV shows and movie roles.
RIP, “Wiener!”
He played a mean trombone!
RIP
Shazbat!
The Hollywood Unlisted Jazz Band was a great treat to see!! They did an annual gig in Santa Clarita that started in the afternoon with little kids dancing before the sun went down, then later developed into a really great jazz show. I actually have a VHS tape of them playing that gig. He was also a historian who literally lectured the audience with historical facts about who wrote and arranged and first recorded many of numbers in their standard set list. He also played a solo on one song while sliding across the stage on his back because someone had done that in the history of the song.
They played at Cafe Luna like on like Tuesday or Wednesday nights (which was “in town” to us rubes out in the 'burbs) and we caught that show a few times. The piano player was I believe named O’Rourke (maybe Brian?) and he was fantastic (and I never remember seeing him when he wasn’t at least a little gassed). Besides his fine playing on the straight ahead numbers, he had two pieces of shtick that really played well. He would put his shoe on his left hand and play the melody in his right hand while sliding this wide swath of shoe up and down the bass clef with his left to play accompaniment and it always somehow sounded right. It might have had to do with selecting the right key but not being able to use his left fingers was a feature rather than a bug when he played. The other gag was that he would play a boogie woogie with his left hand and let the audience yell out classical composers and he would play something from that artist in his right hand. He had a few he would start with that were obviously rehearsed, but then the audience would take him where they wanted and he would go there. Brilliant. It was the most amazing musical hybrid I have ever witnessed-- and then you would get a short history lesson from Janis and a really grooving jam.
I never had a better time watching a local band and could see them month after month and never grow tired of them. Mr. Janis was a refined and generous man who allowed me to video tape his performance without any restrictions other than my assurance that I would not use the tape to make a profit.
I am saddened and feel a personal sense of loss upon hearing this news even though I have not seen him for almost two decades. The world is poorer for his absence. Please rest in peace sir.