Every weekend in the late spring, summer and early fall, you
can hear it from the moment you get out of your car.
Dixieland jazz. By this point, the soulful and relaxing
melodies are synonymous with French Lick Springs Hotel. It’s the music that
says you are here and this is what the
resort is: joyful, old-school, upbeat.
If you’re visiting this weekend, you can catch the final
Dixieland Band performances of the season from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Their
show goes on, even though they’re missing the man who was the heart of the
five-piece ensemble from the time they started playing here more than 10 years
ago.
You may not have known Dick Martin’s name. But you’ve ever
sat in a rocking chair outside the hotel on a Friday or Saturday night, you
knew his music. He played the cornet (similar to a trumpet). He sometimes
channeled his favorite jazz artist, Louis Armstrong, and sang “What a Wonderful
World” in Louis style — which would often put the crowd in a hush and guests
pulling out their cell phone cameras to record the spectacle.
Dick passed away back on September 2. And even though he was
a lifelong musician and regarded as a icon of the music scene in Louisville
where he lived, Dick wanted to go out being remembered by the music he brought
to French Lick.
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| You could usually find Dick Martin front and center playing his cornet or trumpet during Dixieland Band shows. His wife, Carol (pictured at the bottom of the story) is keeping the band going. |
“He wanted to be buried in his Dixieland vest,” said Dick’s
wife, Carol, who plays the washboard in the band. “You see a lot of people go
out with their suit and tie. Dick said, Nope,
I want my Dixieland vest, and we had a French Lick hat there for him. Because
it meant a lot to him. He came to love this place, and he just fell in love
with it.”
Dick was a school music teacher for 31 years, performed with
an array of musical groups in Louisville, and played big band music leading a
10-piece band called Pendulum. After French Lick Springs Hotel reopened after
its big renovation in 2007, talk began about adding live music out on the
veranda for guests to enjoy. A style that would resonate with everybody.
Something that people would hum to and sing along with.
Dick and his band — “Rascals of Rhythm” is their actual name
— fit the bill. They started out just playing on holiday weekends. Guests ate
it up. Before long, the Dixieland Band was a staple every weekend.
“Part of the reason it grew so much is Dick got so into it. He
was so crazy about that job,” says Sarah Stivers, another Louisville musician
who sings regularly at French Lick Resort and initially recommended Dick’s band.
“The more they played, they developed a repertoire that guests dig.”
“Hello Dolly” was another one of Dick’s specialties. You’ll
always hear “When the Saints go Marching In,” and “Back Home Again in Indiana”
closes down every Dixieland set. They’ve got a binder bursting with sheet music
of more than 400 Dixieland tunes. Modern tunes get sprinkled in, too:
everything from “Freebird” to “Play That Funky Music.” Maybe even the “Baby
Shark” tune if there’s kids in the audience.
Even after he had taken ill, Dick wanted to keep playing. He
mustered the energy to play one last performance back in May. Up through July,
he still practiced his instrument.
More than anything, he wanted his wife to see to it that the
Dixieland Band would continue the weekend tradition at French Lick that he was
instrumental in starting.
“That’s what he wanted,” Carol said. “He said, I want you to lead the band.”
It wasn’t just about the music. It was about the experience.
Carol has chatted with guests who drive in every weekend just to sit and rock
on the veranda and listen to the music. She heard from one guest who came last
year from Columbus, Ohio and made a special trip back this year just to hear
the band.
Playing in the Dixieland quintet can be a labor of love — the
weekends away; the travel; playing the trumpet for eight hours out in the heat.
But Dick and Carol would make themselves at home during their long weekend
visits to French Lick, bringing along their cat and staying in a camper.
“He’d just look forward to coming up here and meeting the
people, seeing the regular people, the conversations with the bartenders and valet
guys and the girls in the mercantile shop. They always came up and asked how he
was doing, and he’d ask how they were doing. He had a love for this place.”
And, in turn, resort guests have a love for the Dixieland beat
that still rolls on.