J-Notes
Jacksonville, Florida
One of the best bands of the mid ‘60s.
The J-Notes were huge during the 60's in the area and actually recorded a Music Album, shown above.
Managed by Joe Giles they featured vocalists Evelina Smith and Henry Hodge as lead singers with Ray Love on tenor sax and flute; Ron Tooley on trumpet, John Sanders on guitar and vocals, Ed Coley on bass and vocals and Dick Curtis on drums and vocals. The band played many dances at the Women’s Club of Jacksonville in Riverside as well as other venues like the Southside Women’s Club and more.
Liner notes on the reverse side of the album cover:
Pics and info courtesy Charles (Chuck) Sewell
JACKSONVILLE J NOTE DANCES 1960-1961
The first J-Note dance in Jacksonville was held at Grace Chapel on San Jose Blvd, across from the Bolles Schoo in the fall of 1960 and was sponsored by Gamma Hi Y of Landon Junior Senior High School. During the summer of 1960 The J-Notes band was playing at the Greyhound Bus Lounge on Bay Street. I don't know for sure but my recollection is Mike Devane, Bob Atkinson and myself went there with a University of Florida Kappa Sigma named Tommy Clark who was early rushing us. He bought all the drinks.
That fall I was President of Gamma Hi Y at Landon and with some other officers came up with a great idea for fund raising. We would rent a facility to have a dance and charge admission. We would provide mixers as we were targeting the "bring you own bottle" crowd, hire two cops, Gene Stallings and Lem Sharp, to keep things under control and have a live band, no sock hop here. Recalling my visit to Bay Street that summer we contacted the J-Notes and booked them. We didn't need to do any marketing as word of mouth rewarded us with a large crowd. There were no incidents, everybody had a great time and the J Note dances in Jacksonville were born.
Gamma Hi Y had the 2nd J-Note dance at the Friday Musical in December or January where someone discharged a fire extinguisher. An old friend, Steve Shad has claimed he knows who did it but won't reveal the culprits name, I wonder why? Again the dance was a financial success and our coffers were full of cash which turned out to be good thing. It appears that there were more than a few drinks spilled on the floor including the fire extinguisher and other misc. damage occurred. We weren't aware of the damage until our officers and myself were marched into the Asst, Principal’s office late Monday morning. We were advised of the damage, that we would have to pay for it, and that Gamma Hi Y would no longer exist at Landon, and oh by the way, “you guys are suspended from school for two days”.
Not to be discouraged, a third dance was held, amazingly again at the Friday Musical that June, to celebrate our graduation. This time it was sponsored by myself and several former officers of Gamma. To my knowledge there were no incidents and we had enough cash in our pockets to get us through the summer. The last time I saw Henry Hodge, leader of the J-Notes, was when I booked them for the ATO House at Florida in the fall of 1963 when I was social chairman.
Over the years I have heard or seen on the internet that the rise to fame of the J-Notes has been attributed to among others, Sidney Drashen, Joe Giles, and Pat Armstrong. At one time they may have promoted the J-Notes but they had nothing to do with first three Jay Note dances in 1960 and 1961
(above info. courtesy Peter T. Eyrick)