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fusion of jazz with rock ?n roll and a little ythm and blues, the perfect environment r Fish?s wide-ranging vocal skills. Together th another popular group, Chicago, 5&.T modernized and repopularized the g-band sound, embracing trumpets, xophones and cornets, while most rock oups still mimicked the guitar and urns combination which had typified the :atles.
As early as 1969, before Fish joined the oup, BS&.T had emerged as a remarkably ?rsatile, fresh and unpredictable force in e music world. In a Time magazine review May of that year, the group was described sounding like ?many different bands,? ?a ues-rock outfit with a fillip of modern zz,? then a ?modern jazz combo with a ?eak of contemporary classical dissonance,? id finally, ?a chamber ensemble with istoral flutes, artokian brass and buzz of ectronic sound effects.?
The Time critic?s difficulty in categorizing 3&.T echoes the confusion expressed a few :ars earlier by another critic attempting to still the essence of Fisher?s appeal: ?Blues nger Jerry Fisher might be discovered one ly,? he wrote, ?by the precious in-group of lk music dilettantes. . .or he might be scovered by the mass world. . .or he just ight be left as he is today to go his own 3y, swinging to his own mood and mpo. . . .? Even before they joined forces, rry Fisher and BS&T were in harmony, aring a vision which celebrated the rich, ofuse Euramerican musical heritage. According to Jerry, BS&T was rmonious off as well as on stage. Serious-inded, well-schooled professional jsicians, they remained aloof from the 'P drug culture which was peaking during e early seventies. ?We had guys with grees from the Manhattan School of usic, Eastman and Julliard,? he declares, lost of us were married with kids at home. : weren?t a cult type of band.?
Some time early in 1974, shortly after the ise of a nationwide tour, the recently-wed her made a difficult choice. ?I loved my isic and the worldwide travel,? recalls h, ?but we?d been doing a heavy schedule
?We [BS&TJ had guys with degrees from the Manhattan School of Music,
Eastman and Julliard. Most of us were married with kids at home. We weren?t a cult type of band.?
-Jerry Fisher
with four to five concerts a week, and 1 wanted more time with Melva. And, I?d begun to feel that, as a band, we?d done together just about all we could do together. It was time to move on.?
After he left the band, Jerry and Melva traveled at whim for a couple of years, biking and backpacking their way across the country. Eventually, Fish became interested in producing a project for Studio in the Country, a nationally-known recording location in Bogalusa, Louisiana. Planning to stay for six weeks, he and Melva moved into her family?s camp on Bayou LaCroix, in Mississippi, about an hour and a half from the studio. They never left.
Since then, 15 years have passed like-well?like so much water under the Dock. In the interim, the recording project was abandoned, Jerry discovered Chandeleur Island fishing and 119 North Beach Boulevard in Bay St. Louis?Dock of the Bay?was put on the market. Its owner had heard about Jerry and called him to discuss the sale of the struggling nightclub. ?Funny thing was, I?d been thinking about setting up a
music workshop,? says Jerry, who had previously owned clubs in Oklahoma and : Texas. ?I wanted a place where I could attract and showcase the area?s better musicians.? On September 30, 1976, hailed in the Sea Coast Echo as a date to be ?remembered in Gulf Coast entertainment circles,? Jerry and Melva reopened Dock of the Bay.
Over the next few years, Fish hand-picked the ripest Coast musical talent, recruiting them to his ?big band,? a seven-person group he bills as ?The Music Co.? Now, after 10 or 12 years, most of the original band members still play with him regularly, though none are full time. The house band at the Dock is a three-member skeleton crew from the same group.
Although he and other performers from The Music Co. play at the Dock most weeks, Jerry has occasionally booked The Neville Brothers, Irma Thomas, Dr. John Delbert McClinton, Steppenwolf and tht Average White Band, establishing himself as one of the Coast?s foremost impresarios and the Dock as the hub of Coast nightlife.
When asked about future plans, Fish says frankly, ?To be big in the music business, even with talent, you?ve got to go where music is happening and stay with it. Beat the bushes. If you want it, you?d better chase it, ?cuz Brother, it isn?t ever going to chase you. Me, I?ve done that. Now, I?d rather go fishing,? he jests. ?Now, I?m happy singing right here in Bay St. Louis and doing a cruise ship now and again.?
Considering how the best laid plans have a way of unraveling in his path, does Jerry Fisher see himself crooning at Dock of the Bay in another 15 years? ?Melva and I have talked about it,? he reflects. ?You know, I?d like to continue singing here. This is an easy life to love and a hard one to leave. But we might move on one of these days. Yeah, we might. Maybe,? he pauses, ?Pass Christian.? Then grinning he adds, ?I guess we?ll just cross that bridge when we come to it.? ?
Mississippi Coast Magazine