The Trident: Rest in peace

This publicity photo of the Vince Guaraldi Trio — with Monty Budwig, bass; and Colin
Bailey, drums — likely was taken during the combo's early 1962 booking at The Trident.

Alas, another link to Guaraldi’s past has disappeared. I just learned that the newest incarnation of The Trident closed on December 31, thanks to this San Francisco Chronicle article.

Back in July 2020, I wrote an extensive post about the history of this Sausalito venue, which was intertwined with Guaraldi’s early career for many years.

 

As a brief recap — with a few fresh details — in late May 1960, the owner of Sausalito’s French restaurant, Ondine, opened a second dining establishment on the ground floor of their building, at 558 Bridgeway Street. The new supper club was called The Yacht Dock, reflecting the fact that customers could arrive by boat, if so desired. (Which, you must admit, is pretty cool!)

 

Guaraldi and his trio are known to have played that venue at least once, from June 9 through mid-July, 1961. After that booking concluded, the Yacht Dock closed for renovation by new owners Brad McNutt, the Kingston Trio and their manager, Frank Werber. The venue reopened on August 8, newly christened as The Trident. Arriving by boat remained a popular option.

 

Guaraldi and his second “classic trio” — alongside Monty Budwig, bass; and Colin Bailey, drums — played there six nights a week, until December 3. They returned on January 7, 1962, and remained the headliners until July 1.

 

Monty Budwig had moved on when Guaraldi got his next Trident gig, from November 6 through January 6, 1963, and was replaced by Fred Marshall. Guaraldi’s live album, In Person, was recorded midway through that run, on December 4.

Portions of Woody Allen's 1972 film, Play It Again, Sam, were filed at The Trident (but, alas,
Guaraldi wasn't around during shooting).

Subsequent known Trident bookings included:

• April 16-May 12, 1963, with Marshall and Jerry Granelli, drums;

 

• June 25-September 14, 1963, with Marshall and Granelli;

 

• February 4 and 11, 1967, sidemen unknown;

 

• April 11-May 7, with Kelly Ryan, bass, and John Rae, drums;

 

• July 9-21, with Guaraldi’s new Electric Umbrella Quartet, alongside Jimmy Stewart, electric guitar, Bob Maize, electric bass, and Bob Dominguez, drums;

 

• August 13-18, with the Electric Umbrella Quartet; and

 

• October 23, 1972, sidemen unknown, sharing the bill with the Cal Tjader Quintet, in a benefit for South Dakota Sen. George McGovern’s bid to become U.S. President.

 

By then, the Trident was several years into its re-invention as a free-spirited rock joint. It closed on November 21, 1976 (not in 1980, as the Chronicle article incorrectly reported, no doubt having sourced that date from the Trident’s own occasionally inaccurate web site history).

 

The building reopened in 1980 as a tourist venue dubbed Horizons, which closed in 2012. The owners of San Francisco’s Buena Vista Café bought the property in 1997, with the eventual goal of reviving The Trident, and it reopened under that name in October 2012. So, that second incarnation lasted just over 13 years … which isn’t bad for a restaurant, in these tough times.

 

The Marin Independent Journal ran a nice story about the Trident’s history, last Friday; it goes into considerable detail about the numerous musicians and film stars who frequented the venue … although, oddly, the final paragraph encourages readers to “stop by to pay homage,” which would be a challenge at this point!

 

Will the building be transformed into something else?

Stay tuned… 

The Trident: Then and now

Technology marches on, and I’m delighted by the increasing number of newspapers that have migrated their archives into public Internet search engines … often at no cost. (Having said that, I still await this service from the San Francisco Chronicle, merely the most important newspaper in Guaraldi’s career. I cannot imagine what the heck is taking them so long!)

Recent online newcomers include the Sausalito News, a weekly newspaper based (as you’d expect) in Sausalito, California, and published from 1885 to 1966; for a few years prior to its demise, it was re-branded the Marin News, but returned to its former self shortly before the final issue was published on November 2, 1966.

The newspaper still was vibrant in 1961, when the former Yacht Dock — a dilapidated venue that had hosted Guaraldi’s trio on occasion, built on the site of the original 1898 home of the San Francisco Yacht Club — was transformed into the Trident, which became Guaraldi’s “home base” for the next several years. The paper provided more detail on this transition, which I’ve woven into the following narrative, augmented by some interview quotes that didn’t make it into my book. (The News also provided the conclusive specific date of the Trident’s closure: a piece of information that eluded me for years.)

********

The July 22, 1961, issue of the Sausalito News reported that “the clatter of hammers, the shouts of workmen and the rustle of blueprints prevail over the venerable wharf at 558 Bridgeway on the Sausalito waterfront.” The Trident-in-process, according to new manager Louis Ganopolar, would be dedicated to “casual imbibing in an atmosphere of elegance.” Ganopolar had been “poached” from his former position as manager at Greenwich Village’s famed jazz nightclub, the Village Vanguard. The then-popular Kingston Trio were booked there for a weeklong engagement; they arrived in the company of manager Frank Werber. The latter mentioned that the clean-cut young men had purchased the Yacht Dock as a tax write-off, intending to transform it into “something special.” Werber invited Ganopolar to Sausalito, to check out the place and (hopefully) suggest somebody who’d make a good manager. Ganopolar volunteered himself, and moved his family from New York to Northern California, the week this Sausalito News story saw print.

Brad McNutt, one of the remodelers, hoped for an “early August” re-opening. He explained that the new venue’s seating alcoves would be “dramatically lighted and arranged on several levels, to take advantage of the superb view of the Bay, the bridges and the city, while retaining an atmosphere of intimacy.” The article concluded by citing other features: “complete yacht docking facilities, music by the Vince Guaraldi Trio, and a select bill of fare of international hors d’oeuvres, sandwiches and snacks.”

Carel Werber speaks (although not to me)

Casual Guaraldi fans may have raised an eyebrow at the implications in the previous post, which discussed Shelby Flint's charting version of "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" ... and, thanks to the informative comment added by Chris Lee, the additional information about the very brief chart appearance male vocalist Steve Alaimo enjoyed with the same song.

But wait, I hear you cry. Isn't "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" an instrumental composition?

Indeed yes, as recorded by Guaraldi in 1962, and later covered — as the decades passed — by other jazz artists ranging from Quincy Jones and George Benson to Dave Brubeck and Guaraldi's protégé, Larry Vuckovich.

But as a purchase of the song's sheet music reveals, "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" also has lyrics that are credited to Carel (sometimes spelled Carol) Werber. And those lyrics allowed cover versions by vocalists such as Flint, Alaimo and other famous folks including Johnny Rivers and Mel Torme.

Fair enough. But why, then, didn't I mention the lyrics — or Carel — in my book?

Very simple: I never was able to get a line on her, regardless of how her first name was spelled. She's vexingly MIA on the Web, never mentioned at all in any of Ralph Gleason's San Francisco Chronicle jazz columns — or in any other vintage interviews with, or articles about, Guaraldi — and journalistic caution precluded commentary without at least some first-person input.

Imagine the mixed feelings that emerged, then, when my buddy Doug in D.C. sent a link to an interview Carel Rowe (her maiden name) granted KRTS 93.5 FM a few months back, on February 13. Host Ross Burns invited Rowe on his program, "Talk at Ten," to reminisce about her time with the Kingston Trio and the group's manager, Frank Werber, who married Carel after a whirlwind courtship in the summer of 1961. My feelings were mixed because it was great to hear a first-person account of her activities back in the day, but frustrating because it would have been far better to have that information before my book went to press. But that's the way it often goes (as I've lamented elsewhere in this blog).

Although booked to chat about the Kingston Trio, Carel spent far more time discussing how she met and married Werber, and how she subsequently met Guaraldi, and how she came to write the lyrics for "Cast Your Fate to the Wind." Indeed, Kingston Trio fans let their displeasure be known in the blogosphere, particularly since Carel (to put it as kindly as possible) damned the famed trio with very faint praise. But that really isn't our concern here.

The scoop, then, as recounted on Burns' radio show:

Carel began her college career while living at home and commuting to the University of Arizona, Tucson, where she became a cheerleader. The folk scene was a big deal in Tucson in the early 1960s, just as it was everywhere else, and she spent a lot of after-class hours hanging out with various musicians. One of these troubadours was Travis Edmonson, a rising folksinger soon to achieve fame as a member of the Gateway Singers, and also with his own duo, Bud (Dashiell) and Travis. Carel dated Edmonson and viewed the budding relationship as serious: serious enough that, when he left Arizona for San Francisco as the 1961 summer break started, she followed.