Firehouse Five Plus Two
The Firehouse Five Plus Two was an American Dixieland jazz band, popular in the 1950s, consisting of members of the Disney animation department. Ward Kimball, the leader and trombonist, was inspired to form the band after spending time with members of the Disney animation and sound department and finding they were jazz aficionados and amateur musicians. The lunchtime chats escalated into a full-on lunchtime jam session as Kimball and animator Frank Thomas, a pianist, found they "sounded pretty good all by ourselves." The band went by two other names, the Huggajeedy Eight and the San Gabriel Valley Blue Blowers. The "Firehouse" motif came from a 1916 American LaFrance fire engine that Kimball restored for the local Horseless Carriage Club, and the "Five Plus Two" from the band's original lineup of seven.
The band was also formative in creating the Good Time Jazz label under their fellow aficionado Lester Koenig, who managed all the band's releases from 1940's The Firehouse Five Plus Two Story, Volume 1 to 1970's Live at Earthquake McGoon's. Walt Disney approved of the band, letting them play at the company's Christmas parties, at Disneyland, and other social functions, on the single condition that they never fully leave their jobs at the studio.
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