Contact Information:
Mike Walbridge, 1118 S. Campebell Ave., Wheaton, IL 60187
Phone No.: 630-668-4651
Mike Walbridge was born in 1937 in Los Angeles, CA, but he spent most of his life in the western suburbs of Chicago. He was exposed to classic jazz at an early age via his father's records. He began buying records in the early 1950s. The first record he purchased was "Cherokee" by the Charlie Barnet band. About 1953, Mike discovered Robert G. Peck, Jr., who had a radio program on Saturday afternoons on WTAQ in LaGrange, IL, called "Saturday In New Orleans" and he played 78 jazz and dance band records. That did it. Mike has been buying 78 rpm jazz and dance band records to listen to and to collect ever since and he now has a collection of approximately 20,000 records. He recently decided he needed to thin out his collection so he is going through it and pulling all of the duplicates and that is what you will find on this web site.
Upon graduation from school, Mike pursued jazz music as a profession and became a charter member of the Chicago Stompers. When the Stompers disbanded, Mike worked with Lil Hardin Armstrong's band for a long run at the historic Red Arrow jazz club in Stickney, IL. Upon his discharge from military service, Mike joined the Original Salty Dogs band and has been a mainstay to the present day. In addition to working with the Dogs, Mike has worked with numerous bands, including George Brunis, Art Hodes, Eddy Davis, Turk Murphy, Bill Reinhardt, Ted Butterman, and Ernie Carson, as well as leading his own band, the Chicago Footwarmers. Mike has recorded extensively with the Salty Dogs. In addition he has appeared on recordings with such jazz giants as Albert Nicholas, Art Hodes, Floyd O'Brien, Clancy Hayes, Turk Murphy, Wally Rose, Bob Helm, Ernie Carson, and Hal Smith's Down Home Jazz Band. Mike is currently working with the Independence Hall Jazz Band, West End Jazz Band and also the Bob Schulz Frisco Jazz Band.
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