Besides being an active leader, Balaban backed payers such as Wild Bill Davidson, Eddie Condon, Gene Krupa, Dick Wellstood, and Kenny Davern, who all utilized him in their rhythm sections on either or both of his instruments. In 1975, he took over the club owned by Condon, putting him in a good position to declare his new status as house band leader. The management's new group became known as Balaban the Cats and included players such as trombonist Vic Dickinson, trumpeter Warren Vaché, and drummer Connie Kay. About ten years later, the club finally closed down, and like many such dives, its ambience has been memorialized in the limbo of live recordings, a good place to hear Balaban in his mature period as a player, i.e. prior to unemployment. Actually that was hardly the case with this shade of "Red", still doing gigs at the age of 74. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi