[Dixielandjazz] Kids

[Bill Horton]

Jim's lament about his kids not knowing any of stephen Foster's music
reminds me of an example to let him know he shouldn't feel like the Lone
ranger.

Years ago, my #2 son returned from school walking a foot above the floor.
He said, "Hey, dad, you ever hear of a guy named Cal Tjader?  He's a friend
of one of our teachers and brought his band over from San francisco today to
play at our Assembly.  Wow, what a blast!  They were supemo."

I answered, "Cal Tjader?  I love him.  Have a whole stack of his records I
play all the time."  I grabbed one of Cal's discs and played it for him, and
he kept saying, "Wow!  Great!"

But did he ever borrow one of Cal's records to play for himself?  Hell no.
All he played were the Beatles or Buddy Holly or that ilk.

Today (he's now in his 40s), whenever I visit I bring along tapes and CDs
(mostly OKOM and swing) to play, and he kids me about what an un-hip square
I am.

I'm not a musician.  I figured maybe if I were I might have had more musical
influence on him and my other kids, but I see from the comments by musos on
the list that it probably wouldn't have made any difference.  Of course
there are guys like Don Ingle, highly influenced by their dads, but they
seem to be the exceptions.

Bill Horton
www.PismoJazz.org