[Dixielandjazz] Dixieland in the Sticks

[Stephen Barbone]

John Farrell wrote about getting home late after gigs, when you live in
the sticks: (polite snip)

"I was lucky to get to bed by 3 a.m. most nights."

Heck, on half the Dixieland gigs I do,  I'm fortunate if I get to bed
that early. And many are really close by, less than an hour away. But
playing club dates on weekends means that they don't end until 1 AM at
the earliest, and 2 AM at the Universities.

Not the routine bedtime for us old folks (band average age is 70) but
none of us would trade it for the alternative. We just sleep days. After
3 or 4 hours of improvisational, high energy jazz, it takes most of us a
couple of hours to come back down to our normal old folks mind set so we
couldn't sleep if we got home earlier, in any event.

As Hooks, Hull, Beebe, Loy, Ingle, Cooke, et al, know,  late
nights/early mornings were our routine when we played this music 40 or
50 years ago. We gigged 9 PM to 3 AM, or more,  4 to 6 nights a week.
That we are still here is remarkable. Or is that the reason we are still
here?  Me? I wouldn't trade my good fortune on those 80 late gigs a
year, for anything.

Hooks, old buddy, what would you do in North Dakota during the 8 month
winter? My suggestion is, spend the $600 grand between the Chicago house
and the Dakota house on another house in Florida, California, Texas, or
somewhere in the South of France. I guarantee the French would treat you
like the second coming of Sydney Bechet.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone