[Dixielandjazz] "Silence"

[Williams, Bob]

At a private engagement last month, I announced we'd be playing a 15-minute
tribute to John Cage between sets.  Something like that.  I was met with a
sea of blank stares and raised eyebrows.

Musta been a dense audience.  My already marginal self-esteem doesn't allow
me to fault the delivery.

My only worse experience was a few years ago in Costa Mesa, where I told a
capacity crowd in the Grand Ballroom about the time Rene Descartes walked
into a bar - the bartender asked, "Hey Rene, wanna beer?"  Descartes said,
"I think not" and disappeared.

You could hear hair grow in there.

Bob Williams 
The World's Most Modest Man and 
The Nominal Leader of The Wooden Nickel Jass Band 
<http://wnjb.com> 


-----Original Message-----
From: Henry B. Stinson [mailto:HenryStinson@earthlink.net]
Sent: Monday, August 19, 2002 2:13 PM
To: Bryan Livett
Cc: DJML
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] "Silence"


I pulled a gag last night.  We were about to take our
first break, and the musicans were already starting to leave
the stage, when I said, 'Oh, we've got to play one more number".
They groaned (the drummer especially) and went back to their places,
and I announced that we were going to do a very famous
John Cage number.  Some of the audience caught on right away.
Anyway, I said we were going to improvise -- as jazz musicians
do -- and stretch the 4 minutes and 33 seconds out to fifteen minutes,
and that we were going to mingle with the audience to add to the
"ambient" sound.

Went over pretty well.  Got the musicians good.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Henry B. Stinson, BSECE, Senior Software Engineer (VB)
  Web Page Design and Quality Software Development
  www.TheVeryBestHomeBusiness.com
  Jazz vocalist (tenor), jazz harmonica, jazz whistling, and "mouth trumpet"
ORPHEUS JAZZ ENSEMBLE and BLUE HEAVEN JAZZ BAND
  http://www.BlueHeavenMusic.com   +
  http://www.blueheavenmusic.com/Artists/Henry_Stinson/HS__HOME.htm
Tel (msgs): 703-742-4670,   Hm: 703-893-8930 (Ring once, then call again)



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