[Dixielandjazz] Playing Too Long

[Stephen Barbone]

Perry wrote:

"You have hit the nail on the head,!!! But, IF the BODY,MIND,,IDEAS &
any semblance of TALENT is absent----Why bother??? As a young kid in the
late 1930s and early 1940s, I begged, borrowed and  practically STOLE
(and many times sneaked in because I was under age) in  order to get to
SEE and HEAR Coleman Hawkins play, Hawk was my once and  forever
favorite Tenor Man.

IF I had seen him as described in 1958 I would probably STILL be in
tears. To see a GREAT ARTIST with NOTHING left, just to say someday" I
saw  Coleman Hawkins, or Spiegle Wilcox, or Tommy Ladiner" is not my
thing!!"

Listmates:

When should a great player quit?  Perry's opinion above works well for
him and that's fine. But perhaps it is not for everybody.

Not even for some lesser players like me. When should I quit?  In my
opinion. I don't play as well now as I did in 1960. Yet the audience is
still there for me. And as I hear it, I am swinging. And our band of 70
year old's still out swings 95% of the jazz bands playing today.

As long as the audience is there, As long as my endorphins flow, I will
play. Unless playing becomes a physical impossibility before then.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

PS. I think the date Perry uses, 1958, for Bean is a typo. 1968 maybe? I
played with him several times in 1958 and he swung his butt off.  Later
on when he could barely play, did he still have something to say,? Yes,
but perhaps we weren't really listening, because he didn't say what we
expected.