[Dixielandjazz] Playing too long

[Charlie Hooks]

on 10/6/02 12:23 PM, Pepett@aol.com at Pepett@aol.com wrote:

> When an old Boxer is introduced he does not go "a few rounds"
> When an old Football star is introduced he does not" give an example of broken
> field running"--Why is it different for revered musicians?, WHY MUST  they
> attempt to do what they can no longer do??


    I really like these analogies, not to speak of liking and respecting
Perry himself, and I would agree with mere introductions, except that:

    1. While music making is certainly physical and deteriorates with age,
it doesn't compare physically with boxing or football.  Thus, while there
are no seventy year old boxers or running backs, there are plenty of 70-plus
musicians who play their asses off!  And some ninety-plus ones that you name
(also Artur Rubinstein, if I may sneak in a long hair).  I'll never forget
the night when Al Clink, the guy who played the classic tenor breaks on the
original "In The Mood" came up on the stand beside me at Razzles (Chicago
Loop) and I realized that I was not only playing beside a legend, but that
the "old" sunnovabitch was playing better now than he was back in the 30s!
I couldn't damn believe it, but he was.  He had, as we say, "matured."

    Point is, you just never know 'em till you hear 'em.

    2. Music making has no opponents (as do boxing and footballing).  It has
competitors, but not opponents who are trying to keep you from playing.  It
has instead, supporters--the other musicians--who are normally rooting for
you and trying to help all they can.  So survival is more likely.

    3. The older musicians themselves may not be ready to pull the plug.
Most musical headliners have done nothing else but play music all their
lives and to stop is to announce, "I'm a dead man walkin'."  Interior
resources are not universal, so what's next for these guys?

    I come down on both sides of this issue.  I'm more or less retired, and
will become more and not less retired: upper dentures and osteoarthritis in
the fingers (twisting them off the keys) makes me struggle to play what was
formerly so simple.  Many people come up to me and say how womderful I
sound.  But fewer of these people are musicians.  I know what that means.

    Fortunately, I got recorded when I could still play, and my interior
resources are of the best, so I'm happy and should be.  Others are not so
fortunate.  They need the money (I, thank God and my wife, don't) or they
need the interaction, the adulation, the whatever-it-is we get from playing
all this once-regarded, now overlooked OKOM.

    I believe that OKOM will continue (beause it has been recorded) whether
we play or not: someone else will, from recordings.  Not well, necessarily.
But it will continue.  Another million years--hey, I'm not so sure; but,
another hundred?  You got my vote!

overserved on a Sunday night,
Charlie

    PS. Netta and I played a 4 hour gig this afternoon with Dave Baney on
guitar. No bass.  Just guitar and flute and clarinet.  Believe that?  Talk
about treble...!  For our church.  Netta and I donated.  Baney got paid for
the two of us.  Worth it.  But we needed a bass.  Nevertheless, a sensation!

    Baney deserves much credit: he's undergoing clinical depression, super
severe and medication not working.  But Dave played his ass, as always.  He
doesn't know any other way to play.  He's from the Great Boehne Bunch, a
musical family who spell their name all kinds of ways--like John Bany
(without the "e").  But they all play their ass off, every one!

    But I feel so old!  Guy came up, complementary, asked, "How far back do
you go?"   We said, back into the late nineteenth century.  He said, can you
play "The Shadow of Your Smile"?   Ummm.  Well, yeah, we could do that, that
far back, back into the what...?

    I think that this same scene must have played out over the centuries,
young folks thinking themselves hip and requesting songs the old guys
weren't expected to know, old guys thinking, "Oh shit, not another request
for THAT crap!"  It's fascinating, and I enjoy it all, no end!

    Actually, "Shadow of Your Smile" is a pretty good tune.  We were
thankful.

    Thanks for reading along on a Sunday night: you guys are probably the
only people on earth who have the slightest idea what I'm talking about.

love you every one...
Charlie