[Dixielandjazz] Unwritten rules

[Elazar Brandt]

Bill asks:

But, as a sideman, suppose a friend of yours in the audience, unbeknownst to
you, decided to talk to the manager and promote your band. What is the
status of that person in the overall scheme of things?

Elazar responds:

Bill, let's get the question in true legal perspective. The real question is,
suppose the sideman's mother, who attends his every gig and tells every manager
how his band is much better than that bunch of twits he's stuck working for
currently because nobody else appreciates his true greatness, and they might
cost a little more but they're worth every penny, and she just happens to have
1000 of his cards with her so she gives one to the manager, to every customer,
waiter, waitress and busboy in the place, and the band leader and every member
of the band including the roadies, and while she's at it, she goes outside and
passes them out to people walking by and to cars stopped at the traffic light --
no, even to the cars that don't stop -- and to the policemen who are chasing the
ones who don't stop...

I'm not a lawyer, Bill, but I assure you that anyone who managed to stop her by
any means whatever -- even though she may have the right to do this -- would not
be convicted by any judge or jury in the world! And I'm sure that would include
firing the woman's sideman-son, tarring and feathering him and running him out
of town, running over his horn with a steam roller, and then shooting him at
sunrise, after a fair trial, of course.

I don't have time to look right now, but I'm pretty sure I can find a precedent
for this in the Talmud.  :-)

Elazar "my mother would never do such a thing" Brandt
Chief Banjoist
Ministry of Jazz
Jerusalem, Israel
<www.israel.net/ministry-of-jazz>
Tel: +972-2-679-2537