[Dixielandjazz] Jazz Anecdotes

[Kurt]

I highly recommend the book "Jazz Anecdotes" by Bill  Crow (Oxford
University Press, 1990).  I've had a copy for years and pick it up often.
It is cover to cover with great first hand musician stories.

Here's one of the stories:

Miles Davis' agent Jack Whittemore told of a negotiation he conducted
between Miles and some concert promoters:

Back in the days when he was only getting $1,000 for a concert, Miles was
booked into Town Hall.  The tickets were selling very well, so the promoter
suggested doing two shows instead of one.  As was customary in such cases,
Miles was to get half fee, $500, for the second concert, but when I
approached him with this, he looked puzzled.

"You mean I go on stage," he said, "pick up my horn, play a concert, and get
a thousand dollars.  Then they empty the hall, fill it again, I pick up my
horn, play the same thing and only get five hundred?  I don't understand
it."

I told him that this was how it was normally done, but he was not satisfied.
Finally he said he'd do it for $500 if they would rope off half the hall and
only sell half the tickets.  When the promoters heard this, they decided to
give him another thousand for the second concert.

Here's a short one...

Jack Teagarden returned to Chicago after a job on the west coast.  He told a
friend, "I wouldn't like California even if the weather was good."