[Dixielandjazz] Busking

[Norrie Thomson]

Hi Listmates,

The talk of busking reminds me of story regarding Dick Shooshan's Golden
Eagle Jazz Band.

The 'Golden Eagles' appeared at the Edinburgh International Jazz in 1994.
During their stay, the band had a 'dep' bass player, the late and sadly
missed Robin Tankard of Merseysippi Jazz Band fame.  During the band's 2
week sojourn in Scotland I was allotted the task of looking after them.

One of the gigs that the band had to play was in a large shopping mall. Now,
anyone who knows Glenn Calkins will also know that he has the biggest bag of
trombone mutes that you've ever seen. One of these mutes was a chamber pot.
Having used this mute, he laid it on the floor, upon which Robin kicked it
out to the front of the band. Unable to retrieve it mid-number it just lay
there. The general public assumed that the band was busking and commenced to
put money into the chamber pot.  When the money was counted there was about
£45 in it.

After the gig Shoosh said to me that he thought this was almost like
begging.  I told him that it was begging!  However, not be daunted, each
time the band played outdoors in a public place after this the first thing
after setting up was to place the chamber pot in front of the band.
According to Ken Smith the money collected paid for the band's beer for the
rest of the stay in Edinburgh.

Whoa said the Scots are mean!

Norrie


Norrie Thomson
Edinburgh
Scotland