[Dixielandjazz] Hey big tippers

[LRG4003 at aol.com]

A lurker here, chiming in to share a tip story.  In the early 70's I  played 
with a dixieland band in college in the midwest, 4 nights a week.   Sunday 
always the slowest, except for one thing.  A local steak house that  was popular 
with students happened to be owned by a Greek family and when they  closed 
their place Sunday evening they'd show up in our pizza joint  requesting that we 
play "Zorba the Greek".  
 
Well, we didn't exactly know "Zorba" but we substituted a rousing  
Klezmer-like version of "Havah Nagilah".  They would start doing a kind of  combination 
line-dance-dervish around the room and tossing out $1 bills---tip  money from 
their day at the steak house.  As long as we could stand playing  they would 
keep dancing and tossing $1 bills.  We played "Havah" for close  to a half hour 
one night and picked up about $150.  If we'd had the  chops we could have 
played enough for retirement.
 
K.C. Clarinet