[Dixielandjazz] Hats in the Air for the Greatest

[Jazzjerry at aol.com]

Hi all,

The following extract comes from a recent concert review of a 'jazz' artist 
named Hermeto Pascoal performing at the Barbican in London.

"...Not all his efforts at combining unusual sounds with horseplay came off. 
He simply couldn't align his musical teapot with the microphone, and his 
attempts at gargling tunes through a glass of water or grunting a porcine melody 
while lying on his back were little better. But his dashing melodica solos, full 
of light and shade, and delivered with a simply marvelous dexterity, made up 
for all that, as did his sparkling keyboard solos with which he sand a bizarre 
unison accompaniment, full of grunts and gutteral cries....

.... The second half piled on more theatrical effects, with the crowd 
encouraged to sing, musicians jumping from their seats to shout rhythmic syllables, 
and a tribute to the farmyard jackass of Pascoal's youth. The brass and saxes 
brayed like donkeys, while the grand old man dashed through the audience to 
conduct a climactic series of crescendos, ending in a torrent of noise as he 
flung his hat high in the air."

Probably most of the audience were far too young or ignorant to know that the 
ODJB, Gorman's Novelty Syncopators and Spike Jones have done it all before 
and no doubt much better!

Cheers,

Jerry,
Norwich,
U.K.