[Dixielandjazz] Alcohol On Band Stand

[Charles Suhor]

5-11-04

I just came in on this strand but I wonder if we ever stand back and think
that performance of popular (in the broadest sense) music is one of the few
professions where one is allowed, routinely, to drink on the job (or at the
very least during the job, at what would be "coffee breaks" in other jobs).
The historical and cultural reasons for this are easy to see, but it helps
if we realize that we're in a culture of drinking.

Hey, this isn't a temperance plea but a shared reflection. As a lifelong
weekend drummer, I drank a lot on the bandstand as a youth in New Orleans,
where drinking was pretty much the norm and no one asked my age. It seemed
a good way to celebrate and to get my head turned around from the week's
concerns of my day gig, loosening me up for the sheer fun of playing. But I
sometimes overindulged so that by the last set I aimed for the crash
cymbal--and missed!--a signal to stop.

As I got older my tolerance for drinking got lower, and I grew less
interested, and drinking increased the onset of fatigue even as it loosened
me up. Now I typically have one drink on the job (there's no other name for
it), if any, after the second set. I feel more control over my own powers
and am safer one the way home.

Again, I'm not moralizing on this. To each his or her own--except that a
healthy liver, road safety, and outright alcoholism will always be big
issues. And it's an interesting question that isn't often aired.

Make mine Merlot,

Charlie Suhor