[Dixielandjazz] European hot jazz

[Dan Augustine]

Folks--
     My buddy Jeff Van Horn here in Austin just came back from 
Germany, where he went for his son's wedding.  Jeff loves dixieland 
(Bob Crosby especially) and is past-president of the Austin 
Traditional Jazz Society.  He also lives across the street from me, 
which is convenient when we want to listen to music or when he needs 
a patsy in a pool game (in which my window of competence is between 
2.5 and 4.7 beers).
     Here's his message to me about going to a Chris Barber concert.

     Dan

c: Jeff
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>From: "Jeff Van Horn" <jeffvanhorn at austin.rr.com>
>Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 20:31:55 -0600
>
>Hello friends,
>
>I just returned from a trip to Germany that included an unbelievable 
>night of jazz for me.
>
>My son, who lives in Heidelberg, Germany, got married on Saturday, 
>November 6.  I had started planning my trip a couple of months 
>before.  My original plan was to go explore Great Britain after the 
>wedding.  Included within that plan was to find some hot jazz while 
>there, since traditional jazz seems now to be more popular in 
>England and in other parts of Europe than it is in the U.S.
>
>So, the first web site I went to was that of Chris Barber.  I had 
>hoped to possibly find him in London or some other accessible venue 
>while in the U.K.  Well, what I discovered was that Chris Barber was 
>going to be on tour with his Big Chris Barber Band in that same part 
>of Germany that I would be in, at the same time I would be there. 
>That changed my plans.  I was going to stay in Germany and see that 
>band at some place.
>
>I finally decided that the best time and place to hear the Chris 
>Barber band would be on Monday night, Nov. 8, in Ulm, Germany.  So, 
>in an effort to either purchase or reserve a ticket, I went back to 
>the Internet to try to determine exactly who was sponsoring the 
>concert.  I was unsuccessful in discerning this information, so I 
>contacted by email Wigt Productions, who was the producer of the 
>concerts.  One of the individuals in that organization indicated 
>that she would try to have me a ticket reserved at the box office 
>for Nov. 8.  I never did get any confirmation that this had in fact 
>occurred.
>
>So, on November 8, I took about a two-hour train ride from 
>Heidelberg to Ulm.  The concert was scheduled to begin at 8:00 p.m., 
>but I was anxious that the concert might be sold out and that I 
>might not have any reserved ticket waiting for me at the box office. 
>From my total lack of understanding of the German language, I 
>thought the front door of the theater said that the box office 
>opened at 5:00 p.m.
>
>So, at 5:00 o'clock straight-up, I am tugging on the front door of 
>the theater without any success.  At the same time I was doing this, 
>another man walked up to the front door and also attempted to get 
>in.  He said something to me in German, to which I responded 
>"English."  Then, he said that he actually spoke English also and 
>that he was one of the members of the band that was to play that 
>night.  I asked him what his instrument was and he said clarinet.  I 
>was not going to let this opportunity quickly fade, so I replied 
>(honestly) that the clarinet was my favorite instrument.  I think we 
>probably also talked about the fact that I was from Austin and why I 
>was at the theater door at that time of day.
>
>It turned out that this man was John Defferary, who plays clarinet, 
>bass clarinet, and tenor sax in the Big Chris Barber Band.  Either 
>he took a liking to me, or he believed that I appeared to be sort of 
>an orphan who needed adopting, because he asked me to come back with 
>him and hang out in the backstage, dressing-room area of the theater.
>
>So, I spent the next two hours sitting in the band's dressing rooms, 
>visiting with John, with Chris Barber, and with almost every band 
>member.  John was the first to arrive that evening, so when any band 
>member would show up, he would introduce me to him as his friend who 
>came all the way from Austin, Texas, to hear the band.  (As part of 
>John's warmup, I listened to him play a note-for-note rendition of 
>Artie Shaw's "Stardust.")  One of the musicians later asked me how 
>long John and I had been friends, and I had to answer him "About an 
>hour."
>
>When I was introduced to another reed man, Tony Carter, Tony brought 
>out a small flask from which he took a sip.  Then he handed it to 
>me, saying "Try some of Scotland's finest."  I had to be sociable. 
>He also invited me to come up to the band's hotel after the concert 
>to continue our visit.
>
>About an hour and a half before the concert was to start, the band 
>went onto the stage to warm up and to do a sound check.  John told 
>me to come with them.  So, here I find myself standing there 
>backstage with the Big Chris Barber Band listening to, among other 
>things, Chris warming up the vocal chords singing "Take Me Back to 
>New Orleans."  I was in a state of total ecstasy.
>
>At some point during the warmup, Chris walked over to me and we had 
>about a ten-minute discussion about topics as various as (1) the 
>long-time relationship between ATJS and the Alamo City Jazz Band, 
>which is featured in the current issue of the Mississippi Rag; (2) 
>how ironic it was that Tommy Dorsey initially played such a rough 
>trumpet, but then developed into the smoothest of trombonists; and 
>(3) the fact that he had performed on two different occasions in 
>Texas - one at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas in the 50's, and 
>the other some time after that at the University of Texas in Austin. 
>I told him about my also seeing Louis Armstrong in Gregory Gymnasium 
>during the 60's.
>
>Chris Barber is so personable and engaging.  Like I said, we 
>casually visited for about ten minutes, and then he indicated, as 
>though he had been sidetracked, that he had better get back to 
>warming up since the other musicians were waiting.  Chris is now 72 
>years old, but he can still play a mean trombone.  Yet, the thing 
>that impressed me more than anything about Chris Barber is his 
>continuing passion for what he does.  That passion is a deep crimson 
>and it was more apparent to me from the warmup than it was from the 
>performance itself.  That is because the performance always has some 
>showmanship associated with it, but the warmup was absolutely 
>natural.
>
>About the performance itself.  The Big Chris Barber Band consists of 
>11 players - three reeds, two trumpets, two trombones, two 
>guitar/banjos, a string bass, and a drummer.  Of course, that being 
>the lineup, the band did not solely play traditional jazz.  But, 
>traditional jazz they did play.  The opening number was "Bourbon 
>Street Parade."  Later during the first set, the band did the entire 
>number of "Take Me Back to New Orleans" that I had heard them warm 
>up to.  They closed the first set with "Big Noise from Winnetka," in 
>which the drummer and bassist flat-out wowed the crowd with their 
>musicianship and showmanship.
>
>The second set began with a few songs performed by a six-man 
>traditional lineup, instead of the entire 11-piece band.  The last 
>number of the evening was "The Saints," after which the crowd 
>settled into a rhythmic clapping of the hands until the band came 
>back for an encore.
>
>But, the most lasting impression that I carried away from this 
>concert was the enthusiasm of this German crowd for this music.  It 
>was infectious and John told me afterwards that it drove the band to 
>play better.  For an encore, the band played its customized version 
>of "Ice Cream."  To the melody of the song, the band would sing "I 
>scream.  You scream."  Then the band would encourage the crowd to 
>respond with "Everybody wants some ice cream."  You should have 
>heard these Germans ringing out in English, "Everybody wants some 
>ice cream."  It was exhilarating.  If only American crowds had this 
>same degree of enthusiasm.
>
>The band had to leave at 9:00 the next morning for a performance 
>that evening in the Netherlands.  So, I chose not to accept Tony 
>Carter's invitation to come over to their hotel.  Instead, after the 
>concert I went backstage and thanked everyone I saw for their 
>hospitality and for their outstanding concert.
>
>I could have cancelled my airline ticket back to Austin.  After that 
>night in Ulm, Germany, I didn't need any airplane to get back home.
>
>Jeff

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**  Dan Augustine     Austin, Texas     ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu  **
**     "I always keep a supply of stimulant handy in case I see a     **
**      snake, which I also keep handy." -- W. C. Fields              **
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