[Dixielandjazz] The Ultimate Jazz Gig?

[Steve barbone]

Oh my, here is the ultimate jazz gig. Especially for list mate Don Ingle who
besides being an accomplished Jazz Musician is an accomplished Sketch
Artist. Perhaps he has done this in the past?

BTW, this is also a heck of a good way to get an audience for OKOM.
Especially on the left coast where the "sketch the nudes" bars sprang to
life a few decades ago as a way around the law. After all, it was not sex,
it was art. Now with jazz, a double dose.

What a great, creative place to be. Especially if one has synesthesia.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone  

April 26, 2005 - NY Times - By COREY KILGANNON

Nudes on Stage, and Music to Sketch By

On a recent Tuesday night, about 75 people crowded into the third-floor
dining room of a private club in a Manhattan town house.

Some flocked to a small, noisy bar in the front, others to a rollicking
party spilling out into a rear garden. The drinks flowed freely, and a jazz
band struck up a lively blues number. A couple near the bar began swing
dancing.

When two svelte women stepped up onto a small stage in the center of the
room and dropped their robes, their nude bodies hardly attracted a glance
from the two groups. But another group, clustered around the stage, became
rapt and stared intently and unabashedly at the women, fixating on the
contours, lines, creases, shadows and proportions of their bodies.

The people in this group - about 50 illustrators, from college students to
retirees - were sharpening their skills by drawing the women, who were
figure models. The artists were poised over pads and easels. Some tapped
their feet or swayed to the music, but kept sketching rapidly in pencil,
ink, pastels or charcoal.

The session was organized by the Society of Illustrators, a century-old
organization whose home is the town house at 128 East 63rd Street. Sketching
nudes is nothing new at the society: Early photographs displayed at the club
depict male members in proper black suits appraising a man posing stiffly on
a platform.

But the study sessions, once formal, have loosened up considerably since
September, when the club began holding Tuesday night sessions with live
music and a cash bar. Many of the models are shapely young women who perform
in burlesque shows on the Lower East Side.

Not all the sketchers are club members. The sessions are open to the public,
costing $10 to get in or $12 to sketch. Many who are not artists turn out
just to enjoy the Jazz-Age salon ambience.

"I think of this as a current version of what Toulouse-Lautrec had in
France, a sort of nightclub-cafe-bordello atmosphere," said Helen Stratford,
49, a performance artist, who plays music regularly at the sessions. "You
have naked women, great music and intelligent people all in the same room,
and it's art. It's a place that fosters creativity."

Dressed in feathers and sequins, Ms. Stratford plays the accordion and sings
an Edith Piaf-type repertory of songs in French and German.

"The old F. Scott Fitzgerald values are still indigenous at the club," she
said, "and these nights are stimulating. Degeneracy and creativity are
closely aligned, and this brings to mind the realm of the forbidden."

Hui Cox, 48, a guitarist from Manhattan who is among the rotating set of
musicians who play at the sessions, said he had begun to sketch as well.

"This is how artists used to live years back," he said. "When I'm playing, I
feel like I'm creating and they're creating. It's a good combination of
artists and musicians doing their thing together. It's sophisticated and
nurturing, a safe haven for creativity."

"The Dover Coach," a large Norman Rockwell painting, hangs alongside many
other original paintings and illustrations in the members' dining room,
where the sessions are held. Above the third-floor bar is an old bass drum
from the society's Illustrators Jazz Band. It is signed by prominent past
and present club members, including Rockwell, Al Hirschfeld and Tony
Bennett, who is an avid painter. And there are names of notable club guests
like Benny Goodman and Buddy Rich.

The society, which was formed in 1901 and moved into its current building, a
19th-century carriage house, in the mid-1930's, has long been a place of
serious artistic study. It has many famous and successful members, prominent
exhibitions and an esteemed art collection.

But it was also known for its flamboyant and sometimes risqué social
functions, and the boisterous Tuesday night gatherings have brought back
some of that flavor.

The other night the more sober artists were concentrating intently and
shushing other illustrators and the band. Others held drinks in their free
hands and laughed and joked with each other. Some wound up ignoring the
models altogether and went about sketching the musicians, bar patrons or
other artists.

Jim Spanfeller, 74, an accomplished illustrator, sat near the stage
sketching swift serpentine line drawings of the models, which he said he
takes home and finishes in a pointillistic style.

"I come here to keep sharp and just keep drawing," said Mr. Spanfeller, who
taught drawing at Parsons and first joined the society in 1968. "Pure
illustrating is drawing, not tracing or using computers. I'd rather it was
quiet. I'm not as fond of drawing to jazz. I like drawing to Bach. It keeps
you grounded."

"You have all types here, from students to professional illustrators who use
what they sketch here for commercial jobs," he said.

The president of the society, Richard Berenson, standing at the end of the
bar dressed in a tan safari-style jacket, said, "Sketching classes have been
part of this club forever." But he said that the more freewheeling sessions
inspired more interaction and were an engaging way to attract visitors and
new members.

Amid the swirl of music, models and lively talk, the only thing that seemed
to be missing was the absinthe.

P. J. Loughran, 31, a tenor saxophonist from Brooklyn, was leading the band.
Mr. Loughran, who is a proficient soloist and a scat singer, is an
illustrator, as were all the band members on this evening.

A slender blond woman in a pink and green floral nightgown picked her way
past the tight thicket of chairs and easels. The model, Julie Atlas Muse,
31, a burlesque performer from Manhattan, casually flopped down on a wooden
chair, her robe splayed out beneath her.

Then she sank into a near split on the stage, her legs in a wide V. An
elderly artist squinted clinically as he studied her body, using his pencil
for perspective.

Ms. Atlas Muse, who performs at clubs in downtown Manhattan, Brooklyn and
Coney Island, called the sketch sessions "very salon-y"

"It's one of the cutest places," she said. "This is the New York you read
about," she said. "It's why people come to this city. It has live music,
live performers and the arts, so it's a triple threat." Michael Sysyn, the
house manager for the club, who often tends bar at the sessions, said the
idea behind them was simple.

"Bottom line, as long as they pick up a pen and appreciate art, that's what
it's about," he said. "It doesn't matter if you went to art school or just
started drawing, whether you're drawing on an easel or a cocktail napkin."

Then he looked around and said, "It ain't happening like this anywhere
else."