[Dixielandjazz] Bennies & Jazz Music

[Charlie Hooks]

On Monday, August 22, 2005, at 10:01 PM, Steve barbone wrote:

> So if you finished a gig in Philadelphia at 3 AM, and had the next 
> one, say
> in St. Louis at 9 PM the same day, you had to stay up and drive 
> there within
> that 19 hour window. Six piece band going in two cars, so you 
> weren't going
> to get any sleep. Even the College circuit got to be like this.

The Celebration Roadshow, which drove over 900,000 miles in five 
years, made lots of these drives.  Like from Islamarada in the 
Florida keys to Seattle for the world's fair in '74.  And my own 
favorite: play a morning gig at Chadron, Nebraska, State University 
in the a.m., get into the car and van and drive to Ithaca, N.Y., set 
up and play again before going to bed.  And we did that one with no 
bennies at all: the guys on that band were all pot-heads except for 
me: I went for the Bushmill's Irish, then to sleep on the seat and 
awake "refreshed" to play the gig.  Ah, youth...!

Charlie Hooks
>
__________________________________________
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public 
office." --Aesop