[Dixielandjazz] Dr Jazz Crashes Jerusalem Street Fair

[Elazar Brandt]

Shalom Jazz Fans,

A great experience tonight. There is a 2-day street fair in an artsy, yuppie-ish
neighborhood of Jerusalem during which they close the main street of the
neighborhood and feature all kinds of arts and crafts, foods, music, and so on.
We called the organizers to see about taking part and got no response, so we did
what you do in Israel -- we went anyway. Our intrepid trio found a spot that was
relatively free of loudspeaker chatter and not in anybody's way, and we set up
and went to work. We drew a nice crowd right away, and they stayed with us for
about 2 hours of playing. We got kids playing washboard and other percussion
doo-dads with us, and as usual there were people singing and dancing along to
our old tunes. We sold a couple of CDs, made tips comparable to what we make in
town, and gave out a stack of business cards. When the organizers noticed us,
they came over to find out who we are. Just when I thought we were going to be
asked to leave, she started talking about us playing for the mayor, and asking
if we're coming back tomorrow evening. We told them we were considering it but
were not sure, and asked if they want to offer us anything. She accepted a CD
and a card, and said she'd be in touch. So now we're waiting to see if we get a
call in the morning with an invitation. We'll almost certainly get an invitation
to future events.

In other news, we seem to have made a quantum leap this spring, and have been
doing about 2 gigs a week, aside from playing in town once or twice. The calls
keep coming from people who heard us in town or at one of the gigs. We played at
a nice new restaurant on a hilltop in Jerusalem last Friday, and we now have 2
more gigs there in the next 2 weeks. And summer is only beginning. The City of
Jerusalem has summer events that we're being considered for, and we're
considering heading to Eilat for a week, possibly during the Red Sea Jazz
Festival in August, to see about crashing that one too.

Will keep you posted. Glad to have some good news to report.

Elazar
Doctor Jazz Band
Tekiya Trumpet Ensemble
Jerusalem, Israel
<www.israel.net/ministry-of-jazz>
Tel: +972-2-679-2537