[Dixielandjazz] Do Kids Respond to Jazz

[Steve barbone]

"Dave Washburn" <tootn4u at juno.com> wrote
 
> 2 points about kids responding to jazz.    1) I was in New Orleans week before
> last playing clarinet and sax with a "Banjo Rendezvous" convention. We played
> at a local school and the kids had a blast with some of the old tunes.  2) The
> kids around this area know that my repair shop/music store is open on Saturday
> afternoons for those that want to come in and learn some jazz tunes and some
> improvisational skill. There is no charge. Just come in with your instrument
> and have some fun. As far as I know we are the only place that does this.
> These kids really like the old standards. I think the young folks would accept
> more jazz if some one made a point of exposing them to it.

AMEN Dave. If only someone other than the few who do, would play in front of
these kids.

I learned that in the 1940's. From jazz musos who were very accessible to us
kids and took the time to get down with is. And to talk and explain the
music. Not the history of the music which bores folks, but the MUSIC.

I learned again in the 1950s from drummer Ellis Tollin in Philadelphia. A
hell of a drummer, he also owned a music store, Music City, some 3 stories
high. The third floor was vacant. So he turned it into a nightclub for kids,
who when under 21, were not allowed into jazz clubs. Admission? 25 cents.
Soft drinks available, no booze. No need to buy anything.

His idea? Provide a place where kids could hear GREAT JAZZ at minimum cost.
And let them talk to the musicians about the music.

He had his rhythm section there on weekends, from 6PM to midnight if the
musos could stay. Tollin on drums, Ace Tesone on bass, and Sam Dockery on
piano. He then went out and got the jazz players who were working the major
clubs in Philly (Ortliebs, Rendezvous Room, Peps, etc) to come in before
their nightclub show and perform for the kids . . . FREE.

Who did the kids get to see besides Tollin, Tesone & Dockery? Oh my, Dizzy,
Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Sidney Bechet, Billie Holiday, Clifford Brown,
Ben Webster, Oscar Peterson, Stan Getz, Kay & J.J., Max Kaminsky, Max Roach,
Buddy Rich, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins et al. One time Count Basie
brought his whole band in there. My oh my, what a fun place that was for the
kids. A GREAT WAY FOR THEM TO HEAR AND TO BE A PART OF THE MUSIC.

Perhaps that's one reason why Philadelphia is such a viable city for jazz
some 55 years later.

Who, among us, is doing that type of visionary work today?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

PS. It was at Music City that Clifford Brown played the jam session the
night he died in 1956. Ace Tesone (Barbone Street's Bass Player) was there
with Sam Dockery and Ellis Tollin backing him up. Richie Powell was there
too. They left at midnight for a Brown & Roach gig in Chicago. Richie's
wife, a newly licensed driver, was driving on the PA Turnpike in a
rainstorm. Powell & Brown probably asleep. Car slid off the road and
everybody was killed.

To this day, Max Roach will sadly remind himself, and tell you that he was
supposed to drive Brownie to Chicago a day earlier, but then Brown decided
to stay and play for the kids till midnight. Max left without him and still
regrets not staying that extra day.

The session was recorded and is available today on CD. "The Beginning And
The End" - June 25, 1956. (Tesone is  misspelled "Tisone" on it.)