[Dixielandjazz] Sitting In

[Elazar Brandt]

Shalom Jazz Fans,

I missed most of the sitting in thread while out of town for a few days, but
I had to throw in my 2 shekels' worth.

My band performs a lot on the pedestrian mall in downtown Jerusalem. It is
legal as long as we're not amplified, not charging money (playing for tips
is OK), not selling anything (they look the other way usually if we sell a
CD or two), not blocking or interfering with any of the stores or
restaurants, and most important, as long as nobody complains who the police
like better than they like us. Actually, we're making good happy music, and
we are generally appreciated, especially in view of our last few years of
luke warm war.

However, the street is still the street, and nobody owns it. We have
virtually no rights as performers except for the right to be there like
anyone else. We don't own a spot. People do not have to move if they're
sitting where we want to play. There is no guarantee that a rock band won't
set up across the street and compete with us. Courtesy is the name of the
game, but there are lots of people who don't play that game well.

Beggars will canvas the audience that gathers to listen to us, driving some
away and bothering others. People passing by will try to sing, dance, grab
one of our instruments and play along, come up behind us and steal our
stuff, take money out of the hat, or try to carry on a conversation with us
or shake hands while we're in the middle playing a song. There's no law
against it. All one can do is be prepared to cope with it.

So where does that leave sit-ins? Actually we encourage people to play
washboard or other percussion instruments with us, especially kids of any
age. Some are pretty good, and if they get the knack and we see they can
handle it, we'll give them solos. People ask if they can play our horns, or
sometimes they don't ask and just grab one that is not in use. I tell them
they can play my horn if I can kiss their girlfriends, and they usually get
the idea. But the truth is, I am always looking for new players, or
potential players who might take lessons for awhile and then join one of my
groups a few months down the road. So I sometimes carry an extra mouthpiece
for the purpose of letting someone play or try to if they seem to know how,
or maybe used to know how. A number of my students are come-back players who
used to play in school and then stopped for 20 or 30 years and want to start
again.

One such fellow can play at a basic level but never has the money to get his
own horn back into shape, and he often asks to play mine. I don't always let
him because I don't want to encourage the crowd to think that anyone can
play my horns. One balmy evening we had established a particularly nice
atmosphere and a good audience, and I noticed this fellow walking by with a
new gal. He glanced at me and then at my cornet, and I felt it was a good
time to give him a break. I called Blue Moon, which I knew he could play,
and let him take the lead on the cornet for his lady. That made his day, and
was also a good crowd-pleaser.

On the other hand, recently we had a guy who came along with his guitar and
was telling us what a virtuoso he is on that as well as clarinet and some
other instruments. It was against my better judgment to let this guy play
along. In fact it was against my better judgment to let him live! But my
partner had already invited him before I arrived. This fellow stood out in
front of us (there were 4 of us that time), and just did whatever he wanted
to, Louis Armstrong imitations, solos, playing in different styles from us,
starting and ending the songs. After 1 1/2 songs I had enough and asked him
to stop. We had maybe 50 people gathered to listen. He put down his guitar,
and we started another song, and he picked up our washboard and did the same
thing. I told him to put that down, and he went for the guitar again, or
sang, or whatever he thought he could get away with. I finally put my foot
down, probably not soon enough, and told him to move away from the band and
stand with the crowd, and I told him if he wants to sing along WITH US from
there, it was OK. (How grand of me, like I own the street! Sometimes you
have to bluff and hope they don't call you on it.) After several rounds he
still kept coming back and reaching for the guitar or washboard, or wanting
to play the cornet. Incidentally, you might have guessed that he was not
that good, except in his own mind. In the end I had no other choice but to
humiliate him in front of the crowd, telling him that he doesn't know how to
play, that he's ruining everything we do, that we will not consider him as a
potential future member of the band, and I told him to take his guitar and
go away, and he reluctantly complied. He said he just needs to rehearse with
us and he'll be fine, and I told him, "No, you need to leave. You're not in
this band and you're not going to be in this band."

Next to this type, the occasional drunk who stinks to high heaven and
stumbles around making noise and spilling vodka on everything doesn't seem
so bad. We can usually get rid of those by giving them a couple coins and
pointing them in another direction. Sometimes someone in the crowd will
help. G-d bless the Israelis. Never afraid to get involved.

Happy sitting in ... or not.

Elazar
Dr. Jazz Dixieland Band
Tekiya Trumpet Ensemble
Jerusalem, Israel
www.israel.net/ministry-of-jazz
+972-2-679-2537