[Dixielandjazz] Dresden

[Cees van den Heuvel]

I've played at the Dresden festival twice in the seventies with Ted Easton's 
Jazz Band and with the Revival Jass Band.

Dresden was still behind the iron curtain at that time.

Flown in via Tempelhof airport (East Berlin) an then by bus to Dresden.

Same expierences as Jim: always followed bij hostesses who were in fact 
communist observers.

Ted Easton made a mistake. During a live tv-show he told the audience that 
he was glad to

be in East Germany.....a nearly deadly sinn, because he should have said 
DDR!

What to do with the money? We emptied the local music store and brought back 
home

trumpets, trombones, clarinets , oboes etc. Not of the best quality, but we 
were able

to sell them in the Netherlands. When we were asked to record 2 lp's we were 
payed,

on our request, in binoculars, camera's etc. Still have them, good quality! 
Zeiss Jena.

On our second trip one musician deposited his money in a DDR-bank. He turned

out to be the smartest one; when the wall came down he could exchange his 
money

on a 1 to 1 basis into West German marks. Not a bad deal after all. He also 
married an

East German girl, but that turned out to be another story...

But is was and still is a wonderful,well organized, festival with an 
incredible

nice audience that loves trad jazz, especially when served with humour and 
show.



Cees van den Heuvel

www.revivaljassband.nl