[Dixielandjazz] Programme notes for a nice country hotel gig

[Steve barbone]

John Pappas at OArkas at aol.com wrote: (polite snip)

It made me sick to see the wife of one of the men in charge go up to
Fogerty, while he was singing on stage, and pull his trouser cuff and keep
telling him he was too loud!!!!   He was a gentleman and just ignored her!
Thank God she left us alone!
LOL
What an interesting "art" or "profession" music is!

Yes indeed. The profession is similar to prostitution. The art is what you
make of it. The most wonderful thing about performing with my friends these
days is that we are able to pretty much control what, where and for whom we
play.

I try and connect with the audience immediately by first pointing out our
ages. Then after each number, the musical bios of one musician. It sort of
sets the ground rule that we know what we are doing. E.G. The band averages
70+ in age and the guys performed with: (partial list)

Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge, Bennie Green, Urbie Green,
Yank Lawson, Bob Haggart, Muggsy Spanier, Barrett Deems, Wingy Manone, Kai
Winding, J.J. Johnson, Clifford Brown, Kenny Davern,  Ben Webster, Marty
Napoleon, Charlie Ventura, Peggy Lee, Louis Prima, The Philadelphia
Orchestra, The Chicago Symphony, The New Orleans Symphony, Pete Fountain, Al
Hirt, Tommy Dorsey, Chubby Checker, Mel Torme, Stan Getz, J.C. Higginbotham,
Vic Dickenson,
Bobby Rydell, Frankie Avalon, Buddy DeFranco, Sidney Bechet, Lester Lanin,
Meyer Davis, Howard Lanin. Max Roach, Buddy Rich, Thelonious Monk, etc.,
etc., etc.

I mention most of them through the bios and this has the effect of muting
most of the interference from control freaks about what and how we play.

Still, though, there is that occasional blue hair who will come up and
harumph things like:

"I didn't know 'If I Were A Bell' was jazz."
"The guitar is too loud,"
"Why do you wear those ugly soft shoes?"

My answers? 
"It is, the way we play it"
"We are a bit deaf and we need it there to hear the chord changes."
"Because I'm 71 and with all that standing, my feet now hurt like hell in
hard shoes."

With a sincere smile, of course. Secure in the knowledge that we have all
the gigs we can handle because we are aware of what it takes to please
'most' of the audience. The individual philistines, and/or jazz cognoscenti
are of no consequence to our programming. We firmly believe that the music
belongs to the musicians and to the regular folks in the audience who, as a
group, pay the bill.

Prostitutes? Maybe.
Artists? Absolutely
Happy? You bet. Having the time of our lives and bringing the music into the
future.

Cheers,
Steve

PS to John: Costa's, where the trio plays, is a Greek Restaurant. The owner
Constantine Dimas and family love jazz. First class people who tell us to do
it our way. Fall by, if you ever get to the East Coast and Wilmington DE.