[Dixielandjazz] N O Musicians

[Len Nielsen]

List mates

Tom Hook and Matt Perrine performed with the Black Dogs in Penticton BC
this past weekend. They both have homes in Naw'lens and in Tom Hook's
words they live in an area of higher elevation and were not subject to
flooding. Tom Hook left New Orleans for Memphis before the storm arrived
  and considers them to be extremely lucky not to have suffered the way
others have done. They cannot, of course, go home and since the band
CD's are there they had none to offer to their clamoring fans.

Tom Hook is always a top notch entertainer and I have never seen him
more on top of his "game " than he was Saturday night. He sang Going
Back to New Orleans and the band sounded much bigger than the 6
musicians in the group. He also did a tune written by someone named
Newman for the 1927 flood. It is doubtful that anyone could put more
heart and soul into their performance.

The band:

Tom Hook.......piano and vocals
Matt Perrine...tuba
David Jones....cornet
Pat Gulotta....tombone
Ed Metz........drums
Terry Myers....reeds

A great band. They are all great musicians and they are driven by Ed 
Metz who Hook often introduces as the best drummer in the world.

The festival organizers arranged for collection boxes for the New 
Orleans relief effort and there was good response. I have no knowledge 
of the amount collected but IMO the important thing is that this type of 
effort is going on in many similar places all over the world and these 
spontaneous outpourings of sympathy and assistance are the what is going 
to help restore the damage and help ease the suffering caused by this 
tragedy.

Len Nielsen