[Dixielandjazz] Any Sexaphonists out there?

[Steve barbone]

NEW YORK TIMES By JULIET GLASS February 22, 2006

Sauté Briefly, and Adjust the Saxophone

THE ORIGINAL NY TIMES HEADER WAS:
"Restaurant Levain in Minneapolis has installed a SEXAPHONIST in its kitchen
on Fridays and Saturdays, much to the delight of their diners" . . .

THEY subsequently discovered the error and deleted it.

But below is the rest, still a neat gig. On our Showboat gig, we also play a
few tunes in an open kitchen at their HUGE buffet, when they are not overly
busy. Great show as cooks and servers dance to St Thomas, or Liza Jane. I
use my clarinet as a limbo stick.

Cheers,
Steve


WHEN Steven Brown became executive chef at Restaurant Levain in March 2004,
he felt that something was missing.

"When the place was full, there was a din of activity, but at the beginning
and end of the evening there was a churchlike pall," he said recently. "I
felt like I was going to confession, not cooking dinner."

Live music was his preferred solution, but because Levain's dining room was
too small, Mr. Brown said, "I had the vision of a street musician outside in
the summer and that we'd leave the door open and the music would waft in."

He enlisted Bill Lang, a jazz saxophonist, to give it a try, but the music
didn't penetrate into the oblong dining room. Mr. Lang, who practices in his
kitchen at home, suggested moving right into Levain's roomy open kitchen. It
has been a resounding success.

On Friday and Saturday nights, he plays Charlie Parker and John Coltrane
standards, among many others, on his tenor sax. The effect on the dining
room is beguiling, with the muted clang and sizzle from the kitchen serving
as subtle percussion for Mr. Lang's music.

And because dining out is already a type of theater, diners spotting a
musician playing next to a sous chef plating the house-made wild game
terrine may do a double take, but soon return to their sunchoke soup with
duck mousse. 

The restaurant is in the back of a very large retail bakery. The kitchen for
both the bakery and the restaurant is in the center of the building, so from
the dining room, the inner workings of both are visible. Diners pass through
the kitchen to get to the coat rack and the restroom, so they see it all ‹
giant mixers, sacks of flour and Mr. Lang playing sax.

"Our kitchen isn't a place where the curtain is pulled back just a little
bit," Mr. Brown said. "There are no curtains."

Beyond entertaining the diners, Mr. Lang's playing has met Mr. Brown's
original expectation: it sets a tone (and a groove) for the kitchen staff,
Mr. Lang's true audience. At one point, Mr. Brown badgered him into learning
the theme to "Sanford and Son" to inspire the kitchen at its most hectic.
Mr. Lang now shapes his playlist according to the cooks' moods.

"I like to play 'Tequila' ‹ that always gets the kitchen jumping," he said.
"And when I notice things are tough on the line, I'll whip out 'The Pink
Panther.' "

Playing in a restaurant kitchen might not work for every musician, but it's
perfect for Mr. Lang, a serious home cook who picks up cooking tips and
samples dishes between sets.

"I get paid to watch these guys ‹ it's fantastic," he said. "Cooking is my
hobby, so I love to watch them dismantle little animals, and I can ask
questions. Plus they are always saying, 'Here, try this.' "

And it beats playing at a bar.

"When I come home from a bar, the sax smells like an ashtray," Mr. Lang
said. "Now it smells like veal stock."