[Dixielandjazz] Doctor Jazz Delights Jerusalem Audience

[Ministry of Jazz]

Shalom Jazz Fans,

It's after midnight in Jerusalem, and I just returned from one of my band's
best performances in our 5 years or so of existence. We were invited by the
City to perform in a city-wide event at the museums that began tonight and
continues for the next 3 weekends. Our venue is a new museum and
archaeological park at the southern end of the Temple Mount. We played
outdoors in a large plaza under a canopy, surrounded by the stone walls,
ancient, medieval and modern, of Old Jerusalem. Talk about acoustics! WOW!
We only needed a mike for the vocals, and we probably could have done
without that. We were worried about freezing our buns off at an outdoor
event at night at this time of the year, but it turned out we were too hot.
The weather was perfect.

Our 4-piece configuration played for 2 hours to a happy audience of about
300 people, some of whom came from as far away as Tel Aviv and other coastal
towns over an hour from Jerusalem by car. We were delighted to see toes
tapping, hands clapping, and lips moving to the words of the familiar
songs -- and this was a mostly Hebrew-speaking Israeli crowd. We sold CDs
and gave out business cards, and got a number of inquiries about playing at
private events.

Even more exciting was the reaction of the management of the venue/site.
They loved us, and are talking about building future events around us. This
site is relatively new, and they want to promote more activity there. They
also told us about a new underground auditorium that is being constructed in
a place called Zedekiah's Cave, under the north western corner of the Temple
Mount, where the natural acoustics are said to be out of this world. This
event might finally put us on the map in Jerusalem as a serious classic jazz
band.

I am happy to say I was able to keep the patter going in Hebrew, announcing
songs, making jokes, introducing the band, giving background about the
music, and so on, and I sang my Hebrew translation of Cabaret. In Hebrew or
English, I tend to do my best work live, without thinking much beforehand
about what I will say. I have gotten many crazy ideas on the spot for
humorous interludes between songs. Tonight as I introduced the band in the
beginning, the idea occurred to me that playing trumpet so near to the
Temple Mount could be dangerous, because the Messiah might hear the trumpet
and come ahead of schedule by mistake. I told them I didn't want to cause a
world-wide catastrophe, so I would play delicately. Well, I thought the idea
was funny. It got a decent rise out of the crowd. Now all I need is to work
up the courage to follow the example of our buddy Steve Barbone, and sing
one of the love songs to one of our beautiful Israeli gals.

We play again next Thursday. I hope the weather will hold up. I intend to
get pictures and video of the next show, and will post anything that is
worth viewing.

Hey, we wouldn't mind seeing some of you good folks over here. The weather
is still great, there is lots of fun stuff to do and fascinating things to
see. And bring your axes and we'll put you to work!

Blessings from Jerusalem,

Elazar
Dr. Jazz Dixieland Band
Tekiya Trumpet Ensemble
Jerusalem, Israel
www.israel.net/ministry-of-jazz
(02) 679-2537
050-723-3914





-----Original Message-----
From: Fr M J (Mike) Logsdon [mailto:mjl at ix.netcom.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 5:01 AM
To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Another test.


Sorry again,

----
Etc,

Fr M J (Mike) Logsdon, Vicar-general
North American Old Roman Catholic Church (Utrecht Succession)
Archdiocese of California
www.naorc.org