[Dixielandjazz] Playing in old venues - was - ST GABRIEL'S CELESTIAL BRASSBAND

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

Man you brought up memories of Christmas past.  The oldest ballroom still in 
existence here in St. Louis is the Casa Loma.  There are three flights of 
stairs plus street only parking in a neighborhood that is less than 
desirable to walk through at night.  They have armed guards strolling up and 
down the street and the one small lot.  They still have big bands on 
Saturday night but it's not a money maker.  It's the Salsa dances that keep 
the place open.  There is a large Hispanic population in the immediate area 
and they love to dance.  I have just about given up on the various big bands 
because the pay is just so low.  It takes 45 minutes to get there and 
another 45 to get back so you burn an hour on each end of a three hour gig. 
Then I get to lug a bari sax and soprano up and down the steps and that is 
after walking a block.  Then the princely pay is on a good night $35. 
That's not even minimum wage.  It's even less if you count the gas, tux 
cleaning and wear and tear on instruments and cloths.

There were many ballrooms in St. Louis when I first started playing.  You 
had to be pretty bad to not be able to play somewhere.  Virtually all of 
them were on the second or even third floors.  On top of all that there was 
no AC.

About 1970 I booked a NYEve gig at a frat house for St. Louis U medical 
college.  It was in the penthouse on a 9 story building.  That translates 
into 18 flights of steps.  The elevator wasn't working.  I had all the band 
equipment to move up the stairs and of course back down again.  Today I 
would say screw it but I needed money very badly back then so up the steps I 
went.

I played a tour in Ecuador with the AF and we were staying in a very nice 
hotel.  BTW there was a killer sax quartet that played the lounge.  They all 
had new Selmer instruments.  Between them they had two Bari's, Two Tenors, 
Three Altos and three Sopranos.  Any instrument is horribly expensive there 
so I have no idea how those guys came up with those horns.

Ecuador is somewhat challenged to get electricity to people in any sort of 
reliable way.  The hotels have generators and everyone uses laptops there 
because of the power problems.  The elevator in the hotel would stop and all 
the lights would go out.  About 15 seconds later the hotel generator would 
kick in and the elevators would then reset themselves by going to the top 
floor and then to the basement.  Then you had to hit the button for your 
floor and you just might get there if the elevator hadn't completely lost 
it's mind.  This happened almost every time I got in the elevator while we 
were in Quito.

It's funny how that stuff gets heavier with time.  Mine has too.  I charge 
$25 extra for steps but I'm getting to a point where if they have them I'm 
thinking about not taking the gig but on the good side there is only one 
place where I have to carry things up about 6 steps.  Other than that I 
haven't carried stuff up steps for about 5 or 6 years.  The last place was 
at a local micro brewery that has a room upstairs.  That was a drag.
Larry
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: "Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 23, 2007 8:23 PM
Subject: Re: Playing in old venues - was - ST GABRIEL'S CELESTIAL BRASSBAND


> larrys.bands at charter.net wrote: (about Tom Wiggins' Band with a New 
> Orleans
> send off at Ike Turner's Funeral)
>
>> I was telling another list mate a couple of days ago that I missed Tom 
>> and
>> appreciated his insights.
>>
>> I missed that bit on Ike Turner - too bad.  I played for awhile in the 
>> 80's
>> at the Imperial Ball Room Where Ike and Tina played.  It's on the top 
>> floor
>> of the building and as I recall taking equipment up all those flights of
>> steps nearly killed us.  We eventually used the fire escape which had 
>> fewer
>> flights and was right off the band stand.  Imagine taking a Leslie 
>> cabinet
>> up and down a fire escape.  You had to be tough to play music back then 
>> or
>> at least a weight lifter.  I wasn't sad to see that gig come to an end.
>
> Yeah, Tom gets very busy this time of year with his various bands, and
> sending out promotional material for 2008. No doubt he will return after 
> he
> has sharpened his axe.
>
> We play some swing dances in old ballrooms, circa 1925 - 1935, in the
> Philly/Wilmington/Reading/Allentown PA areas. They all seem to be on the 
> 2nd
> or 3rd floor of those old buildings.
>
> The one in Pottstown has a loading elevator off a back alley entrance. It
> occasionally acts up and will not automatically stop at the 3rd floor 
> after
> you've pushed the button. It just continually cycles round trip between
> ground and 3 without stopping except on ground.
>
> So you trip the circuit breaker when nearing the 3rd floor. But the door
> won't open unless you time it just right, and the elevator floor is within 
> 2
> inches of the building floor. Cycled about 5 times one night with my sound
> equipment and the bass before we timed it perfectly.
>
> The ballroom at the University of Pennsylvania, 2nd floor, has no 
> elevator.
> The kids offer to carry our equipment and we gratefully accept since we
> unload from Walnut Street 200 feet away.
>
> My own sound system was light enough when I bought it 15 years ago. How 
> come
> it got so heavy now? <grin>
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
>
>
>
>