[Dixielandjazz] Dixieland in Leningrad/St Petersburg

[Jeffmatthews111 at aol.com]

Hi All,
 
About 10 years ago I had the opportunity to work in St. Petersburg,  formerly 
Leningrad, for 5 weeks on a film. Most of the crew were Russian and  really 
nice people. 
 
One evening a group of 7 of the British crew decided to go for a walk.  We 
came across a theatre and went inside to see what was on. We could faintly  hear 
sounds of jazz and therefore wanted to buy tickets to see the show. We were  
told a definite "Niet " - "No"! 
 
Well, we British abroad, on hearing this fun jazz, couldn't take  "Niet" for 
an answer.  So one of the 'larger' and more vocal of the group  was despatched 
to do some negotiation. The discussion seemed to get slightly  heated, 
compounded by the fact that 'they'  didn't speak more than two  words of English and 
our Russian was about as bad or worse.
 
Suddenly, a 'break through' when the negotiator for our group was summoned  
to follow some guys who looked like wrestlers, down some dark stairs. The rest  
of our group watched all of this from beyond the glass doors of the theatre - 
 outside!  We waited and waited. We started to get worried, our mate hadn't  
returned. Still the jazz played on.
 
20 minutes later, He came out of the theatre looking flustered,  pale and a 
little shocked by his experience.  He had been taken  downstairs to the 'Mens 
Room', toilets, were he had been confronted by more  very large and threatening 
looking men. He thought he had breathed his last as  St Petersburg was a wild 
town and it seemed everyone was packing a gun and happy  to use it.  More 
language difficulties. Eventually they let him go - in one  piece!  He also had 
bought us a place in the theatre.
 
The group of us were told to be very quiet and to creep into the top circle  
of the theatre and to hide from sight. We did this, but when we did peep over  
the top of the railings we could see that on the ground floor were tables 
laid  out with very well dressed dignatories drinking champagne and eating.  We  
had accidently 'gate-crashed' a high society wedding!!!
 
We were treated to the swinging and exciting sounds of a Dixieland band  
playing for the wedding party. Fantastic sounds and wonderful musicians. These  
guys apparently were the top Dixieland band in Russia at that time. They  
reminded me of 'The Dukes of Dixieland' in style - if I remember correctly. If  you 
can get to hear them - without gate-crashing a wedding, then I am sure they  
will be excellent.
 
Cheers,
 
Jeff Matthews
'The Southern Sounds Jazzmen'