[Dixielandjazz] The Wrong Side of Town

[Steve Barbone]

Mart McKay "macjazz" <macjazz at comcast.net> wrote:

> And as a kid living in New Orleans in the late 40's I often went with my dad
> down to the "wrong side of town" to sit outside the "minority" dance halls
> and lodge halls to hear the "real Dixieland."  The police would come and
> tell us we couldn't be there and to move along and dad would ask them if
> they had had lunch (or dinner) yet.  They would go on to get dinner somehow
> and leave us to listen.  We got sort of accepted in some of the areas, but
> mostly were just ignored, but there was a whole lot going on right out in
> front of us on the street.  I never felt it hurt me or the music to any
> great extent.

I'm with you Mart.

Went to a lot of bars in Harlem from the late 1940s, as well as all the bars
and joints in the NYC area from them till 1962 to hear, and then play jazz.
That's where OKOM with all its legends, as well as Bop was.

As a teenager, I was protected by the older folks in these joints, and later
as a jazz musician was again, always protected in these venues by the
patrons and bouncers

Harlem was really special since I had been born there just as the
neighborhood around 155th Street was changing from Italian to Black. Never
had a problem with anyone there during my listening years as a white kid now
visiting a black neighborhood. A wannabe jazz musician, I was treated well.

IMO, jazz was developed in the bars, dives and honky tonks. It may not have
developed as we know it without them, and the backing of the Mob from the
days of prohibition till the 1960s.

Exciting times.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone