[Dixielandjazz] Jonathan's tuning

[Steve Barbone]

Jonathan's Dad does the tuning. "J" and his Dad are aware of the intonation
problems that sometime occur with this young man in the middle of a set.

In his defense, "J" gets tired like any 12 year old would with this kind of
performance pressure. He did 13 sets in 3 days, most with bands he had never
played with beforehand. And he played songs that he had never played before
That's grueling for anyone, let alone a young boy. And if he was tired, that
could have caused part of it, as could have jet lag. And the sound recording
was no where near as good as it could have been.

Plus, he plays a "kids" violin, not a full sized instrument because his arms
are not long enough. No doubt he would sound better if he had something
other than a learner's violin which is notoriously hard to keep in tune.

I remember when he was 9, he played a four hour gig with us. I told him in
the beginning to relax, no pressure, take a set off if he got tired etc.
However, he got so excited about playing that he did all four sets. 1 hr, 40
min, 40 min, 40 min. Yes, his intonation suffered at the end of that stint
and his dad re-tuned the instrument before every set.

Be that as it may, the kid always swings his little ass off. Something full
grown jazz musicians do not always accomplish. And his inventive mind is
well ahead of many fully grown jazz musicians.

Intonation, conversation among the band guys, those are minor problems given
what was heard on that clip. Did anyone else notice that the music swung,
that Cocuzzi was brilliant, as were all of the band members? And the
bassist? Man, I'm sorry the clip cut her off.

Nancy, thank you for recording it.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone