[Dixielandjazz] THE gig

[Stephen G Barbone]

Thursday Night, Dec 3 Bethlehem PA: : Damn, where is this place?  I'm  
on nearly deserted Adams street among some warehouses. Address is 336  
and I'm in the 300 block but can't see anything except a metal door, a  
few steps below sidewalk level that says in old faded paint, "The  
Bookstore", no windows in sight, and no address visible.

So I call my fearless leader, Drew Nugent (25 years old) who answers  
"Hi Steve." I ask "where the hell is this bar?", adding that I'm on  
Adams street in the correct block. He says, "what do you see?" I  
answer a Bookstore and some old warehouses. He says "that's it." The  
light dawns. He had said earlier that it was an old converted  
Speakeasy . . .Duh.

I enter and can barely see. The dimly lit vestibule is small with  
tables full of books and a sign saying "Any book $5." "Go through the  
curtain and sit anywhere", says the young lady at the door. So I pass  
through as if into another world.

It is very dark, primarily candles and oil lamps. A bar on one side of  
the low ceilinged room with tables and chairs scattered around. Books  
on every table and on the wall shelves. My eyes adjust to a joint  
almost full of YOUNG PEOPLE, who turn and stare at this old man as he  
weaves his way through the tables to the bandstand. Background music  
via CDs is Bix, Nichols, Memphis Five, MacKenzie and other early  
bands. WHAT?

Drew comes in a minute later and we set up to play. Piano/Clarinet  
duo, and primarily the Fats Waller Book with some Clarence Williams  
thrown in. Just before we start, Mike Kuehn walks in. He is the new  
(young) president of the Pennsylvania Jazz Society and a fine banjo  
player. He agrees to join us as a sit in on banjo. Then a drummer we  
know walks in and sits in on suitcase with a pair of brushes.

Meanwhile the place is now filled with YOUNG people, many of them  
females and I'm an old flirt. Maybe I died and went to heaven and  
these are my 72 virgins reward for being a jazz musician?  <grin>

We did a 4 hour gig, ending at 1 AM, of 20s & 30s jazz with this  
quartet and had a blast. The audience had a blast and I don't believe  
there was anyone there last night over 25. Mostly kids from Moravian  
College nearby. It was as close to the experiences we old jazzers had  
with jazz, girls and club dates in the 1950s, as we will ever get. I  
didn't get home till 3:20 AM. Just like the old days.

Drew sang Waller. I did my flirt stuff singing "I Want A Little Girl"  
and "I Can't Get Started" to some girls who jumped up to gyrate in  
front of me in a very limited space. When you've spent 3/4 of a  
century on earth, a jazz gig does not get any better than this.

"Will you guys be here tomorrow night?" the dancers ask. Drew say he  
will, but that I will not because I have another gig. They are  
disappointed which is a huge ego boost for me, and I quickly add; But  
come see us on Sunday at the Hotel Bethlehem, Drew and I plus 3 more  
will be there from 5 to 9 PM playing Christmas Jazz and 20s music..  
"We'll be there" they said. "You make an old man very happy" I  
replied. "Yes" shouts one of them, pumping her fist high in the air.  
"I need a cigarette" I laugh. "Me too" she replies." Oh how I'd love  
to be 25 again.

No young audience? Sure there is, All around us in joints like this  
with $8 bottled beer. Most of us old folks just don't know where to  
look and/or how to interact when we are among them. One way to get  
there? Find a young band leader and play the old pro jazz man role in  
his/her band. You'll be amazed at what transpires.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband