[Dixielandjazz] THE gig

[Marek Boym]

Sure thing!
While I'm on the other side, i.e. - the audience, I have already
described here my experiences with dances where youngsters (many in
their teens) danced to OKOM, whether the New Orleans Function or Swing
de Gitanes (with the latter, there were DJs playing swing - Dorsey,
BG, the Count, and Armstrong when the band took a break), and looked
with amazement at us dinosaurs (that includes my young friends who are
in their late forties).
Reach out to young audiences, "call your chillun," and they will come.
Cheers

On 04/12/2009, Stephen G Barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 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
>
>
>
>
>
>
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