[Dixielandjazz] Answer to Bob

[Stephen G Barbone]

  Don Ingle wrote:

> Stephen G Barbone wrote:
>> Dear Bob:
>>
>> I shouldn't wonder at your confusion. Your math is wrong. THINK
>>
>> First of all, you are wrong about my age, but lets assume you are  
>> right. If I am almost 75, I wasn't born in 1932, however lets  
>> assume I could have been Never the less,  50-17 is 33. 50 - 33 is  
>> 17, 17 + 33 is 50.  Therefore 50 is 50. <grin>
>>
>> How come you can't understand that?
>>
>> As for poetic license, I'm happy to be able to teach a man of your  
>> knowledge and accomplishments something. Glad I cleared it up for  
>> you.
>>
>> However, I don't think I'll be able to teach you math.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Steve
>>
> Regarding all these date datum: Since we are entering into an area  
> of quantum math, just remember that Pie are round, not square. Any  
> way you slice it kiddos - we'uns is just plain getting old.
> (By the way, while up in Minnesota I discovered the natives fishing  
> for a fish that is ugly, slimy and a predator. They call them  
> "lawyers"; so maybe Steve was wise not to mention
> the exact nature of his in between playing days occupation by  
> another description. Just joshing to passthetime to the nest  
> blizzard, Steve.
> Happy New Year - a lif tof the Cardhu to you, laddie.
> Don

Hey Don:

Happy New Year back at ya.

I just discovered in the back of my liquor cabinet,  that I have about  
2 drinks left in a bottle of Cardhu I bought in the USA a decade or so  
ago before they stopped shipping it to the Colonies. I am saving one  
for you. Come visit.

Regarding all those dates, Bob, so he thinks, is just doing a little  
chain pulling. The web site he referenced does indeed state that I  
have been playing jazz for 50 years, but it has been inactive since  
Glenn Dodson passed away a few years ago.  I'm not sure how he even  
got there since I do not reference it in my DJML sign offs. I leave  
the old URL up for the thousands of fans in this neck of the woods  
that may still have an old card, or brochure of mine that shows it.  
The "Schedule" link on that site brings the reader to the band myspace  
page: http://www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband. That page is  
current, more or less.

What is so funny is that Bob worries about 50 years of playing jazz,  
when the myspace page says 56 years of playing jazz. Both are  
inaccurate. I've actually been playing jazz for 70 years, give or take  
one or two. However, I do not wish to state 70 years on the myspace  
page given  the prejudices against hiring old folks in musical, as  
well as other jobs. (That's why so many of our contemporaries wear  
wigs, even bad ones) We seek a niche as an "old" band, but not that old.

Bob, if you are reading this, I started playing jazz about 1940 as a  
child on the piano, by ear, according to my parents. It is now 2010.  
Therefore I have been playing jazz for 70 years. That should take away  
your confusion about the words "playing jazz" unless you are mentally  
challenged.

As for my professional jazz musician (performing jazz for money)  
years, and day gig years, I  performed for money between 1949 and  
1963. That's about 14 years if you are counting on your fingers and  
toes. Then I quit playing for money and concentrated on my day gig, 1  
year practicing law and then about 29 as a business executive, rising  
to president of a medium sized company in the Automotive Parts  
Manufacturing Industry. Somehow, luck I guess, I amassed enough "go to  
hell money" to be able to retire by 1992.

I then started to play jazz for  money again, have been doing so ever  
since and am still doing so. If you are counting, that's about 19  
years. So 19 + 14 = 33 years as a professional jazz musician. Most of  
which time, the earned income from jazz performance was/is my main  
source of earned income. Two years in the Army Infantry (youthful  
patriotism) in the early 1950s made my gig money secondary to my Army  
money during those years if one counts the value of room/board/ 
clothing/guns and ammunition.

Currently, my annual unearned income (investments/pension/social  
security etc) exceeds my jazz earnings, but that's just the luck of  
the draw and my reward for living a good clean life. <grin>

In any event, I am grateful to Bob who has given me the opportunity  
for so much publicity on the DJML, though suspecting it will not  
result in any monetary gain. Most readers on this list are not clients  
of ours, nor are they destined to be. We do not travel overnight for  
gigs unless the long green (money to non-hipster) is there. And since  
most DJMLers are on the West Coast of the USA, where the venues do not  
pay anywhere near what we consider to be a fair wage for jazz music  
performances, and many amateurs like Dixieland Dykes + 3 play free, we  
would, like W.C Fields said on his tombstone, "rather be in  
Philadelphia".

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband