[Dixielandjazz] Eli Newberger

[Ken Mathieson]

Hi All,

Many years ago, on the Edinburgh Jazz Festival, Eli directed a Tubarama on which I had been booked to play drums for a massed band of players of miscellaneous brass bass horns. It seemed that everyone who could lay hands on a brass bass was there, regardless of ability. For a drummer, it was a tough gig, since so little of it swung and parts of it sounded like a social gathering of garrulous elephants.

Eli however kept a tight control of the traffic and tried to keep the music flowing. Throughout he displayed great musical taste, cutting off excesses before all was lost, and encouraging the massed beasts with good humour. The highlight of the gig was Eli's solo number, a ballad performance of When You Wish Upon a Star played with just the rhythm section. If you can imagine Ben Webster playing the tuba, that's what it sounded like to me, and I can't think of a higher compliment for a ballad performance. Eli is a genuinely likeable person and has a real musician's soul.

Cheers,

Ken Mathieson
www.classicjazzorchestra.org.uk