[Dixielandjazz] So many minutes of Silence

[Stephen G Barbone]

On Jun 1, 2010, at 3:00 PM, dixielandjazz-request at ml.islandnet.com  
wrote:

> W1AB at aol.com wrote (polite snip)
>
>
>    Here's a story from the early days of  rock and roll in America,  
> when
> the music was truly bad.  Back when some of  the guitar players  
> sometimes
> couldn't even get their own guitar's six strings in  tune!  (I've  
> told this to
> a lot of people my age, and almost no one  remembers the situation.)

Dear Al:

I remember one of those bands in particular. It was in the early 1960s  
and
I was playing in a Dixieland Band one weekend at Cornell  University  
for a party at one of the fraternities there. Those were the days of  
Dixieland on the college circuit, and I worked many a weekend at  
colleges in the Northeast US.

Rock was just taking off after Elvis got going.

They had 2 bands, ours, The Southampton Dixie Racing and Clambake  
Society Jazz Band and a Rock & Roll band.. The Rockers were horribly  
out of tune and truly awful. In the middle of their first set (after  
our first set), the kids loaded up pitchers of beer, doused them and  
sent them packing.

It was quite a scene. I'd love to see that again. <grin>

Shortly thereafter, the rock bands got better and that beautiful  
Dixieland at College scene disappeared.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband