[Dixielandjazz] Making a Living in Jazz was D'Amico

[Stephen G Barbone]

> <richard.flecknell at ntlworld.com> wrote (polite snip)
>
>
> Hank D'Amico can also be found on the four Jess Stacy Varsity tracks  
> from 1939 (Jazz On Line Com).
>
> Homes of the jazz greats ~ thanks Steve.  I see they didn't do too  
> bad professionally playing Jazz back then.

Thanks Richard. It got tough for many musicians to make a decent  
living in jazz, at least in New York City, in the 1960s. After Elvis  
and the Folk Singers took hold. Even guys like Coleman Hawkins were  
having a hard time trying to keep their standard of living anywhere  
near what it had been in earlier decades. I posted the below on  
another jazz list about one of my encounters with Coleman Hawkins, who  
by 1961 was scrambling for gigs that were paying him less.

Plus, as good a musician as he was, there were not many black  
musicians in the studio bands back then so he did not have the  
monetary fall back that guys like D'Amico did.

Dixieland did provide a living for several bands at several clubs, but  
it too was declining in both audience and gig money. Most jazz  
musicians that I knew were either supplementing by playing in studio  
bands, or by playing any type of musical gig that came along.

. . . .

Dear Norm:

I fortunate enough to play a couple of gigs with Coleman Hawkins in  
1960-61. The most memorable being when he appeared with the  
Southampton Dixie Racing and Clambake Society Jazz Band on September  
3, 1961 at The Hampton Arts Theater in Westhampton, Long Island, NY. I  
was the clarinet player in that band back then.

He drove100 miles from from NYC, in his brand new Chrysler 300 (or  
Imperial) to be with us that night. He was indeed royalty and I was  
very intimidated to be along side the guy who defined the roll of the  
Tenor Saxophone in jazz. He couldn't have been nicer and played  
beautifully in a band that was New Orleans Jazz oriented during the  
revival in those years. He knew all the tunes, even requesting "The  
Chant". No charts, all head stuff. Great session, which the SRO  
audience loved. Even though we struggled a bit backing him on "Body  
and Soul" which was an audience request, he just played it beautifully  
and complimented us as if we were a studio orchestra.

I asked him about his years with Fletcher Henderson and Louis  
Armstrong and while he spoke about the Henderson Band, deflected all  
questions about Armstrong. I suspect maybe they didn't get along too  
well but that is only an opinion.

I still have the poster for that gig. The admission fee was $1.80  
which included a movie after the concert. I think he was paid $50 or  
maybe $100, and the rest of us got $25. Made me reconsider my budding  
career as a jazz musician vs. getting a day job for if he was  
struggling to earn a living in the 1960s, what chance was there for me  
to earn a good living playing jazz? A year later, I got married,  
stopped playing entirely and devoted myself to a day gig and raising a  
family. Luckily, my wife convinced me to start playing again in the  
1990s when I retired from that day gig.

I remember him in addition to being a GREAT musician as being very  
intelligent and a class guy in every respect. Coleman Hawkins, RIP,  
you were one of the greatest and I was both lucky and fortunate to  
have worked a few gigs with you.

. . . .

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband