[Dixielandjazz] Deep thoughts

[Bob Romans]

>From Dick Akright!
Warm regards,
Bob Romans,
1617 Lakeshore Dr.,
Lodi, California,95242,
Cell Block 7 Jazz Band,
209-747-1148
www.cellblock7.biz
A religious war is like
children fighting over who
has the strongest imaginary friend.





A jazz trio is playing a gig at an upscale nightclub. They play a classic 
bebop tune at a fleet tempo with grace and ease. Then comes a Wayne Shorter 
composition filled with mysterious harmonies, poignant melodies and daring 
improvisations. Next they present a medley of lesser known Harold Arlen 
songs that only a connoisseur would recognize, again played with elegant 
styling and exquisite taste.

The whole evening has been one dazzling performance after another. Though 
the trio is playing background music and not a formal concert , the audience 
can sense that the musical display they are witnessing is of such a high 
caliber that the musicians should be  allowed to perform as they please 
without interference.

Then a well-dressed middle-aged man approaches the bandstand and asks the 
pianist "Can you play Laura's Theme from Dr. Zhivago?" The pianist tells the 
man that they are jazz musicians and that they usually don't take requests 
of that sort. The man reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out three one 
hundred dollar bills which he lays out on the piano. The pianist looks at 
the bass player and drummer and says "Lara's Theme in G." They play the tune 
in the fashion of the original version, the pianist emulating the Balalaika 
textures with a delicate upper register tremolo. The song obviously does not 
present the same level of difficulty that the trio is accustomed to dealing 
with.

As the pianist plays, he absent-mindedly gazes at the soundboard of his 
ebony Steinway B and wonders about the grain in the wood."How would the 
tonal characteristics be altered if the grain of the soundboard ran 
perpendicular to the strings rather than parallel", he silently asks 
himself.

The bass player amuses himself with an assortment of well-placed 
double-stops and harmonics. He daydreams as he looks at the top of his 
mid-nineteenth century double bass made by French master, Paul Claudot, and 
wonders "How many times has the top been varnished, how did the varnish of 
past years differ fro
                        today's, how would the resonance properties be 
affected if there were no varnish at all?"

                      The drummer gazes down onto the single ply, medium 
weight head of his 1950's vintage black oyster pearl snare drum and thinks 
to himself "One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three."