[Dixielandjazz] Slim Gaillard

[Ken Mathieson]

Hi Folks,

The recent thread about Slim jolted my memory about incidents from the gigs I played with him on his visits to Scotland. A Slim gig always had its memorable moments and sometimes these even involved music! 

For instance, on his visit to the Black Bull Jazz Club in Milngavie, near Glasgow, the first set consisted of him talking to a mystified audience, singing a few songs (from memory they were all I Got Rhythm changes) and played a guitar which was not only out of tune with the piano, but was wildly out of tune with itself. At the interval, he left his guitar on the stage and the pianist and I took him to another bar so that the bassist could tune the guitar before the second set. If Slim noticed the difference he never said anything. During the second set, he played Satin Doll on piano. The people at the front tables were in hysterics, but those further back were strangely quiet. The upright piano had its back to the drums so I couldn't see what was going on, but it was his famous back-of-the-hands piano-playing shtick where he played melody and accompaniment palms-up, striking the keys with his finger knuckles. It's a good trick and even more impressive when you consider that the normal finger positions are reversed, so that the left thumb is playing roots and its little finger is playing the top note of the chord. Meanwhile the right thumb has the top line of the melody.

Another gig was for the Glasgow Jazz Festival on an old ferryboat which had been converted into a bar-restaurant-entertainment venue. When Slim arrived for the sound check he refused to go on board, saying he would never go on another ship since his stranding on Crete in his childhood. He was fond of telling this story about being taken by his father, who was a ship's steward, on a trip from USA to the Mediterranean and being separated from his father on the day the ship left for the return voyage. He was allegedly found wandering around the port and was taken in by a local family and looked after until his father returned a year later, but whether any of this was true or not is highly debatable. Anyway, back at the gig  in Glasgow, he was taken by his driver to a riverside pub to take his mind off the whole ship business and never appeared for the sound-check or rehearsal. Meanwhile, back on the ferryboat, the audience had arrived, the band was set-up and ready and, with the clock ticking and no Slim in sight, the audience were told they would get their money back if Slim failed to show. 

Just before the gig was due to hit, Slim appeared on board in very relaxed form and explained to the waiting audience that he didn't like going on ships because "water wasn't his favourite vegetable!" The gig's sponsor was Southern Comfort and, when Slim discovered this, he started hinting to the guy on the Southern Comfort dispense bar that it would be good for his business if he and the band could have a little taste from time to time. Every time a waitress passed the band stand, Slim would remind her that the band and he had a special deal with the bar boss and that our glasses were all empty. The bar boss could only grin and pretend it wasn't hurting. Pretty soon, Slim started hitting on the waitresses about "a bottle for my friends at this table over here" and before long he was looking for drinks on the house for everyone. The bar boss went along with it for a while, but pretty soon it was a pretty chaotic gig and I suspect he got fired for giving the stuff away. But then, I've tasted it and suspect it would be quite hard to give the stuff away.

Happy Days!

Ken