[Dixielandjazz] Support live jazz!

[Marek Boym]

Last night, Donna, yours truly and some friends went to two jazz
shows, one at a regular concert venue, the other - later - at a
bar-restaurant.  We got stuck in traffic and were a bit late for the
first one, but a friend saved us two seats.  Another couple of our
friends also attended.  Th ages of the audience varied - from soldiers
in regular service (somewhere between 18 to 21) to gray heads; at
least, I was not the oldest one there, for a change!  After that show
was over, Donna and I went to the other place, where another friend
had saved a bar stool seat; another bar stool was vacated later.  The
latter served fantastic Israeli boutique beer, which only the three of
us drank.  Called Jack's Winter Ale, it was aged with wooden chips
soaked in Jack Daniels whiskey; at 7.8% abv, a little strong by
American standards (just kidding; that IS strong by any standard, even
if I've had Belgian ales of up to 11% abv).  There, all three of us
were older than the rest of the crowd.
Rather than writing about the music, I've copied what Donna jotted in
her blog last night:

"Thursday night jazz in Tel Aviv

The last song I heard in the car, on a Ruby Braff CD, was “I’m Flying
High” and after an evening brim full of intoxicating swinging music, I
truly am!

Yaakov Hoter’s guitar playing is reason enough to be grateful to be on
this earth, but when joined with his musical soul-mates Oren and Alon
Sagi (the other two thirds of the Swing de Gitanes trio), it’s enough
to bring Gabriel himself down to earth.  Thanks to the insightful
matchmaking of David Mencher, tonight, at the Felicja Blumental Music
Centre,  the trio was joined by violinist Jonathan Miller, who ignited
the trio to soar to even greater heights,  while thoroughly enjoying
himself playing in a manner that winked at Stephane Grappelly, without
actually copying him.  The place was packed.  The audience applauded
enthusiastically for each number and very long, hard and loud to eke
out an encore!

Friends to whom I recommended this concert were very impressed and
very grateful  and I left it truly flying high.

Nevertheless, I went on to a small bar/ restaurant, Casbah, in the
Florentine district of Tel Aviv, to hear a lovely jazz duo, Eli
Preminger on trumpet with Nahum Perefrekovitch on piano (a real
upright piano, by the way).  They really swing and Eli’s occasional
offhand vocals (like the Preservation Hall musicians) are quite
charming!  Nahum’s solo performance of “Kitten on the Keys” is a
treat.  Luckily, one of our friends went ahead and saved us stools by
the bar!  The place was packed and youngsters were partying away in
honor of an anniversary of the venue, with leis,  party hats,
whistles, etc.  I don’t think it would have been possible to enjoy the
music had we not been sitting right next to the musicians, but we were
and the people around us were totally into the music too!"

Here's a link to Donna's blog; in addition to recipes for cookies and
stuff, there are several articles about the various shows she's
attended over the last few year.
http://donnaradin.com/blog/?p=111
Enjoy!