[Dixielandjazz] food

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

I gather that the first enthusiasts for proper Indian curries  in Britain were OKOM musicians in the 1950s otherwise foodless after dance-hall gigs in the north of England, a fact made much of in a documentary recently shown again on British TV.

There were also the legendary sandwiches Ronnie Scott's staff put out on tables because available food was a precondition of his club's keeping the hours it did according to the then licensing laws. These sandwiches could have been labelled FOR YOUR EYES ONLY as addressed to people checking on legality, and they perhaps were a talking point when a stranger reached out with a view to putting one in his mouth. 

I did once escort Harry Sweets Edison after a day's gigging to a "fish and chip joint" in the absence of proper provision. He had no idea where to find one. He also offered to feed me!

I've also attended gigs where the management were generous but the staff had to be stopped from laying out a feed for an American visitor during his intermission. I can visualise the pianist of a supporting trio announce that the visitor will now eat a steak, and the trio play as the man dines, applauded as he wipes his mouth afterward. 

Alas there is no need to be a jazz musician to be taken for granted when part of an event. 

I'm sure there are plenty of tales from British jazzmen of the 1950s, in memoirs by Humphrey Lyttelton, George Melly et al. A few choice items from that repertoire, slipped in among announcements between numbers, could I suppose give a bandleader the secure feeling that he wasn't going to be engaged again?

bon appetit! and may you have something to exercise it on!
Robert R. Calder