[Dixielandjazz] Strangers On The Shore

[J. D. Bryce]

A few years ago, around 1995,  I was playing with the Sultans of Swing (two 
saxes, piano, bass, guitar and drums) at the old Sheraton Washington Hotel. 
It's now a Marriott. We were playing for the coctail hour, so we played 
softly, so as not to interfere with the clots of people standing, sitting at 
tables and talking.  Dave Littlefield called "Stranger on the Shore," so I 
placed up my clarinet and we did it fairly close to the 1962 recording, san 
strings of course.

I was changing horn for t he next tune, when a younger guy came out of the 
dimness to where we were standing.  He asked me, "What was that you just 
played?"  I said, "Stranger on the Shore" by Aker Bilk, an English 
clarinetist. It was the number one record for 1962."  He said, "My mother 
used to play that record all the time when I was little. I guess it was one 
of her favorites. You guys did it just like the record. It stirred up a lot 
of memories." Then, he disappeared back into the dimness and the crowd.

I didn't think anything about the interchange, until one of the guys in the 
band asked me, "Do you know who that was?" "No..." I replied. "That was John 
F. Kennedy Junior!"  I hadn't recognized him, but later found a picture 
somewhere, and sure enough, it was him.

Aaaah, memories of my days with Dave Littlefield in Washington.

Jack Bryce