[Dixielandjazz] Support live jazz

[Marek Boym]

Last night I went to hear jazz at the flea market square in Jaffa, a
municipality sponsored but unpublicized gig.  Lack of publicity caused
scarcity of audience: at the start of the first set, the public was Jacques
Sany's wife and I,  But good music attracts people, and after a while there
was a small small crowd, mostly young.  Later a couple of my jazz friends
arrived (I met the guy at a jazz gig some time ago, and started a
conversation because he was wearing a New Orleans Jazz Club of Norther
California sweat shirt).
The band included Eli Preminger (trumpet and leader), Jacques Sany
(soprano), Yaacove Hoter (the leader of Swing de Gitanes on guitar), Tal
Kuhn (bass), a washboard player whose name I cannot recall (his surname is
Elkayam) plus my friend Donna sitting in on guitar and anoter sitter-in, an
extremely young ukele player (who also sang a Hebrew version of "On the
Sunny Side of the Street; the Hebrew words had no reference to sun -
something that would have been most inappropriate after several days of
extreme heat).
The reprtoire was standards and some Django Reihardt tunes (on which my
friend Donna felt more at home).
The second set was best attended, with some twenty people and some canines
standing around (the authorities provided chairs only for the band).  As is
the case with street performances, people were coming and going, but most
just stood (or sat on teh floor); the uke player aternated between playing
and dancing with a young girl.
For the last set, the audience was a huge crowd of four: Jacques' wife,
yours truly, a lady who heard music and came down from her flat (she
arrived during the first set, and stayed to the end) and a young lady who
was there for the first set and re-emerged for the last one.
Audience or not, the band gave its all and played extremely well.
A very nice evening.
Tonight I went to a guitar jam session at The Dancing Camel, a Tel-Aviv
minibrewery pub.  A jam session is like a musical kaleidoscope,  with
people joining and leaving.  Well, not really - most of those who were
there when I arrived stayed to the end.  {laying varied from tune to tune,
but was mostly very good and the atmosphere was congenial.  The audience
consisted mostly of friends a family members of the players, but seemed to
be enjoying it very much.
When I arrived, there waere lots of guitars, two ukeleles, an American
mandoline and a violin.  Later more guitarists arrived, and a young girl
violinist joined in.
The repertoire mostly consisted of tunes associated with Django  Reinhardt
(it was a guitar get together, after all) and jazz stndards.  Most of the
players were there for the previous (and the first) monthly get together,
which I mentioned on the list then.  I was impressed with the age range of
participants - from early twenties (the violinist is a regular soldier,
which places him in the 18-21 age bracket; the girl violinist is probably
of the same age) to late sixties, all sharing love of OKOM.  Some of th
guitar players (including one ukelele player) meet weekly (Monday) in
smebody's house in Mevasseret Zion near Jerusalem.  Quite a few are Yaacov
Hoter's students.  One plays with Swing de Gitanes and another Gypsy Swing
group, La Moustache; on of the violinists also plays with the latter.
OK, this was not a paid gig for professionals, only a friendly get
together.  The players seemd to enjoy playing and singing together (DAvid
Mencher is a pretty good singer), wich was great!
Cheers