[Dixielandjazz] sit ins

[Mike Sarkisian]

There is something to be said positive about sit-ins from my personal experience.

Over the years, I have been invited to perform a few tunes as a sit-in musician with some positive results.

As a soldier on leave in Sydney years ago, Donnie Lewers invited me to sit in at the Texas Tavern.  As a result, I was asked if I visited again to stay at the hotel as a non-paying guest.  

Much later, I was asked to play my banjo ukulele at Scheidel’s Bavaria by the accordionist, after which I was invited to become a member of Gary Seibert’s band.  Throughout his life, Gary would invited musicians – especially young beginners – to feature them in a tune or two.  Many of these youngsters are now professionals and better performers because of Gary’s encouragement.

I was jobless and nearing my last dollar in Denver.  I had visited a “polka bar” a number of times and one night asked if I might sit in.  The leader said “no” but relented when I mentioned that I knew the tunes they had been playing.  He asked me to play two and then leave the stage.  After two, he asked me to stay and hired me and I found I was performing 4 to 5 nights a week even making more money than I had been at my previous full-time job.  

Where I live in Austria, sit-ins are by invitation but are also not frowned upon as it is in northern California.  Much is determined by the setting..the more formal the setting, the less chance there is to be asked.  This holds especially true when there is an entrance fee.  If the public pays to hear a band, they should be respected.  So many people here play and play well, one can always find someone to jam with.

I wonder if Bob Ringwald remembers an occasion he allowed me to sit in for a couple of tunes and I had to leave the stage because the union “enforcer” caught us?

Mike Sarkisian
Wenigzell, Austria