[Dixielandjazz] Trad Jazz (British) and the piano

[Louis Lince]

I'll verify that story Jerry. I was there, both videoing and sitting in. 
Happy times!

best

Louis

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jerry Brown" <jazz1jerry at btinternet.com>
To: <louislince at neworleansmusic.demon.co.uk>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 23, 2014 12:20 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Trad Jazz (British) and the piano


>A reverse story on bad pianos. A number of years ago Art Hodes and Wild 
>Bill Davison were playing a venue here in Norwich. The piano had been tuned 
>a couple of days before but looked as though it had been through several 
>world wars. Battered to put it mildly and well marked with many beer glass 
>rings. Before the gig and whilst the place was still empty Art looked very 
>worried but walked over sat down, lifted the lid and started to play. After 
>a few moments he put the lid down, got over and walked back towards us 
>still looking concerned. Thankfully his first words were, "that's about the 
>best piano I have played all tour." Relief all round! During the evening he 
>even played duets with his wife.
>
> Jerry
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
>> On 21 Feb 2014, at 22:58, "Ken Mathieson" <ken at kenmath.free-online.co.uk> 
>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I've never been a fan of pianoless rhythm sections, but in the days 
>> before electric pianos, a trad jazz gig was always a lottery given the 
>> shocking state of the majority of pianos encountered in pubs and clubs. 
>> One disastrous piano gig above all sticks in my mind: it was a rugby club 
>> dance and the piano was BAD. In the main it was a semi-tone out, but of 
>> course not consistently so across the 88 keys. Our pianist tried bravely 
>> to play everything a semi-tone different from normal, but eventually 
>> retired to the bar at the first interval a defeated man.
>>
>> There he had a heated conversation with the organiser, who asked him if 
>> the piano just needed a "bit of tuning or a full overhaul." The pianist's 
>> reply was "What it needs is a (expletive deleted) Viking Funeral!"
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Ken
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