[Dixielandjazz] Support live jazz

[Marek Boym]

Hello folks,
My long silence should not be misconstrued to mean that there are no jazz
events in Israel, it's just that with the war (I'm trying to help my
country by circulating videos and other information to contravene the
simple head count perpetuated by the "objective media"), work and the
granddaughters have kept me rather busy, too busy to write but not to
listen.
On Saturday night(the 19th), some friends and I went to hear  Eli and the
Chocolate Factory with the pianist Nachum Perefrikovich.  The reprtoire was
varied; although it consisted mainly of swing and trad standards, the band
played some not overplayed songs.  The atmpsphere was great, the audience,
albeit not very big, was mainly young (except for our group - all young),
music - hot and swinging, and there were some dancers. Since the venue was
vegetarian, I had nothing to eat there, but the beer (from the Jerusalem
microbrewery was great).  One snag: they had an electric piano.  electric
pianos can be set to sound like other instruments, and on one number Nachum
made it sound like an electric organ - a reason to avoid the instrument.
Two days later, the Chocolate FActory, featuring the octogenerian Jacques
Sany on soprano sax played at the Jaffa bar Hoodna.  Surprisingly, they had
Nachum again, this time - on an upright.  Wow!  What a difference!  In
addition, they had the Jerusalem  drummer Yair Saltzman instead of the
regular washboard.  This time, the audience was quite large, with many
swing dancers.  OK, they are older now - some might have already reached
their thirties, but still much younger than the usual American crowd.
Again, the seven of us graetly raised the average, even if some were under
60.  The repertoire, as usual, consisted of standards, even included some
warhorses, but also many overplayed numbers.  When did you last hear
"Georgia Bo Bo" live. and not as a part of an Armstrong tribute?  The band
sounded better that I've ever heard it before!  In fact, it was one of the
best performances I've heard in the last few years, and since 2012 I
attended several excellent and prestigious jazz festival featuring some
leading lights of contemporary jazz, and so did some of my friends.  They,
too, agree with me as to its being one of the best shows they have recently
heard.  just one of those nights when everything went just right!
I only wish they'd start earlier: the Saturday gig started around 9:30 PM,
still a reasonable hour, but the Monday one started 11:30 PM, and the next
one - next Sunday - is scheduled for 11PM.
But this is a minor quibble; the main thing is that they take place.
Which reminds me that the forthcoming series of jazz concerts at the Tel-
Aviv Museum, "Hot Jazz." is really scheduled to feature hot jazz this year,
unlike in previous years when we were lucky to have even one OKOM event.
The first concert will be Swing de Gitanes with a Hungarian Gypsy swing
violinist, the next one - Lilian Boutte, then we'll have Bria Skornberg and
the Swiss boogie woogie master Sylvain Zang.  Two events are non-OKOM, but
we shouldn't complain.  I'm certainly planning to schedule my travels so
they would not clash with those concerts.
Cheers