[Dixielandjazz] Support live jazz

[Marek Boym]

On the 11th I went to the monthly guitar jam session at the Dancing Camel
brew pub.  Very few participants turned up - Israelis don't tend to run
around in stormy weather.  So there were just ttwo guitarists, one ukelele
player who also sings, and one violinist.  The session went very nicely,
though, swinging hard.  The youthful violin player Omer Asano, only a short
time out of the army, is really oustanding!  Eventually, another
participant came - a singer who brought her guitar.  She didn't play, only
sang, but Omer took advantage of the guitar and showed his ability on that
instrument as well.  Beer was good, although I missed Leche del Diablo,
wheat beer with hot chili, which is not brewed in winter.
Last Wednesday, two friends and I went to hear the Isradixie Band in Old
Jaffa.  It was another rainy and very windy day, so we were pleasantly
surprised to see that the room was quite full.
That band is the most professional jazz band in Israel and swings like
hell!  Good solos abounded, small wonder considering the calbre of its
members the trumpeter Avram Felder ("Agashkin," as he is known in Russian
speaking circles), the soprano player Jacques Sany or the clarinet and
tenor playing Merton Cahm (the latter two are both octogenarians).  The
regular singer Paul Moore was absent, but vocals were aptly handled by
Jacues (in French) and Nissim Yemini, another veteran of the Israeli jazz
scene.  One vocal was by a new repatriant from Russia,  True, the band felt
talkative, and we heard some nice stories and anecdotes, very funny for
Hebrew speakers, but resented by our non-Hebrew speaker friend, and
probably by the two guests who had not yet learnt the language.  But they
reflected the band's good mood, very conspicuous in its playing that
night.  And it sounded great!
Cheers