[Dixielandjazz] Guinness

[Steve Voce]

i was at the festival that year. Spike was to be accompanied by John 
Williams (p), Bill Crow (b) and Pete (an English drummer chosen when 
Frank Isola couldn't come). Bad weather meant Spike missed the first 
night, which was played just by the trio. Spike joined them for the 
second night. The musicians were kind enough to let me make video 
recordings of each complete concert, from my seat on the front row of 
the theatre. I still play the tapes regularly. Sadly, when we all flew 
back to London together, Spike left his car unlocked when he dropped 
Bill at his hotel and in those couple of minutes his tenor (which he'd 
prized since 1948) and all the cds he had for sale, were amongst the 
things stolen. Spike had little in the way of funds, so it was a huge blow.
Steve Voce
>
> I only played it once, when I was with Fat Sam's Band, and had the 
> chance to hear two of my drum heroes, Louis Hayes and Buddy Rich, with 
> their bands. The scenes of carnage among the punters made me realise 
> that the Scots, who've always had a reputation of being keen drinkers, 
> were in fact minor league players compared with the Irish, the Finns, 
> Russians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles etc. It's a measure of 
> Guinness's generous patronage of the festival that they had set up a 
> Musicians' Bar in which their stout was available for free to all with 
> a musician's badge - had nobody warned them? - and I have very vague 
> recollections of a conversation with that fine American tenor sax 
> player Spike Robinson which lasted several hours before I had to grab 
> some sleep. Fat Sam's Band had an 8am departure and I remember 
> standing like a zombie in the lobby, ready to leave, when an elevator 
> door opened and Spike staggered out with pint in hand and his tenor 
> still slung round his neck to greet me with the words *..as I was 
> saying....!*
>
> Happy days!
>
> Ken
>
>
>
>
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