[Tradjazz] New Member + Eddie Condon

[Bruce McNichols]

Hey Steve, 

As I read your message, I was planning my reply, which was gonna remind you that we had played together. Then, of course, you covered that point. Did I say "Play where the kids are." I don't remember saying that, but I like it, I like it! 

During our run of playing school assembly programs (in the 1970's) we found out first hand, that kids, including very young ones, and teen-agers, LOVE our music. This was especially evident with the pre-teens. The fact is, we got 'em before they found out that they weren't supposed to like it. You know - peer pressure and all that. 

I'm with you, on the subject of "Did Condon contribute to Bix's death?" Right on. I guess most of us old-time music players (and maybe all music players) worked in many a joint. I recall getting paid $12 a night, and the ever-present Free Beer for the band. We all drank on the gig, in those days. In one joint, where we did 3 nights a week for two years, the beer was so flat, and warm, that we began bringing in our own bottles of booze and mixers. We even brought potato chips to the gig. We'd get glasses and a pitcher of ice, and we were all set. 

  I too admired Condon's straight-forward playing. Indeed, I consider that attention to the rhythm section, to be much more important than flashy (busy) playing. Sorry to say, there's plenty of that (flashy) playing, going around.
I remember one night (in the 60's) when the wonderful piano man Buddy Blacklock, said that he had decided not to drink on the gig. I was taken aback. He said that the idea of working most nights of the week, and drinking every night, just wasn't such a good idea. 

It was a few years later, when I decided to cut down. I clearly recall the Friday/Saturday night gig we had at the time. I came up with the concept of not having a drink until the start of the second set. It seemed to work out quite well. The next night I did it again, only that time, when the second set was about to begin, I decided to hold off for yet another set. I never did have a drink that night (or on any other gigs). From then on, to my amazement, the drive home seemed to take a lot less time. 

I remember a steady Sunday we had for years, up around Brewster, NY. It was an hour and fifteen minutes from where I lived. At that time, I thought that that it was a long ride. These days, it's amongst the shorter drives, to a gig. That was a revelation, after I stopped drinking on gigs. The ride home was a snap, when previously it had been a struggle to keep my eyes open, and to keep on the road. And that was in the days before air bags, or even seat-belts. Sheesh! 

  In the 1980's I heard about a new car that advertised: "Driver's Side Air Bag - and - Passenger Side Get-Well Card."
One by one, the guys in my band cut out drinking on the gig. My main impetus wasn't health or even safety. As a band leader, I felt that I had to keep my wits about me, in order to run a good gig (not to mention that as a player, I feel that I need all the help I can get). 

  The passion that most of us have for our music, is an amazing and wonderful thing. It's no wonder that drinking while playing is such an attractive and seductive concept. Happily, many of us have come to the realization that the music is such an aphrodisiac in and of itself, that it really doesn't require a mind-altering substance, to make it good.
I feel for anyone who doesn't play an instrument. Not infrequently we'll meet audience member who laments not knowing how to play. We always say "So learn how." and they always say something like "It's too late." Baloney! It's never too late. 

  I am of the sincere opinion that learning how to play an instrument is the easy part. It's just a matter of learning the mechanics. I say that learning music is the hard part. That's the thing that requires the effort and the study. Of course, it's easier for some than for others. {I'm one of the "others."}
~~~~ 

Steve, I love hearing about your early days, playing and meeting the greats of the day. I know that we have lots of players and buffs, on this list and listening to Radio OKOM (www.okom.com). 

  LET'S HEAR FROM ALL OF YOU.
McN



      To: <TradJazz at list.okom.com>  
      Subject: [Tradjazz] New Member + Eddie Condon  
      Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 01:19:39 -0400  
      From: Steve Barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>   
     
My name is Steve Barbone and I play clarinet in several jazz bands in the
Philadelphia area, including my own, "Barbone Street". Just back from a gig.
http://www.barbonestreet.com

Loved the Condon thread and wish to amplify Bill Barnes' remarks about him.
Before I do that, here is some background. I met Bill in the early 1950s
when we were room mates at Duke University. He and pianist Frank Freeman
started a Dixieland Band there, The Symphonic Six, and I was the
clarinetist. I got so enmeshed in music, booze and jazz that I forgot my
schoolwork, flunked out, joined the Army.

Then after my tour of duty, gigged with Bill in the Southampton Dixie Racing
& Clambake Society Jazz Band (and freelanced in NYC) from roughly 1956 to
1962. Played with all sorts of great players in the NY area from 1949 to
1962, including Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge, Pee Wee Erwin, and others as
well as Sydney Bechet in Paris, and a few sit ins with Thelonious Monk,
etc., etc. Knew or met many jazz legends through neighbor Hank D'Amico who
played clarinet with Red Norvo and Mildred Bailey, in the 1930s, then after
WW2 recorded with Louis Armstrong and on his own, in addition to becoming a
studio musician to earn a living. He introduced me to Omer Simeon, Charlie
Parker, Sidney Bechet and a whole host of jazz musicians.

But back to Condon whom both Bill Barnes and I met. I agree that he was not
a great musician in the sense of Eddie Lang, George Barnes, or more recently
Bucky Pizzarelli. But then, neither was Basie's Freddie Green. Yet both
should be revered because they kept good time. That in itself is a great
accomplishment and frees up the other musicians to swing by altering their
time, yet able to stay rock solid and relax around that steady pulse. So,
musicians loved playing with Freddie Green, or Eddie Condon.

Condon's real genius was in promoting the music and putting together some
absolutely wonderful bands. When I went to Condon's on West 3rd as a
teenager, it was not to hear "art" music. It was to soak up the slightly
wicked ambience of some hard drinking musicians in a "joint".

And to impress my dates because on any given night there, you might run
across the working press, who loved Eddie, or actors like Kirk Douglas who
spent many a night there preparing himself for his role in "Young Man With A
Horn", which we knew was going to be loosely based on Bix's life. (very
loosely as it turned out). Yep, actors, writers, musicians, politicians,
hookers, and a whole host of other assorted scoundrels were there because of
Eddie Condon who had a magical gift for getting press coverage, making
wisecracks, providing good copy and oh yes, fronting a band that was playing
the hottest music on the planet. Much hotter than anything you hear on
record, you had to be there. How could anyone resist that lure?

Was he, or anyone else somehow responsible for leading Bix astray? Come on,
where is all that early training we got from our parents about "personal
responsibility"? Nobody was responsible for Bix, except Bix himself. He had
personal demons from the very first moment he realized his father rejected
him. And throughout his short life, was unable to conquer those demons.

Yes, he was proud to be in Whiteman's Band, but so to did the lead sheets
have "Wake up Bix" written on them a couple of measures before his solo
parts were to be played, because he hadn't slept, and/or was drunk. They
were a cue for the guy next to him to jab him.

If Condon, or anyone else was responsible for Bix's failures, then Bill
Barnes was responsible for my failure at Duke because he led me into that
Dixieland band there. Fact is, neither Bix, nor I (at that time) had learned
how to say no. I subsequently did, Bix never did and it killed him.

Did Condon have vacant eyes? Yes, but who wouldn't after 40 years of playing
OKOM six nights a week from 9 PM to 3 AM. Especially after the fans kept
requesting the same numbers over and over? Who wouldn't become a jazz
zombie? Happened to me while attending college in NYC and playing only 4
nights a week for three years. How many times must you resist the impulse to
choke the blue hair who requested "I Can't Get Started" and then comes back
to tell you: "That didn't sound like Bunny Berrigan." Or when you play
 "If I
Were a Bell", sniffs and says to you; "I didn't know that was jazz." in
 a
most disapproving manner adding, "play Muscrat Ramble, that's jazz".

Is it any wonder that many, if not most, if not all, NYC OKOM jazz musicians
of any stature in the 1950s were heavy drinkers, drunks, or smoked dope? I
know I joined that group myself for a very short time, before realizing that
I needed to get my College and Law School degrees.

Anyhow, hello Bruce McN. I still remember the advice you gave me 12 years
ago when I started to play again after a 30 year layoff. At an Applebees on
Staten Island (with Pete Pepke) and I sat in. We were discussing how to get
the young people turned on to Dixieland. You said simply; PLAY WHERE THE
KIDS ARE." Best musical advice I ever heard. I adopted it as my mantra.

That's what I've been doing these past 15 years and it works. (225 gigs last
year in Dixieland format, in my local area) But that's a story for another
post.

Young people? They love this music. Trouble is they never get to hear it
except in those areas where bands like mine court them.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone




     


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