four decades ago photographic flashback

[bloke]

I'm told that these were taken by a Californian (who sent them to a colleague of mine...the - now: well-into-his-80's banjo/guitar-player in these pictures - who sent them to me) at the 1984 Sacramento Dixieland Jubilee.

For those of you who remember those, they were incredibly highly attended, and (including festival-paid band transportation/air fare/honoraria, shirt sales, button sales, l.p. sales, and cassette sales - etc.) more popular bands (placed at larger venues during some of the better times) could "come out" quite well.

This was during (what I refer to as) "Dixieland Revival #2" (as the first one occurred from approximately the early-mid 1950's through the later 1960's - agreed?).

These pictures (again, only first seen by me a few moments ago) make me smile.

The early 70's Fender Jazz Bass (seen in one picture) is the one that I'm offering for sale. When on tour, I'd much rather use a reliable and perfect-neck bass guitar than some (surely junk/trash) upright (and with no on-board amplification).

Amazingly, all but the drummer are still alive, and still playing jazz music.
I know that most of you have heard cuts from studio recordings, but (though those were recorded with all of us playing at the same time in the same studio, and with no edits) these pictures may make things more "real" (??).



not 7-up. (probably straight bourbon ) Band drinks were FREE - when actually playing...and as many "another please"s as requested.





These old paid-admission buttons (which we tended to wear on our front pants pockets), have seemed to have become semi-collectable.



bloke "I was sent several more of these pictures, but aren't these plenty?"

[Three Valves]

That did it…

I’m watching more Magnum PI reruns tonight no matter what my Old Lady says!

80s.

[bloke]

I don't know if any of the rest of you who play bass with jazz groups ever play games to try to keep yourself alert when you're sort of exhausted due to what you did earlier in the day, but those festivals were fairly stressful. Particularly on the first days - which were flight days (leave Memphis @ 6 A.M., fly to two time zones earlier, arrive at Sacramento around 10 A.M., ground transportation to "Old Sac", hit the ground running - ie. first set - by-or-before noon...either managing to check into the hotel prior to the first set or not) - they jammed four sets into the first day (each time) for us that ended very late and was very hectic.

One of the things that I would do - when I caught myself zombieing out (often at some outdoor venue when it was dusk, and we had just quickly downed some sort of meal) would be too absolutely prevent myself from playing two repeated notes in a row in a walking bass line, and - if I needed even more of a mental wake up - I would prohibit myself from playing the same note twice in a measure or even in two measures and - occasionally - even in four measures. Those sort of little private musical games kept me thinking and awake. Curiously, the late night sets were okay, as - back then - I was sort of a night owl, and the time change defined those 10 or even 10:30 p.m. sets as more like 8 or 8:30 p.m.. I believe the first day sets that were more like 7:00 p.m. Pacific (being sort of like Central Time dinner hour jobs) were the ones that were rough.

...and - of course - there were exceptions - such as when a soloist would "get into" playing some sort of riff or what-have-you.

[York-aholic]

Yeah, but what mouthpiece did you use?

[bloke]

Yeah, but what mouthpiece did you use?

Truth be told, it was what later became the Solo cup with a #1 (33+mm) rim and a #2 back-bore.

Straight responses to jokes suck, don't they?

[Three Valves]

The 80s didn’t end well for me.

But it was still great fun while it lasted!

All of a sudden, bloke has gone Bud Abbott on us!

[bloke]

The 80s didn’t end well for me.

But it was still great fun while it lasted!

All of a sudden, bloke has gone Bud Abbott on us!

That was the last decade that I would have possibly considered leaving Mrs bloke in charge of the store all by herself in Memphis, Tennessee. An election was stolen at 3:00 in the morning in 1991 (with a US congressman messing around inside the election commission office, no less) that changed the city forever.

With absolutely no knowledge nor skill of the real estate market but knowing what was about to happen, somehow we managed to sell our house and our commercial building just in front of the 2008 real estate bubble burst, and took that money in purchased blokeplace just after it burst...not smart...lucky.

... I don't believe either buyer ended up doing well with either of those properties.

[MiBrassFS]

Bouncing baby bloke! Dig you!

[bloke]

I usually didn't stare at the fingerboard or fretboard, but - if you noticed - it appears as though I was playing something like a G or an A (or something ??) on the G string (surely some exciting "out chorus", because I didn't typically play up there) and probably needed to look at what I was doing.

I remember a lot about dragging equipment around and stuff like that, and having been sent these pictures reminded me of the good parts of those festivals. I think the craziest one was when Henry Cuesta contracted our rhythm section to play behind him at his sets a year after he sat in with us (when he happened by) and really enjoyed playing with us. We (rhythm secrion) made a good bit more money, but three of us were doing some insane double duty and zoting all over the place.
He only wanted the electric bass, so at least our own band was really nice and got my tuba to our own band's next venues. That was at one of the San Diego festivals. I believe I've mentioned before about his impressive ability to hold liquor, and having the Lennon sisters (duh: Welk buddies) show up at his hotel room after the first night of that stuff - as he invited me there for drinks after we ate dinner after his last set. After seeing how much he could absorb, I quit drinking with him after the second drink. (I almost never drank very much alcohol at all, and still hardly drink - though we try to keep a little bit of really good scotch here, along with some other things for guests - which I don't drink at all. (Those free drinks for the band - which were only a fringe benefit at the Sacramento festival - were probably the most drinking I would do all year, and there was never more time to drink more than one of those in a fifty-five minutes set.)

I think Mr. Questa liked our rhythm section because we kept really good time, Rene (Koopman - now over 90 and still playing) played really nice things on the piano, and my bass lines rarely stepped on Rene's piano playing. (I would listen to what he was doing and - ok: usually - either trace his bass lines with two beat or walk across his bass lines with four beat...or visa-versa: he would listen to mine.) It was just the three of us: piano/bass/drums for Mr. Questa, and Dan - the banjo guy - was so nice that he was the one that usually took care of lugging my tuba. Also, I believe he liked using us because Hitch's (Gardner Hitchcock) drum playing was understated yet really swung...and Questa was definitely a swing player - not at all one of those types of players who tried to emulate how the music of the 20s and 30s was actually played, back then.

[bloke]

Here's a picture of Rene (now: 91 years old) taken TODAY - 8/31/24 playing in the lobby of Memphis' Peabody Hotel.




As a schoolboy in Holland during WWII, he and his friends would have contests - seeing who could come the closest to the bullet line, when the luftwaffe would strafe the cobblestone streets with 13mm machine gun rounds.