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This is a get-by group of four (old) guys (missing the trumpet, drummer, and trombonist) playing a shoestring-budget gig at a country club in Memphis on Thanksgiving Day.
Barely to my left, you can occasionally catch a glimpse of my son-in-law, sitting behind us (who was nice enough to ride there-and-back with me, to keep me company in the car). https://www.pittsburghsymphony.org/biog ... k-houghton

https://www.facebook.com/dan.wilkinson. ... 830880559/

I'm not absolutely certain regarding everyone's age, but I'd guess pianist - 85, banjo/tenor guitar - 83, every-horn (sax/clarinet/flute/trumpet/trombone) - 75, bloke - "the baby" (plenty old)

I asked the banjo guy (who emails us about jobs) when the last time we played was, and he reported to me that it was back in March - so that's how long the (3+1) E-flat has been hanging on the wall - collecting dust. (yes: really)
Anyway...It would be nice for things to settle back down, so that (pulling it off the wall with more frequency) playing that E-flat 3+1 "Dr. Seusaphone" would become more automatic-ish, again...and I grabbed the "recording" bell, knowing the ceiling height - where we would be seated.

This was our first tune, and these were my first notes on an E-flat...again: since March (I had to poke along behind someone - on my own rural highway, before reaching the freeways - who decided that 40 mph was plenty fast for Thanksgiving Day, so I walked in ~AT~ 12:00 noon.)

I'm sure you can hear that - two or three times - my "left-hand 4th valve technique" failed me (again: rust), and - if you notice, at the very end - this posture of mine: was genuine. Also (obviously: no real "arrangements" nor even lead sheets - as the club provided the stands, on to which the banjo guy set a nice printed out tune list, and the pianist's papers are his own ancient/hand-written LONG tune lists, as he worked from 11 - 3, whereas the rest of us only worked from 12 - 2).

There was also a bit of no-arrangement confusion, as I played the bridge (in the middle of the banjo chorus), assumed that would suffice for a bit of "tuba stuff", and fully expected that the next chorus would be the final "out" chorus...then to realize that they expected ME to play EVEN MORE crap...so not only was I off to a false start, but was also a bit flustered...such as occasionally happens...Admittedly (via the unexpected situation), I never quite got my mind shifted from "playing useful bass lines" to "playing silly tuba solo crap".

Anyway, it's nice to play old tunes with these guys. The horn guy is pretty remarkable. He had some throat cancer a few years ago (removed), then a tumor (removed) below his tongue that required pulling his four front lower teeth. (He JUST RECENTLY got six implants, there, but reports that they are too tall, and "weird".) The 85-year-old pianist grew up in Holland and - as a boy, during WWII - he and his friends played "Chicken" when the German planes would fly low over their streets - spraying 13mm rounds on to the cobblestones. The banjo player doesn't read music, but doesn't need to. Over the last several years, he's been touring with country music guy, Billy Dean (who, I believe, got his break winning one of those talent/reality shows, quite a few years ago).

parting remarks:
- Even though it's no larger than a lunchbox, I sorta wish my buddy would ONLY slightly amplify his F-hole tenor guitar, and NOT his banjo...but (well...) it ain't my gig, so...
- Regarding my own obvious shortcomings, perhaps I doth protest too much. I was/am THANKFUL for the job and the fellowship.
- None of us are 30 - 50 years old (as we were, when we all first eventually met each other - and began working with each other), but I would still love to (somehow...??) be involved in weekly/regular gigs with these guys - PLUS a trumpet, drummer, and trombonist, and even play at a few (do they even exist, much, anymore...??) exclusively '20's-'30's music festivals, and play more fun/involved/more-interesting-chord-changes (OK...and slightly "arranged") old tunes.


This is a fb url, which (as things seem to be happening automatically on THIS site, lately) is showing up as an embedded video (here...for me).

If you're seeing "nuthin" or a non-useful something, here's the facebook url link (public video).
https://www.facebook.com/dan.wilkinson. ... 7830880559

I might actually want to join a club if it had good food and entertainment.

Or I can go to Normandie Farm and not join nothin….

I dunno about other cities, but these clubs are struggling, and (besides golf and tennis) have had to install huge indoor athletic facilities, in order to be able to "hold on" (attracting new/replacement/younger members). As far as Sunday/holiday brunches are concerned, I'm only seeing a few independent younger couples, with most of the other younger people being their with their older family-member/club-members.

Three Valves wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 10:04 am I might actually want to join a club if it had good food and entertainment.

Or I can go to Normandie Farm and not join nothin….

yes, the "clubs" ain't making it these days. When I first moved to Pensacola and after I formed a variety trio, we were doing most every Friday night at either one of the local country clubs or the yacht club. That was back in the late 80s. Now, they are spending the same money on a sequenced duo maybe once a month for a member's social.

Golf is not the sport & networking activity it once was and youngers don't have an interest in continuing the "private club" tradition of generations past.

It's sort of the same way with Mardi Gras krewes around here. Instead of siblings joining the parent's krewe - they just as soon form their own krewe with other younger friends- so we have lots of small new krewes and dying older krewes - none of which has the budget for a decent upscale band.

Chances to play jazz are few and far between - and considered a blessing. I'm doing mostly larger weddings & corporate events with my pop band. We usually play a cocktail hour which consists of vintage jazz favs. I have my sousa along since I use it later on a surprise brass band entrance. The money-making meat of the gig is on my electric bass. I enjoy playing bass (electric & upright) and started playing bass a year or so after I started tuba. Gave up the classical side of things years ago (higher the art form - the less pay!) I do play chamber music with my best friend - a fine pianist.

I love doing it all - I guess I have designed the band around my interests.
Cocktail hour - unplugged and off stage - sousa, resonator guitar, trumpet, sax.
dinner & dance party - electric bass
surprise 2nd line - everybody in the band doubles on something:
female vocalists play washboard
male vocalist - bass drum
trumpet, sax, and sousaphone
set player on the snare
guitar - resonator guitar.

here's what the gig looks like:

.

The city near me - with considerably fewer people - competes quite vigorously with your megacity’s actual arithmetic number, regarding the quantity of those types of shootings.
As blatantly obvious - as would be someone walking around with no pants on, we should probably back away from even mentioning the intentional/orchestrated deterioration and crumbling of civilization, as stating facts about it would be deemed “political“ by some.
——————
back to: “bloke’s musical shortcomings, and obvious lack of recently-invested practice time”

@Tim Jackson
I played in a funk band with Katrina refugees over a decade ago for several years. We could play all sorts of things – as our CD demonstrated – but tended to play a lot of funk at casinos, etc.
It was tons of fun. At first, I brought both my sousaphone (helicon) and bass with my amp, but later on I only brought the helicon and amplifier, as I could do anything on the helicon that I could do on the bass. Something that was really amazing was that - with a whole bunch of guys on the bandstand – we could play tunes that we never played before, and they were actually “tight“. Often, I would be concerned, but would then immediately discover that I had heard fill-in-the-blank song so many times on the radio (though years earlier), that I knew it completely myself.
On New Year’s one year - for three nights – we were hired to do a grand opening of a restaurant over in Knoxville - across the freeway from Lookout Mountain. Without even asking us, the bandleader brought up a guy from New Orleans who sang the entire Memphis/Stax catalog, and billed himself as “The Soulman of New Orleans”.
For the first time (though I had still only ever played a handful of them), I was somewhat comfortable playing the bass lines under a 12 piece band (on tunes that we had never played before, nor rehearsed), because - at least, having grown up in Memphis - my “head” knew all of those songs quite well.
observation/memory:
Hearing FOUR horns harmonize all of those Stax horn licks - that originally were only played by a trumpet (Wayne Jackson) and a tenor sax (Andrew Love) - was actually pretty cool.
Going to places such as the Ozarks or Knoxville was fun, but the band also accepted a few jobs whereby the distance was a bit “out of range” (at least, in my view), such as a huge wedding reception in central Georgia, some local concert series in Michigan, and the NOLA Fest (at the racetrack) for a couple of years in a row.
sorry…too much blather…You triggered quite a few memories.

the big black suitcase, behind me:

Out of that, Jim slides his ready-to-go (with mouthpieces in place) "minimum kit", which includes his tenor, clarinet, flute, and trumpet.
On the front of the handcrafted multi-stand is a nice wooden "THE JIM MANANNAH BAND" sign.

On the downfall of country club gigs

and, another thing (well I'll name two) most folks don't consider...

1. Decline of couple dancing
Dancing was a social pleasure enjoyed by the generation before us. My folks loved to go out dancing on Friday nights. If a band was playing they took advantage and DANCED. This propelled country gigs on thru the 80s. As time passed, this group died out or went to the nursing homes. This is a sad thing for musicians. Some musicians look down on dancers, their love of dancing played a big part in propelling the big band era. Although I always thought ballroom dancers were troublesome mainly because they are always so picky, I now value them because they really appreciate "live music". I enjoy playing the ballroom styles for the wonderful melodies and world rhythms. Tea for Two is now giving way to modern styles as modern ballroom is much more well-rounded these days - but back to the club - Most folks no longer look at "live music" as a valued amenity at the county club these days.

2. Back in the day, let's say up to the mid-80s-early 90s - the country club/yacht club had a general manager & secretary. When I received a request for a band or some other various entertainment it came from the manager or his secretary. In time, clubs began to add an event/entertainment manager. Imagine how this affected the general budget. As this took hold, I noticed the trend and requests growing for cheaper entertainment... the best way for the new position to justify itself. I miss working the private clubs, maintaining friendships with the members, and enjoying the spin-off parties.

I mainly see the decline in entertainment in this area of the music biz as not just the fault of clubs and the fall of couple dancing, but young folks just have different values now. Old folks liked to go to the club every Friday night to socialize with friends and enjoy a little dancing... get the wife out of the house - remember back then the wife was at home most of the time and by Friday was ready to roll.

Nowadays, young folks like to go to different spots for dinner, anything - but please... not a routine dinner at the same-old same-old, maybe even with another couple - certainly not the dull private club setting. Personally, I would probably opp for a microbrewery with some good jazz (hell with dinner).

So, what's it matter anyway, everybody's on their phone for the most part.

This brings me to the closing question of this useless ramble:

After seeing our beautifully set dinner table this thanksgiving I had one question - on a properly set table, which side of the plate does one place the cell phone on? (answer probably depends on which hand you text with) ha!

You know you're old when all you talk about is THE GOOD OLD DAYS!

.

@Tim Jackson

Those are all really good points, and the even more general theme is societal isolation and desocialization… and I don’t mean socialization in the political sense, but having to do with individuals communicating with each other in person.

Over the years I’ve played some dance band gigs with bands that were either just about the same instrumentation as what are referred to as “big bands“, but more often with cut down versions of those that some refer to as “hotel bands“ and - in the south - “hotel bands” picked up a slang name: “mickey bands” (??)

Mostly though, I’ve worked with combos that mostly resemble the instrumentation of “Dixieland bands” - six or seven pieces, one of each type of instrument, and a rhythm section…
…and - most often - no “book” or “charts”,

As you pointed out, this era is fading fast - if not already just about completely gone.

This is mostly a sidebar, but I believe it’s a valid observation and analogy:
…an analogy between graduate student brass quintets and small younger-players jazz combos (also made up of musicians in their early 20s) that play music of the 1920s - 1930s: (…perhaps a bit of 1940s)

When I’ve heard graduate student brass quintets perform standard repertoire, they (often) tend to play it as fast as they can…probably because they can, probably because they think they should, or that it demonstrates their technical prowess. Often, this results in uncomfortable or even cartoonish-sounding performances.

TO YOUR POINT OF COUPLES DANCING….
When I’ve heard younger (players in their 20s) early 20th century small jazz combos perform standard fare (or when youngsters have hired me to work with them) they tend to do the same thing (play everything too fast), which discourages the older people – who hired them - from dancing, and then (duh) they don’t get hired back.

LOL…
…Come to think of it, some orchestra conductors - who are trying to make me a name for themselves, and move up in the in that world - tend to do the same thing. Some of them just love (as just one set of examples) to play Beethoven symphonies way too fast.
Again, perhaps they imagine that this impresses the patrons…but the patrons really don’t know what’s going on, other than things seem a bit frantic, a bit inaccurate, and a bit uninspired…and the musicians themselves certainly are not enamored by this.

Never a dancer, I always went to listen to the band/combo/what have you.

Not the dancing, not the Germans and Italians screeching at one another, even the great American musicals I go to, largely for the music.

I like that sit down at a table niteclub scene where the girl singer and band perform, patter, cut up and yes, Sir will have another rusty nail!!

Those in academia might look askance at me, but I consider "Broadway" (whether or not an opera made it TO Broadway [Street] in NYC) to BE (mostly genuine, rather than mostly affected) "American opera".

Three Valves wrote: ↑Tue Nov 30, 2021 8:22 am Never a dancer, I always went to listen to the band/combo/what have you.

Not the dancing, not the Germans and Italians screeching at one another, even the great American musicals I go to, largely for the music.

I like that sit down at a table niteclub scene where the girl singer and band perform, patter, cut up and yes, Sir will have another rusty nail!!