It Pays to Advertise

Audience Rapport Friday Harbor, WA is a lovely village on the waterfront in the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound. NGJB was playing a festival afternoon concert at an outdoor venue overlooking the harbor which was busy with sailboats and other craft. It was a perfect day—warm and sunny weather, cloudless blue skies, no wind, and an outstanding picturesque view. Following our first number of the set someone in the audience yelled out the question, “Have you ever played in a more beautiful setting?” Dave Lewis, the Gas’s tuba player, yelled back, “What key is it in?” It Pays to Advertise In 1989, our interpreter in Yaroslavl, U.S.S.R. repeatedly told us of the “sacred beer” which was so vary famous in that city. What a disappointment it was to find that his Russian accent made the word bear sound like beer to our thirsty band. We played two concerts in Yaroslavl with a local jazz band that was led by the loudest drummer I had ever heard (remember that this was before the day of rock & roll). As was our custom, we gave the local musicians various souvenirs of California and of the NGJB. What a surprise it was to hear ten years later from an American tourist who had been on a cruise of the Volga river that a bumper sticker proclaiming "NATURAL GAS JAZZ BAND" was spotted on the trombone case of a musician playing at the Volga River dockside in Yaroslavl—one of our