Focus on Arbors
To the Editor:
Thank you for featuring Arbors Records above the fold (“Rachel Domber and Arbors: A Great Jazz Legacy Continues,” TST, August 2024). During my 2007 interview with Mat Domber he offered two memorable quotes. “I’m not a musician. I decided I would leave the music to the musicians. Occasionally I might have an opinion, but I don’t know as much about music as Ruby Braff or Kenny Davern or any of these people. But a strange thing started to happen, they would ask me for my opinion. I was always very flattered when Kenny Davern would say, ‘Well which take did you prefer?’ And I’d think to myself, My God, you’re asking me?” And this gem: “Good music is good music. If you label something as Dixieland, people think of Shakey’s Pizza Parlor, of sleeve garters and striped shirts. They forget the musical importance of that style and the difficulty of creating it. It’s a kind of music that’s so easy to play poorly and so difficult to play well.” Mat and Rachel Domber = Jazz Heroes.
Monk Rowe
Fillius Jazz Archive
Hamilton College
Pianists and Piano-Shaped Objects
To the Editor:
In an interesting article in the August 2024 edition, “Starting on Piano (and Finishing Somewhere Else),” Dave Doyle laments that so many musicians begin their studies, and in some cases their careers, as piano players but gravitate to other instruments. Among other reasons, he states, “It’s frequently dropped in favor of other instruments because it’s not portable…” Most certainly true, but as a long retired tuner/technician and occasional player I would add another reason to Dave’s list: acoustic pianos or so often out of tune and/or mechanically rough. Chatting with Adam Swanson after he played a great concert while making the best of an out-of-tune piano, he noted that it is a frequent fact of life for him. Alas, unless they go digital, a definite compromise, the poor piano player is stuck with what the house provides. Could THAT be why Nat Cole became a vocalist?
Glenn Wolfe
La Crosse, WI
In what now seems like a previous lifetime I was a piano technician and I can empathize fully with the above. Editing may be a headache, but it’s not doing a pitch-raise on a square grand! – Ed.
Birthday(s) of Irving Berlin
To the Editor:
The composer Irving Berlin was born on May 11, 1888, not on May 23, 1888, as you say in your Jazz Birthday entry for Berlin (TST, May 2019). This error should be corrected online.
Fabio Bernardi
via email
Irving Berlin was born on the date you mention according to the Julian calendar, which Russia used until 1918. During the Revolution, Russia converted to the Gregorian calendar that most of the rest of the world was using.
From Wikipedia: “In Russia, Gregorian calendar dating came into use in early 1918, when 31 January 1918 was followed by 14 February 1918. (There had been a 13-day difference between Julian calendar and Gregorian calendar dates since 1 March 1900.)”
Hence, Irving Berlin was born in Tyumen, Siberia, on May 11, 1888 (Old Style) which was also May 23, 1888 (New Style). We’re both right. I have corrected the article with that clarification. – Ed.
The Smallest Show on Earth
To the Editor:
Jeff Barnhart’s recent article, “Never Say Nix to Bix” (TST, July 2024) was a delightful read which I enjoyed very much. I was especially pleased to see that he used the photo of my band (Natural Gas Jazz Band) at the Bix Fest where we played before an audience estimated to be 12,000 people—the largest crowd we ever had in over 50 years of performing.
I thought it might be interesting for your readers to learn about the smallest audience we ever had.
It happened in the mid-1990s at a jazz festival in Albany, Oregon, where one of the festival sponsors was the local Ace Hardware country store about five miles south of town. We were assigned a 10 am Sunday gig at the store site. This was too early for the band wives to accompany us, so we were on our own. To our dismay we learned we were to play outside in front of the store. There was no stage, no sound system, no piano, no drums, and worst of all, no audience. Nonetheless we gave it our best.
Fortunately, our drummer had his foot pedal which he hooked up to an empty garbage can for a bass drum and then improvised a snare drum from some available utensils. Our pianist contributed a handclap to augment the rhythm section.
This was a remarkable gig. It was our smallest crowd ever as it consisted of a dog locked in a nearby pickup truck and one gentleman seated on a folding chair in the otherwise empty, oil-stained parking lot. We asked him if he had any requests. He said, “No, I’m really not much of a jazz fan. The only reason I’m here is that this is my break and the boss won’t let us smoke inside.”
Phil Crumley
Natural Gas Jazz Band
