U.S.S.R – Memorable Events
NGJB met the Leningrad Dixieland in 1987 at the Sacramento Jubilee and they helped immensely to arrange our tour of the USSR in 1989—a great band and wonderful bunch of guys. We were actually hired by the Soviet govt., had a written contact with them, and were paid in rubles. Only days before our tour began, the Berlin Wall came down and during that period of glasnost, the Russian people we met were enthusiastic and full of hope for better things to come in their country. However, there were numerous areas where large anti-American posters were seen. Posted below are a few memories of that historic, two week tour:
♫ One member of an accompanying Soviet film crew told us, “You must learn three things in Russian: ‘Please,’ ‘thank you,’ and ‘it is broken.’”
♫ Despite the rundown and shabby conditions generally observed, every venue we played had a grand piano and good PA system.
♫ It was in the city of Barnaul, Siberia, that the local newspaper proclaimed that Natural Gas JB was the first American jazz band to ever play in Siberia.
♫ Also in Barnaul, at a marketplace, a local man approached our interpreter, pointed at my wife, and said, “That is the first American I have ever seen—and she looks just like us!
Overheard at the Sacramento Jubilee
I heard a band leader tell his audience that he was asked if one of his band me
