UNFORTUNATELY.....

...golf is not the only thing that I can't play anymore.

That's an interesting crew. Two of most detested instruments are banjo and accordion although I admit the guy Bela Fleck is damn good on his electric banjo and there's a Celtic punk woman from Canada who plays a mean accordion. I used to play alto and baritone and started on electric organ when I was 8. Nowadays, its just me and a few guitars in my basement. I don't hear too good anymore so I have to plug them in. I've learned the max volume for each amp and guitar that my wife will generally tolerate at different times of the day. Jump jazz and blues is good music. I noticed that one of your town's really good musicians died recently. J. Geils. I liked him when he played with Duke doing the old stuff from the 40's and 50's.

"Krewe" is pronounced like "crew" but isn't a hip hop spelling of same. A krewe is an organization that sponsors a parade or an entrant in a parade.

"Storyville" was the historic red light district in New Orleans where jazz was arguably born.

The band shifted into NOLA mode with the doubling.

Cornets instead of trumpets.
Clarinet instead of saxophone (although we always had bari).
Sometimes tuba (CC tuba, not BBb sousaphone) instead of upright string bass or Fender bass.
Banjo and fiddle instead of guitars.
Accordion instead of organ.
Lots of two-handed snare with kick drum and hi hats--no toms, ride, or crash in "second line" mode.

In every mode of play, however--Stax, jump blues, trad jazz (NEVER call it Dixieland)--it was always a piano-driven band. Vince was an awesome pianist almost to the day he died. Decent pipes--the ladies helped him out there--but fabulous fingers.

Technology came late in the game, unfortunately. The Rhodes and Wurlitzer electrics sucked. The Vox and Farfisa organs sucked. We had to pray that there would be a real Steinway and Hammond at the venue so we wouldn't have to unpack them. By the time the modern digital keyboards came, most of us were mired with families and day jobs with benefits. It was winding down.

My first music lessons were taught to me by an old lady with a huge Hammond organ. That didn't take because I snowed her into believing I was learning to read music as well as play the keys. I watched her play a piece and put together her finger positions with the sounds. To compound the problem, my mother would help me practice pieces and I would repeat the "watch her play and match the keys with the tones" error. I totally freaked out at the first recital when I was given a piece to play that I had not seen before and could not sight read. Big bummer for an eight year old. A year later I started Clarinet and learned to read and got along with both alto and baritone pretty well. I am still a sucker for a Hammond B-3.

The Hammond B3 softly gurgling behind blues piano is one of the most seductive sounds in all of music.

So you went from keyboards to reeds to guitar (in your old age), Mongrel. Very impressive. Music, especially instrumental music, can be a mental health enhancer. Even metal and hip hop seem to soothe some souls, although I don't know the fuck how.

The Eb saxes and the tenor are fabulous instruments, but unless Sidney Bechet comes back to life and plays Si Tu Vois Ma Mere, soprano doesn't do it for me. I even heard 'Trane play it in Boston back in 65, I think it was, and all I wanted him to do was pick up his big horn again. I like Kenny G almost as much as I like the Freedom Caucus in the House of Reps. The wooden clarinet sounds a hell of a lot less like fingernails on a blackboard. Why is that so rarely played today?

About five years ago or so, Clapton and Wynton put something together. Clarinet is the only reed on the album, but what an album! You should check it out. Maybe some tracks are on You Tube.

I only play my electric guitars now. Ironically, an amplified guitar is the only instrument I can play quietly. I like a few time-based effects like reverb, echo and delay and find it soothing.

One of my favorite CDs right now for reading is a 1946 recording entitled "Young Miles" consisting of various groups featuring Miles Davis and Charlie Parker with a guy who did his best to copy Charlie Christian. I saw Coltrane in a dive club in Paris in 1965 but was too drunk to remember much. He has always been a favorite and I regret not taking up the tenor in my teens. I guess it was because that horn was not in my father's arsenal. The soprano was always annoying to me except for a guy who played with John McLaughlin on his '60's recording "Extrapolation".