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Oh my! That’s some serious business right there. Veronica Varlow!

One time I was out at dinner. This is when my Grandpa was still with us. A tall, Jayne Mansfield looking waitress ambled by with a tray held up over her head. My good old grandpa followed her with his eyes.

My dear grandmother sees this and starts right in on him. “Manny, you like that, huh? What do you like about that?”

He demurred, “Well . . . she has a nice, hmm, posterior. And a fine, rather, uhm, a fine buxom area.”

“Manny, put out your hand.”

And ever-polite, he stretched out his hand, fully expecting to get slapped on his wrist. “Congratulations. You’re still alive!”

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In a word, new year’s was a total blast. The evening started at home where my darling Rachel was busying herself getting all dolled up and making sure that her and her whole crew would be arriving in time to secure a table. Arriving at Galapagos, we realized she had made the right decision. By the time the doors opened at 8pm there was a line at the door and folks didn’t stop coming until the place was more than full. I believe that Shanghai Mermaid had sold out over 200 tickets in the first few days that they went on sale.

I think the pictures will tell the story of the evening more succinctly and you can see them at the bottom of the post. But I will add a few scenes that helped make the evening a one-of-a-kind memory.

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The Man in The White Fedora
Stefan and I were hanging out people watching between sets and we noticed a cat with a dark pin-stripe suit and a white wide-brimmed fedora cutting a line through the crowd with a petite chocolate curly haired cutie on his arm. “Dang. That guy has got a style.” “Generally, that’s a really wide hat – but that cat pulls it off.” “Yep.”

He get’s closer and it’s Dave Jay! Wow, I played trumpet on his record this fall. Dave had called me about a week before the event asking me if I thought Shanghai Mermaid would be a good place to bring a date. “Well, yeah it is!” About 15 minutes later he calls me up and asks me where he can take some swing dance lessons! “Dave, you’re really going for it” “Well, this girl is really special and you know… I want to impress her.”

So now I’m standing next to Dave and this lovely lady and they are smiling and grinning ear to ear. Dave tells me that he rented a Packard and a chauffeur so he and his girl can travel in style and arrive on the scene with some class! You go Dave Jay!!

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The Hunch
The Blue Vipers of Brooklyn were also on the bill with us. I was really impressed with their trumpet player Sam Hoyt. I have heard him on their albums but I never got a chance to really enjoy hearing live for whole sets at a time. Now, Sam is character. Billy Nemec is character too and the two of them together are just silly mischief waiting to happen.

Back stage, Billy was smiling through his teeth and telling us about, “the next best dance craze. It’s called the Huh-huh-huh. Huh-huh-huh. The Hunch.” Some rockabilly tune he dug up that reminded me of Buddy Holly or Bill Haley and The Comets. Up on stage he introduces the tune and launches into “The Hunch.” Sam starts doing this awesome, stooped-over, storky, hunchy dance. It was great. It was even inspiring. It inspired Stefan and I to run onto the wings and then to do the hunch all the way across the stage behind the band. It was all asses and elbows. Billy was surprised but he couldn’t help laughing at us!

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Counting In The New Year
The highlight for me personally was the fact that I got to be the guy that counted in the New Year for over 300 people! I had a clock on the floor and after Juliette – our gorgeous and wonderful host – thanked and toasted everyone, I counted down the final 10 seconds. We all sang “Auld Lang Syne” together and the whole thing felt so joyous like a blessing. I told this story to Eve Polich the other day and she said, “Jesse, you are the perfect guy for that job.” I think I will agree with her. I am the perfect guy for that job. There are times where it is right and good to reflect and amplify everyone’s hopes, blessings and good wishes. I was a walking, talking, singing smile. I’m kinda still smiling from the experience. Happy New Year everyone! And to the borrow the words of Billy Nemec as he’s counting off another tune: “It’s gonna be great. You’re gonna love it!”

Friday 4/19 – Jesse, Dennis, Stefan, Tuba Joe – Poet’s Walk – 12-3pm

So i decided to get to the poet’s walk a little earlier today as I know that Baby Soda was up in the spot that we often use while we’ve been at the Alice in Wonderland sculpture. As I was walking up from the South I heard someone behind me whistling at a girl. There are certainly plenty of whistle-worthy women but this guy was creeping me out a little. I didn’t want to turn around and look at him to directly but I was trying to discern who he was whistling at and I couldn’t! He kept whistling and getting closer. Turns out it was Tom Abbot, the reeds player for the Blue Vipers. He’s a fun dude with a sharp sense of humor once you get to know him. And of course, he is a great player. Such a smooth sound. I try to get him for any gig where I need the real, super, silky, sax style.

Anyway, we got to chat about the fact that there are basically three very similar groups hitting in the park every day, these days. He seemed to think that it was cool and that when out-of-towners come to the park they will leave with the impression that this kind of music is alive and well. I liked his attitude. Turns out the day previous I ran into Chris Pistorino (bass for the Vipers) on the train ride to the park and he had a similar perspective.

Chris told me a story about Jared from the Baby Soda and his interaction with Ralph, the guy that I dubbed “Master Sax” I warned Jared and Baby Soda not to play right in front of the band shell as that is Master Sax’s territory. Jared of course did it once when Master Sax wasn’t there and saw, accurately, that it is a very good spot. The next time that Baby Soda showed up, Master Sax hadn’t yet arrived. When he did, he took out his horn and faced the band and started blaring. Jared, every the diplomat, said that they should talk and reminded MS that this was a free country and a free space and that they were there first that day. MS would not stop playing no matter what. After a certain interval of time, which no doubt appeared endlessly awkward to Jared and crew, it became clear that there was no stopping this guy and that no one was going to be making any money there. Baby Soda picked up and moved elsewhere.

I got to “our spot” around (mystery time) and at around 11:15 Jared showed up to hold the spot for his crew. He kind of smiled and cordially acknowledged that the early bird does get the worm. He’s such a sweet guy, there was absolutely no rancor about it at all. I like people that have a code and live by it. We wound up seeing them again later after they were through and we all reported on how we had been doing in the last few days. It was all very collegial and I do feel like there is a kind of community of musicians here that are building something unique and strong. Our job is to make our version of this music as personal and as compelling as possible.

To that end, Carl Nelson had agreed to come with a partner and dance with us. He showed up with Evita Arce and Nate. I haven’t seen that pair since my days at the telephone bar. I forgot how much I liked hearing Evita’s big laugh and how much I enjoy her spark-plug energy. As soon as the dancers started their thing we had and instant and very large crowd. Thank you dancers. For one dancer’s perspective please check out Carl’s posting on his blog.

Today’s set-up was a little weird. Vipers were at the fountain. Baby Soda was on the promenade in front of the band shell where Ralph usually is and then we were down on the poet’s walk. That’s three swinging bands within a 5 minute walk. The only trouble is Tin Pan wasn’t really swingin’ today. Oh well, can’t always be on point. I had Marco Gazic come fill in for Clifton and he’s really playing rhythm guitar better and better. The Cangelosie Cards has been schooling him real well. To sit in for Stefan, I invited an Argentinean girl named Mercedes. It was her first time playing in the style and she hadn’t really listened to much of it before last night when I gave her a CD. She’s mostly a free player. Anyway, it felt like it was a big adjustment for her and the music wasn’t really grabbing people’s attention the way it often does. And just barely in ear shot, I could hear Adrian just tearing it up with the Baby Soda crew. Shit, that dude can play some lines! Dang.

I had that “tail between my legs kind of feeling.”

Nice day though…

I feel proud and punch drunk like a prize fighter: smiling but weary, prize money in hand… In the last 48 hours my trumpet has been bobbing and weaving through 8 gigs! This included a monster 5 gigs yesterday. Looking back now, I just want to give some impressions.

A few of the gigs are with a band called the Drumadics and this blog is not the space to discuss such activities but occasionally their name will come up so…

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Jonathan Shorr Gallery – Thursday night – Jared Engle-Bass, Gordon Webster-piano, David Langlois-dishes, Jesse Selengut-trumpet. We’re up on a loft balcony area overlooking exactly none of the gallery…only 5 or 10 people at a time can see us even though there are about 70 people there. An incredible obnoxious, loud drunk girl comes up and says “are you the jazz band – you muther fuckers better be nice to me or I’ll make sure no one tips you.” Wow. We laughed right at her. “That’s it. I hate you. Not him (Gordon), he’s got a nice shirt…” etc… Moments later David asks to move because a drunk with crazy foul breath keeps “encouraging” on him! Drunk follows David, David comes back to where he was…

PS Two-Fifty-Something – Flatlands, Brooklyn – 2 shows – Sean Condron-guitar,banjo Peter Ford-Box Bass, Jesse Selengut-trumpet, flugelhorn. Sean is such a great ham and absolutely wonderful with the kids. We start the show from the back of the hall playing “St. James Infirmary.” Condron starts wailing and crying. He falls down on his knees and is walking up the aisle moaning and carrying on. The kids love it. The music is so sad yet he’s getting them all to laugh and laugh. He’s wearing a tuxedo with tails and a rainbow striped shirt!! What a clown. He did great!

Bathesda Fountain – Friday noon – Blue Vipers of Brooklyn – Billy Nemec-guitar/vocals, Chris Pistorino – Bass, David Langlois-dishes, Jesse Selengut – trumpet. As I’m leaving the schools Billy calls me and invites me to the park. I’m thinking, “I already have four hits today and I can probably go home right now and grab some sleep.” But the Vipers are good at making money! And I am free so… I make it on time and 2 hours later we sold a whole mess of CD’s and its time to go.

Forever 21 – Friday 3pm – Baby Soda – Jared, Adrian (reed man from Australia) – Peter Ford (twice in one day – sweet!!) – David Langlois, and Jesse. Highlites include the woman who flags me over to her Lexus to buy a CD. The bedraggled strung-out punk teen who watches us for a good hour with a vague stare and then does an awesome mosh-out thrash dance in front of the band. Sell out of CD’s Lowlights – the construction noise, and ambulance noise and the dude who threw a few pennies in our case and said that he hates this music.

Times Square – Friday 6pm – Drumadics – We play until we are out of CD’s. It took about two hours. Love the MUNY banner. Some controversy about the dude that wanted to record us with his high end little set up.

Bathesda Fountain – Saturday Noon – Blue Vipers of Brooklyn – Billy, Jesse, Jared on Bass, and Tom Abbot – tenor sax. I got about 9 hours of sleep but was still so frickin’ tired when Billy called me at 9:30am, God bless him. Sure, yeah, whatever, let’s do it! Tom shows up in a tux with a hoodie over it as a disguise. That guy can play some tenor. He was swinging his ass off from the very first beat! Dang! I was not even close to cutting it as poorly as I was feeling. But we got through it and sold out of the cd’s we had in about 50 minutes!!

34th Street – Saturday 6pm – Drumadics – 30 seconds into the first tune a steroidic cop and his German Shepherd shut us down. His dog is barking. The guy is completely not caring that we have a permit. Will calls the Desk Sergeant and k-9 knocko goes away. The whole thing takes 45 minutes but do maintain our right to play in that spot. Will is the guy who will get the officers badge number and talk to the man’s supervisor. “Oh, they know me down at the station. I file complaints all the time.”

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So there’s my tale of three days of gigging here. I finished strong and now today, Sunday I am just doing nothing but watching a lot of TV and eating take-out Thai food. I’m a fortunate dude.