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Well, what can I say. I knew that there was no guarantee we’d be on but the fact that they filmed us for 45 minutes made me feel like they would certainly use something. Oh well. A reminder to only talk about things if they are 100% confirmed. Sorry if I got you excited and then let down. That’s how I feel too.

Yesterday we took to the trains again playing at Penn Station over in Long Island Railroad land. Stefan, Rob, and I were joined by Jared Engle from Baby Soda on the banjo. He did a really good job. We actually had a good time and did pretty well with the crowds there. I gave the boys a wierd kind of “pep talk” before we started that actually got our heads on straight for the gig. “OK, let’s not try to hard. Take it easy. No need to push.” People come and go based on when their train is posted so the idea of building a flow or a set or even maintaining people’s attention for a whole tune is out of play. Best for us, psychologically, to just do our thing in an easy relaxed manner. It totally worked to our advantage and we won the day.

Moto tonight… Come on by – I found this post about their date cake.

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.

Central Park – 4/10/08 – Poet’s Walk – Dennis Lichtman, Banjo – Jesse Selengut, trumpet – Stefan Zeniuk, reeds – Cassidy Holden, Bass

A very good hit. A truly beautiful Thursday. We did well. Big crowds. Great to hear Dennis on the Tenor banjo. He’s an excellent musician with great precision and an affinity for playing all kinds of quotes inside his solos. I had only heard play clarinet every Tuesday at Mona’s but I knew that his mandolin skills would carry over onto banjo. He had a great time too.

Fun to be outdoors. I brought 50spf sunscreen and Stefan still got burnt!

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Next stop the old Shanghai Mermaid theater where we were performing in Veronica Varlow’s music video. Definitely a fun scene… Like all things film there is a hurry-up and wait element and for a large part of the time the main Tin Pan cats (Joe, Clifton, Stefan, and myself) were just hanging out and cracking jokes. At one point we were asked to sit in chairs and watch Veronica dance as extras. Clifton needed to know what his “motivation” was. It was all very funny. At one point I caught her bra that she tossed into the crowd.

When the time comes I will post the video that came out of this shoot. My hope is to make a full music video of it to post here and add to our press kit etc…

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Final stop of the night was over at Barbes with Baby Soda. It was my first time playing there and I enjoyed it a bit. It was a very small room but it was full with avid listeners. Having been playing so much on the street it is a thrill to play for a listening room that doesn’t leave after just a few tunes. Also, acoustically we didn’t have to push as hard. A nice tin ceiling in their made the sound kind of great. Peter Ford on box-bass, Jared Engle on banjo, David Langlois on dishes, Adrian Cunningham on reeds, and yours truly on the horn and vocals.

Clifton and Cassidya happened to be in the audience and that was a treat too. I have no poker face when I’m on stage. If something moves me, I show it. If something is lame I make a surly face. Anyway, it was fun seeing Clifton and Cass who both know the music so well and their reactions. For the most part the exactly amplified and mirrored mine. It’s good to know, sometimes that the relative value I place on things has some kind of corroboration from my peers.

Mostly we are all moved Adrian. Adrian can play some clarinet. Turns out that that was his main horn for a long time. It shows. He’s got a great sound.

On the second set, Clifton sat in on guitar. It was weird for a little while. His time feel is so different than Jared and David. It took him a few tunes to figure out how to play with them. Eventually he moved the crowd with his great slide guitar playing on “Old Rugged Cross” The fast tunes are fun but its the slow, pretty ones that real grab folks.

At the end of the nigh I wound up back in my neighborhood, hanging with Clifton at Spike Hill drinking Magner’s and telling stories.

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…

The last few days have been somewhat hard. I have been trying to get Tin Pan out to Central Park for the initial hit of the season but the clouds have been against us. Today is the day, however. It’s going to be 50 and sunny so we’re gonna go get some.

On Tuesday, Tin Pan / Baby Soday did a private party at a bookstore cafe called Rapture on Ave A. (Jared, Patrick, Peter Ford, David Langlois, Jesse) The best part about it was the sound. Their were microphones for the vocals. Everyone could hear each other very well. I had wished we were recording because the first few tunes were some really good music. We were very happy with the sound on stage and were grateful that there weren’t trains coming at regular intervals. It was a fun, hip, LGBT crowd. They dug us, we got paid extra!

Afterwards everyone but David went to Mona’s to hang out. It was right around the corner. The banded sounded SO GOOD! They played two very sedate, calm swinging tunes that made me happy. The scond was “Mood Indigo.” That melody is so strong and pretty and cats we’re so in the groove that when it came to improvise, everyone stuck real respectful and close. It was a nice change from the party we were just at. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that I have been playing so much, but I was more than happy to just listen and enjoy. I was moved. It was good. Nick Russo on guitar and banjo, Cassidy on bass, Gordon Webster on piano, and Dennis Lichtman on clarinet.

I wound playing some pool with Patric, Jared, and Gordon. Finally got around to playing some music and it was a joy! We played Honeysuckle Rose first with Ehud on piano. I got into a real zone where I was so relaxed. It was like I didn’t need to own any of my decisions on the horn. It was this happy pouring out of sound with a great kind of curiosity about what would happen next. That feeling lasted all night until I felt my lip getting a little tired.

The next day, Wednesday, Tin Pan decided to meet at Union Square because the weather wasn’t happening. I had my little flyers and my mailing list and the new CD’s and the brand new book of music I prepared. I felt like the session was more like a rehearsal for Shanghai Mermaid. We haven’t played as a quartet in a while. Even if we sounded great, 12pm-2pm is not a great time slot to be in such a noisy place in the middle of a rainy day. We made a few people happy but it was no great shakes.

Later, we all met up at the Shanghai Mermaid spot where we did a rehearsal with Juliette and Veronica Varlow. Veronica was so cute in the way she explained every single gesture of how she was going to do her act. “Then I’m going to take my right glove off, one finger at a time with my teeth, like this…” Us four boys were utterly hypnotized!! Stefan came up with a nasty groove and the band fell in. My specific job is to watch and accent every little shimmy shake and glove-pull. Tuba Joe recorded the number for Veronica to practice too and he sent around the mp3 to everyone last night. It kind of put the idea in my head that I should pretend I’m accompanying dancers even if I’m not. The phrasing and spacing of my ideas and the rhythmic thrust of what I was doing (I know) were very strong.

Today, off soon to the park…

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.

3/11/08 – 14th Street near University Place – Baby Soda – Patrick (Buttons McPeck) Harrison, Jared Engle, Peter Ford, Aiden ??, David Langlois, Jesse Selengut on Trumpet.

Spring Time it Would Seem
Here to tell you, we were unable to take over the mezzanine again today so we braved the 50 degree weather. It was so worth it.

A pretty competent guitarist and his wash-board buddy were finger-picking and grinning their way through some music that I didn’t recognize. It seemed of our style however. When everyone assembled we figured we had a few options: a) Trade sets with them b) wait it out (one hour) c) play with them and kind of absorb them – they would probably make more money. d) Go elsewhere. I was kind of into playing with them but 2 washboard players would be bad, apparently. David said in his wonderful french accent, “I played with another washboard player once.” “Oh yeah, how did that go?” “It was intolerable.”

So we decided to go upstairs to Washington Square Park maybe. But the spot in front of Forever 21 was open so we decided to just be ballsy and do it there. Plenty of foot traffic on a busy street. It worked out fine.

Peter Ford was demonstrating his tremendously talented, one-string box-bass virtuosity. You must witness this and hear it to believe it. We were up against a big glass store window and he pointed the whole of his box towards the window and the sound everywhere was just huge. Far louder than a regular bass. As always his pitch and time are so boingy, round, fun, and interesting. A real joy. Patrick said we had the A-team players today!! Ha Ha. Glad to be counted in.

The other treasure was Aiden on clarinet first and then Tenor. He had to put the clarinet away because it was still too cold for the wood. The tenor sounded great though. He had a great sound and wonderful thoroughness in his licks. He knew his horn real well. We had a good time making music that’s for sure. It was fun to have a totally new person around to include in what we were doing. It added a great freshness and sharing to the performance.

Good crowds, good money. Mojo has returned for the day.

And now the award for most convoluted crowd address:

Alway remember and never forget that we are for you and we are paid only by the City of New York… and… FYI, you are the city of New York.

Runner up.

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, if you like what you hear, and I believe that you do, you can take us home with you for just $9.99. That’s right, you can take us home in a round, plastic sort of form. You know what I mean. Yes, Yes. Cd’s for just $9.99. Step right up.

3/7/08 – 1st Ave – Baby Soda – Patrick, Jared, Debbie, David Langlois, Stefan, and Jesse.

Some times no matter what you do it’s just a lot of moving around and jivin’. We got to the mezzanine spot but it was taken by the saw lady and some documentary crew that was filming her pack up. Group Wayno – Music from the Andes was next… Banners, banners, banners.

I just want to be able to show up for work and be able to work. 6th ave. was taken by an old street buddy, Don Juarez from Brazil – great tambourine player in the Brazilian style. It had been years and it was good to see him but still no spot. Over to 1st ave.

We set up and started to play and the music was actually pretty happening but after 20 minutes the cops shut us down. It’s F$@#n frustrating. Jared said, “You kind have to count on the inconsistency of this kind of thing.” Wise temperate remarks that did not match my emotions a bit. Patrick: “It’s a mojo thing. And when you ain’t got the mojo you really ain’t got the mojo.” We have had pretty good luck till the last few times so I’m sure it will turn again at some point.

One very positive thing I can mention. I gave Stefan the “Bunk Johnson – 1944″ album so he could check out how George Lewis sounds. He came back today getting much closer to the sound that I’m always hoping for. It’s great that he could latch on to it so easily. It sounds great and it is just so helpful to me, personally, as a trumpet player. With that much going on while I’m playing, I can play shorter phrases lower in the register. I can also stick closer to the melody and do small rhythmic variations without having the improvisations sound boring. I feel like with the clarinet going like that, my stamina increases almost two-fold.

We played a couple really great numbers and I am definitely latching on to “Bring it on down to my house, mamma.” I’ll be able to write oodles of good lyrics for that one! Ha ha.

• I got the tracking numbers from UPS today. The new disks are in the mail!

3/5/08 – Bedford Ave -9pm-11:30 – Baby Soda – Patrick, Jared, Debbie and Jesse.

A pretty tame night by many standards and the first time in a while that we’ve played on the platforms.

We decided to meet at Union Square to hit that mezzanine area but a wheel chair blues musician was holding forth under the banner of MUNY. He was a fine player but I always know we can do better. In the 20 minutes that Debbie and I were waiting for the others to arrive he had about 5 people stop and probably only made about $5. I came up with a challenge that I think is utilitarian and fair and that I would love to actually try. Here’s how it works: One band plays for 15 minutes and then the other for 15 minutes. The band that has made the most money in that time wins. Both bands split all the money and the winner takes the spot. But, alas, he had the banner so we really couldn’t do anything about it.

Off to Bedford Ave. My guess was that the platform thing would not start really working for us until about 10pm as the trains come far too frequently. If trains are coming in every 5 minutes on both platforms it is hard to build a crowd or momentum. I was unfortunately very right. Those trains are really loud and effect the music pretty powerfully. We make some adjustments. If there is a train coming, it is better for the trumpet to be playing because at least it cuts. Sometimes I would play an extra chorus just so Patrick or Debbie wouldn’t have to try soloing over an incoming train.

The music was kind of weak to start and we were all cold. Jared an I both had been out until 5am the night before drinking and playing pool after our session at Mona’s so we were not in top form. It took about a set and a half for us all to wake up together and actually start playing music that deserved peoples attention.

We wound up not doing badly. Eventually around 10:30 the trains were slowing down and allowing us to play for a crowd that lasted up to 10 minutes at a time. Patrick had the Baby Soda CD’s in hand stamped brown paper bags. Kinda cute. We decided to sell the jewel cased Tin Pan CD’s for 15 and his for 10 – both for twenty. This kind of developed into an ongoing schtick between tunes. “For just ten bucks you can get a baby soda bag which may or may not contain a CD. Or you can get pay 15 bucks a definitely get a tin pan CD. Hedge your bets and get both for only 20″ etc…

Over all, glad to making music as always and glad that we finally were able to get a good vibe and some fun crowds.

3/2/08 – Union Square Mezzanine 3-6:30pm – Baby Soda – Patrick Harrison – Accordion, Jared Engle – Banjo, Debbie Kennedy – Bass, David Langlois – Dishes, Jesse Selengut – trumpet.

We got lucky again with the Union Square Mezzanine spot again. No one was there with a MUNY banner. Debbie had inadvertently showed up an hour early and was holding the spot. It was so beautiful outside but still till too cold to play. Consequently I feel that it was hard to hold people’s attention (even our our own) while the sun was still shining upstairs. The first set was pretty rough for me musically. This was day 6 of 6 straight days playing hard. My chops were sore and needed a break. We got into a bad feedback loop: No one is listening -> Music is average -> No one is Listening -> Music is lame -> No one is listening -> Let’s take a break. Just to make matters more surreal – at some point during this first set a cow showed up:

He was holding his mask in his hands for a piece. Then he put it on and started doing this kind of silly walk dance, kicking his legs way up into the air.

The second and third sets went much better. We just needed a break or something to reset the switch. We wound up doing pretty good… We sold about 20 CD’s total. We were gathering a good crowd but nothing like the last time here when the cops shut us down. The cop thing does seem quite random to me. There is a police station about 100 yards from where we play and cops are milling through all the time. “Once bitten, twice shy” I guess because I was very tuned in to their presence.

During our second set a girl made us a portrait. Sweet. Jared has an extra hand… Debbie has about 8 fingers on one hand… Patrick has a black eye! Click to see it full size…

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When we finished Debbie and I headed over to Moto to play the with Sean Condron. I was so hungry I couldn’t focus. Debbie and I ordered the chicken with mashed potatoes and cabbage. Man, their food is but good. Have you been? It’s one of Brooklyn’s really magical hang-outs. The food is terrific, they have good pours of house wine and beer. The ambiance of that place is just warm, cozy, hip, different. The owner / designer, Jonny is a motorcycle enthusiast and really wanted to make the place feel like 1938.

For the musicians, its always pretty cramped. The room is a long triangle with the front door and the musicians at the most acute end. Eventually we got comfortable. I was sitting down with my left ear right next to Debbie’s Bass. A great seat!! At one point I was listening to her solo and I had one of those transcendent moments pondering the miracles of human achievement and ingenuity. All the intelligence that went to the making of this bass (A Czech bass from 100 years ago) and the subtlety and joy and training involved in its performance. Ah Guinness. The Irish elixir of contemplation. We started off with “Swing Gitan” and Debbie, Sean and I were just locked in from the outset.

Sean is great to play with! He has many many wonderful country and old time western music. He is always talking about great musicians that I have never heard of. He had just gotten back from a 2 week diving trip to Honduras and he was relaxed and was singing great. We did “Minnie the Moocher” as a closer and Sean got ever one singing all weird in the call and response part.