A MONDAY DATE! VINCE GIORDANO AND THE NIGHTHAWKS

New Yorkers who can look up from their cellphones and frappuccinos now and again know that they live in a cornucopia of delights.  Since May 5, a something wonderful has been taking place every Monday night from 8 to 11 in the below-ground Club Cache, beneath Sofia’s, in the Hotel Edison.  Once again, we have the privilege of watching and hearing Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks play for dancers.  How nice it is that “the boys” have a regular gig, because for too long the Nighthawks haven’t had a home.  The room boasts an old-school Italian menu, convivial waitstaff, a good sound system, and a dance floor. 

Brass wizard Jim Fryer, who understands the subtleties of music, said to us, “I tell my students: Dancing is what music looks like.  Music is what dancing sounds like.”   When we were there, there was no wild Thirties lindy-hopping, but the dancers and musicians clearly inspired each other.  It was what Sidney Bechet meant when he called one of his compositions “Spreading Joy.”  Even the Beloved and I cut a rug under the blue and red ceiling lights. 

When we came into the room, the Twenties soundtrack was clearly from Vince’s 78 collection — Billy Murray asking the perennial question, “What Do We Do on a Dew-Dew-Dewy Day?” and praising the charms of “Betty Co-Ed,” but what followed was in no way antiquated.  Ten gifted musicians, ably reading idiomatic charts and taking hot solos, their sound full and unamplified, sent joyous energy everywhere:

Vince himself on bass sax, tuba, and aluminum string bass (like Superman, able to switch from one to another at the speed of light), as well as crooning and wittily introducing numbers; Jordan Sandke and Mike Ponella (trumpets); Jim Fryer (trombone); Dan Block, Mark Lopeman, and Will Anderson on reeds; Andy Stein, tripling violin, Stroh phono-violin and baritone sax; Peter Yarin (piano); Ken Salvo (banjo and electric guitar); Rob Garcia (drums — with the official Nighthawks painted trap kit). 

They began with their theme, “The Moon and You,” and then turned to a stomping “Black Maria,” originally recorded by the ex-Ellington trumpeter Bubber Miley (and a group fetchingly called “his Mileage Makers” by someone at Victor), which featured Lopeman, Block, and Garcia.  Remembering Bix, Frank Trumbauer, and Wingy Manone, Vince called “There’ll Come A Time,” giving it its full title, which adds the omnious statement, “Wait and See.”  In that 1927 mode, he recalled Red Nichols’ record of “Ida (Sweet As Apple Cider),” handling its opening melody statement majestically on bass sax — Adrian Rollini’s chorus — with solos for Sandke, Fryer, and Anderson, the last making his way through PeeWee Russell’s radical balladry. 

With the next selection, a late-Thirties version of Kern’s “Make Believe,” the Nighthawks turned into a modern version of the Henderson band, brass and reed sections swapping riffs and melody — that got the dancers, expert and amateur, onto the floor for dips and spins, even those who dance simply as a reason to hold one’s partner tight.  A trotting “Sweet Mama,” transcribed by Herb Gardner from the Ellington record, cooled things down but not much, and Vince sang the comic song “Here Comes My Ball and Chain,” before giving the spotlight to Mickey Freeman — a cheerful wisp of a man, famous for his role on the Phil Silvers television show, Sergeant Bilko.  For a few minutes, Freeman transported us to the Catskills, with jokes that made us laugh because of their antiquity.  Then, as his get-off piece, Freeman swung through “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue,” to great applause.    

Moving twenty years forward, with Ken Salvo turning to electric guitar, the Nighthawks did a groovy ”Tuxedo Junction,” with still more dancers on the now-crowded floor.  Maving back to the ferocious jazz of 1925, Vince presented the Nighthawks’ take on the Armstrong-Bechet classic, “Cake Walkin’ Babies From Home,” featuring Sandke, Fryer, and Block, as well as giving Andy Stein an opportunity to show off his skill on the Stroh phono-violin, self-amplified with a tiny morning-glory horn attached to its body.  Some of the dancers were happily were doing the Peabody. 

Before the band had started this set, a clarinet player who looked seriously authentic (dark suit, black shirt, white tie, red carnation in his lapel) sat off to the side, putting his horn together.  Vince introduced him: the legendary Sol Yaged, now 85, still playing a regular gig in Yonkers, and featured him on ”In A Sentimental Mood” with the Nighthawks humming chords behind him.  The set concluded with a walloping “Old Man Blues,” giving Jim Fryer a chance to play at being both Tricky Sam Nanton and Lawrence Brown. 

An elegantly-dressed woman at the next table sighed with pleasure at the end of the set, “So nice to dance to live music!”  LIVE MUSIC is putting it mildly, I think.  And without being too sternly admonitory, I would ask New York jazz fans to recall all those reassuring things we thought would last forever — the list could start with WRVR-FM — that have vanished.  Carpe diem is the order of the day.     

In an ideal New York, Vince and the Nighthawks would be the city’s chosen ensemble: their music would be our soundtrack for the Fourth of July; they would help us bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new as the big ball came down.  Perhaps Mayor Bloomberg and his boys should come to Club Cache and have the same sort of spiritual experience – a Monday date, to recall Earl Hines.   

A postscript: if you’re reading this in California or Australia, it might be difficult to get to midtown Manhattan soon.  But distance is no reason not to support Vince’s endeavors and to get some hot jazz in the bargain.  Vince and the Nighthawks have made five compact discs: QUALITY SHOUT, THE GOLDKETTE PROJECT, MOONLIGHT SERENADE, CHEEK TO CHEEK, and COTTON CLUB REVISITED, as well as making appearances on the soundtrack recordings from the films IT’S DE-LOVELY, GHOST WORLD, and THE AVIATOR.  And (if this weren’t enough) Vince is an integral part of two Marty Grosz small group efforts, REMEMBERING LOUIS and CHASIN’ THE SPOTS.  These discs are available at $17 each (which includes postage and tax).  Checks or money orders (made out to “Vince Giordano”) can be sent to him at 1316 Elm Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11230-5916.  And he’d love to add new names to his mailing list, so email him at vincegiordano@optonline.net.                         

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