Evoking this, nearly seventy years later:
in this wonderful place. Magical indeed.
It was a Sunday morning, 10:30 or so, and perhaps half of the audience was deep in contemplation of their breakfasts on September 21, 2008.
But magic larger than bacon and coffee was being revealed to us. We can revisit it now: festival director Joe Boughton’s idea to recreate the Bechet-Spanier Big Four of Blessed Memory (1940, Hot Record Society: Sidney Bechet, Muggsy Spanier, Carmen Mastren, Wellman Braud) with living Masters: Bob Wilber, clarinet and soprano; Jon-Erik Kellso, trumpet; Marty Grosz, guitar; Vince Giordano, string bass. Five songs were performed, each a Hot Benediction:
I had no video empire then — no collection of cameras, tripods, batteries, external hard drives — and I recorded this quite surreptitiously. But I didn’t want it to vanish. For you, for me, forevermore.
May your happiness increase!
JAZZ LIVES 