WHEN FOUR STARS CAME TO BETHLEHEM, APRIL 23, 2023 (Part One): DANNY TOBIAS, ARNT ARNTZEN, RANDY REINHART, VINCE GIORDANO

Yes, the title of this post may seem a blasphemy. But it’s true.

On April 23, 2023, four musical stars came — thanks to the Pennsylvania Jazz Society — to Congregation Brith Sholom on West Macada Road in, yes, Bethlehem Pennsylvania, and filled the room with lovely joyous sounds. They are Danny Tobias, trumpet and Eb alto horn; Arnt Arntzen, vocal, banjo, guitar; Randy Reinhart, trombone, euphonium (or baritone horn); Vince Giordano, vocal, string bass, tuba, bass saxophone, lowboy cymbal.

I caught all the sights and sounds in my video camera, and will share them with you in three installments. My hope is that you follow the pleasant activities of the Pennsylvania Jazz Society, and that you follow these eminent musicians.

Here are a half-dozen beauties.

AS LONG AS I LIVE:

LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME:

Arnt sings WHEN YOUR LOVER HAS GONE:

ROSETTA:

Randy’s feature, ON THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET:

And, to make a neat half-dozen, HAPPY FEET:

Unpretentious swinging music, whatever name you wish to hang on it (mostly the “Great American Songbook” treated with love and heat). And there will be more to come: watch this space.

May your happiness increase!

A SMALL EXECUTIVE DECISION (May 7-8, 2023)

A few dates. I began this blog in February 2008, and I joined Facebook three years later. The blog is a sustaining, living entity and community, and I have no plans to abandon it as long as my faculties hold up. Facebook is another story.

Today I received a message from a California musician I’ve encountered once, on friendly terms, someone older than myself. The message said he was having trouble getting back on Facebook and would I help him get a code. Ordinarily I regard such messages with suspicion, and have set up small hurdles. If the person asking for something presents with the name of (let us say) a guitarist I know, I might write back, “Name a Charlie Christian composition,” or “Why did Eddie Lang have a sore throat?” And the robot or the spammer either responds with silence or with hopes that I am having a good day or have heard the latest news, and I can end the conversation and move on.

Today, perhaps because of jet-lag or a desire to be more helpful than suspicious, I did as I was asked, and all of a sudden I could not access my account, and friends were emailing me, asking if I’d been hacked. One dear friend even called me from Los Angeles.

Then I spent the better part of two hours in cyber-frustration trying to reclaim by Facebook identity, which required many attempts through a second email, codes, and more. I decided then that my days with Facebook were ended — perhaps paused — but certainly my (perhaps foolish) trust had been violated. So I began the process of deleting my Facebook page, a process which, hilariously, will take thirty days to complete. Perhaps that is to give me time to feel that my days and nights are now empty. I am, mild-mannered and even dull as I might be, a valuable commodity to Facebook, for any moment I might decide to buy something that turns out to be useless or deceptive.

But for the present, I will do my best to go on this new unencumbered path, joining others who have had enough. Of course you can always find JAZZ LIVES here, and I would be happy if you told others that this is the blog’s real home. I’d rather be uploading videos and writing about delicious music than fighting invisible scammers.

That’s the story, and no doubt, more to come.

May your happiness increase!