When I lived in California, I was able to attend an impromptu
seminar at our local community college held by Dizzy Gillespie. He
was performing in my home town during the weekend, and spent Friday
with students and faculty. My mom was Head Librarian, and was able
to get me in.
During the seminar, the question of playing while under the
influence came up. He said that he thought he had always played
better after having one here or there, nothing stupid as far as the
amount of consumption. His impression of his performance was that he
was really nailin' it. Until, that is, a friend of his gave him a
tape of a recent performance. He remembered the night, and how much
(or how little) he had to drink, and after hearing, in a much sober
state of mind, how bad his playing really was, he vowed never to
drink again before or during a performance.
I seem to recall "no drinks" was one of Howlin' Wolf's band rules.
Very business-like sort of fellow when it came to the "business" of
music.
To answer the question, no, I never tell my guys what to do; they're
big boys. But if the rhythm section in particular isn't together,
they're gonna hear about it. And if drinking is part of the reason
the sound is loosey-goosey, then I'll address that specifically.
Stay thirsty, my friends...
Ray.
--
My Music – www.resgraphics.com/music
My YouTube – www.youtube.com/raybee127
MySpace – www.myspace.com/bluemax503
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Message: 5
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 18:20:15 +0000 (UTC)
From: pdxharpdog@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Harp-L] band drinking, minimal harp content
To: List harp-l <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Message-ID:
<609428442.7196401262802015290.JavaMail.root@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
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I have a question - does your band have any rules on alcohol
consumption before/during a show? My band recently had a less
than optimum performance that was directly related to alcohol
consumption by the bass player and drummer who were both quite
buzzed as we went on stage. This caused the tempos to be all
screwed up, and lead to a new band rule - no drinking before a
show starts. During the show we still have an occasional drink
on stage if allowed by the venue or as is often the case bought by
fans and brought to the stage. Our subsequent shows have all been
great since this rule.
Harp Content: It takes all of my faculties and focus to play
harp sober let alone buzzed.
Ross Macdonald