C a t i n a D e L u n a
Musician
Hollywood, CA, February 2024
W. "Well it's lovely to see you again and thank you so much for welcoming me to your home to participate in this project I wonder if you could give me an insight please into what you felt during the restrictions of Covid when you couldn't play live and just what went through your mind and what did you do perhaps. Any aspect you'd like to talk about."
D "Well I'll be honest with you I took advantage of the time to rest. I've been extremely busy you know I'm always busy. Well I'm not going to say I was burned out but I felt the need to cool out. So a lot of that time was spent watching some television and to a certain degree reading but it's funny because in the last few weeks I’ve had students who were involved in projects during that time and it was heartening actually you know they were the young folks and and they continued to put persevere as young ones do and so watching then and seeing retrospectively now because it's been long enough to have a past history this Covid 19 again it was really interesting to hear the projects. There was so money available for clubs to stay open, there was some compensation going on to help, so it wasn't just like we're on our own you know. But for me, we just moved here two years ago, so there was a lot on the plate that really I needed to listen to and everything and gather together my feelings about it but outside of the fear of your health going crazy it was like a sabbatical and of course the thing about money (? How. Can you survive when you don’t have an income ?) there was a lot of aspects that were involved and just well we couldn't do anything but hands up a lot of it was very positive .. except for the dying ..outside of that there was very positive atmosphere not during but during it everybody was like hangdog …. how are we ..you know
But in retrospect now it comes up to be a little more positive than it really was maybe I don't know we could conjecture about that all day you know. So R and R rest and recreation was my mantra."
W "Just to carry on with that theme did you feel as if taking that time for R and R.. Did you consider or compose new pieces or did you just enjoy the relief, release of ..
D **Little of both, a little of both I did a certain amount of writing at the beginning,…… living in Manhattan ..we came from Pennsylvania f??fiveteen ..thirtyfive years ?? To living in Manhattan finding some paperwork it's going to be challenging but outside of that initial response at the beginning I was pretty much not on the same page.. what can I say.. I felt that I needed to rest and be nicer to myself because normally I wouldn't take a rest, I've never taken a rest you know but this( ??????) And of course in my own situation I've been doing this for 60 years young guys look at you and say what are you doing, you know, so there's some responsibility for how you handle the prison aspects you know that your caught and you can't go anywhere I mean you couldn't wipe the counter with a sponge I remember when you bought groceries it would take hours to put it on the table because you had to brush everything up etc etc. They had a plague in 1919 somehow the world went on."
W. "So as you emerged from the restrictions and were able to perform live again is that something that you began to do or were you pursuing other things."
D "Yeah .. I mean have a lot of people who I am in contact with, you know, musicians and gigs were like ..you made up for the lost time (????? ) now we could do it. So there was a feeling of sort of jubilation of how we could really get into this not that it's over but it's abated and I'm ready to burn I'm ready to make my contacts, new contacts and old contacts and that slowly happened over the past two years for everybody. Is New York back.. not quite.. but in some ways yes really it is the centre of jazz it has been since the 40s you know I mean. So from when you go down from below 14th Street to Canal Street and count the clubs you have dozens. I also had to make a living .. I mean that was the other thing you know you couldn't just go float around for six months you know. First month or two okay injury time count your blessings and your hopes and your disappointments but you know by the fourth or six month you know you’ve got to get on the case because you can't live on air and everybody's got responsibility I mean (?there is some series small past Masters but they’re recorded) and I did that and it was good and it paid very well. So actually I’ve been recording more than I ever did with overdubs and things like that ..that’s all since the pandemic."
W "Have they been studio located recording sessions or remote Dave.?"
D "I have a young lady five minutes from here who can do the overdubs stuff where I come in I have to play 28 bars or something like that. I can do that you know (laughs) and she's down the street .she’s on 89th Street we're on 77th Street so you know."
W. "So does she come to you Dave?"
D "No .. no she has her equipment. Its just a little room and she's even cutting back on it again because you know live you have to contend with different things but if you go into the studio it’s kind of we do no harm."
W. And when you got back on stage literally, and I can understand a massive contrast between, I'm not sure to what extent you did any social media involvement or streaming did you get involved in that side at all Dave?
D "Well my daughter is big on PR she is very.. Getting to be quiet well-known in PR jazz PR so I count on her of course and my wife (????)changes every day it seems. It's not that I find anything wrong with the social media is just that I don't have time for it. If I was 25 years old I’d be right on it like I was when I was 25 etc so everything in its time you know,"
W "And when you would got back performing live with other musicians what kind of reaction did you have to that any thoughts that you may have had before whether you were concerned are we going to get this together or what we feelings on actually being back there Dave."
D "Well it was positive you know we were coming from ashes and everybody was equal ..a small community like Jazz community ..maybe 100 young people involved you know then established guys like me we were glad to have something to be positive about because the pandemic we were just talking about was quite cruel ..shall we say ..in its way it struck and when you started to see some clubs opening up guys playing more you say yeah man let's go let's go support the music and support these young musicians. So it's been a cycle you know kind of down vibe .. into the middle where people are starting to interact until where we are now which is(? quite a bit happening .. you’ll pick it up I your few days here I’m sure?) You take that hot house magazine and you look in there and it looks like there's nothing but jazz clubs in New York. Manhattan not just Manhattan Brooklyn also and there’s an enthusiasm that’s natural to young people that we try to encourage. I teach here they come in here and I go to the positive side what I can do for them and what they should be doing. Look the glass is half empty .. half full let's do it half full tonight."
W "The kind of composition elements that you were doing during that time is that something you're working on now are you still adding to those pieces Dave or do you feel as if they’re .. Are you going to record them or what’s your.".
ID "I'm not sure I'd love to record them of course.. there's nothing monumental about what I wrote during the pandemic you know just a couple of things I think I could do and stuff like that my work with orchestra, big band everything, that's all things in the past and that would be a body of work that I fix and I start again you know like that but I don't look at composition that way I think composition is a chance to really make choices that have an inevitability about them when they're in the music and your job is to ferret out the useful and the not useful with whoever it is, with younger musicians with your own musicians. I mean I had a band a good band we did three recordings and a pandemic ended that because it was too much to get the guys together and I was a little nervous (??I’m not going to wear a mask I'm a saxophone Player I can't wear a mask ..which was kind of a problem ?) But the positive energy was started to evidence itself already."
W. "Do you sort of get the vibe that more small clubs have opened their doors since to kind of give the young the emerging musicians literally a stage do you feel as if that's the kind?"
D "Yes these places especially in Brooklyn they playing kind of door maybe … pass the hat literally pass the hat but that's what you do. That's what I did with my first Group(???) We did 10,000 miles in the states did a loop (???) Had everything booked we were the young cats that's what you do ..when you get established you bring it back to the bandstand and to the human element is there is any they're not necessarily has to be I mean I know bands were nobody talks to each other but more or less there’s a positive element of communication. Jazz is a great communicative field it's not just the music it's like what we're doing today journalism and art that's why we love covers so much. And I think the community is really, without being formal about it, is really enthusiastic about whoever playing and ‘I’m working Friday night with so and so ..oh yeah tell me a little bit about it .. oh Come on down play a tune you know that camaraderie is something very evident in jazz, can’t talk for rock'n' roll or for classical. I know one thing about Jazz it's about about communication and the music actually is secondary to a human relationship I mean when you talk about another musician you say ‘is he cool’ ..you know what that means.. that means he can play and he's a nice guy .. Then we start to talk about ‘well bar three you know."
W "Thank you Dave."
D "I"'ve never been questioned about the pandemic."
D a v e L i e b m a n
Musician
At home, New York City, 22 March 2023
W. "Well it's lovely to see you again and thank you so much for welcoming me to your home to participate in this project I wonder if you could give me an insight please into what you felt during the restrictions of Covid when you couldn't play live and just what went through your mind and what did you do perhaps. Any aspect you'd like to talk about."
D "Well I'll be honest with you I took advantage of the time to rest. I've been extremely busy you know I'm always busy. Well I'm not going to say I was burned out but I felt the need to cool out. So a lot of that time was spent watching some television and to a certain degree reading but it's funny because in the last few weeks I’ve had students who were involved in projects during that time and it was heartening actually you know they were the young folks and and they continued to put persevere as young ones do and so watching then and seeing retrospectively now because it's been long enough to have a past history this Covid 19 again it was really interesting to hear the projects. There was so money available for clubs to stay open, there was some compensation going on to help, so it wasn't just like we're on our own you know. But for me, we just moved here two years ago, so there was a lot on the plate that really I needed to listen to and everything and gather together my feelings about it but outside of the fear of your health going crazy it was like a sabbatical and of course the thing about money (? How. Can you survive when you don’t have an income ?) there was a lot of aspects that were involved and just well we couldn't do anything but hands up a lot of it was very positive .. except for the dying ..outside of that there was very positive atmosphere not during but during it everybody was like hangdog …. how are we ..you know
But in retrospect now it comes up to be a little more positive than it really was maybe I don't know we could conjecture about that all day you know. So R and R rest and recreation was my mantra."
W "Just to carry on with that theme did you feel as if taking that time for R and R.. Did you consider or compose new pieces or did you just enjoy the relief, release of ..
D **Little of both, a little of both I did a certain amount of writing at the beginning,…… living in Manhattan ..we came from Pennsylvania f??fiveteen ..thirtyfive years ?? To living in Manhattan finding some paperwork it's going to be challenging but outside of that initial response at the beginning I was pretty much not on the same page.. what can I say.. I felt that I needed to rest and be nicer to myself because normally I wouldn't take a rest, I've never taken a rest you know but this( ??????) And of course in my own situation I've been doing this for 60 years young guys look at you and say what are you doing, you know, so there's some responsibility for how you handle the prison aspects you know that your caught and you can't go anywhere I mean you couldn't wipe the counter with a sponge I remember when you bought groceries it would take hours to put it on the table because you had to brush everything up etc etc. They had a plague in 1919 somehow the world went on."
W. "So as you emerged from the restrictions and were able to perform live again is that something that you began to do or were you pursuing other things."
D "Yeah .. I mean have a lot of people who I am in contact with, you know, musicians and gigs were like ..you made up for the lost time (????? ) now we could do it. So there was a feeling of sort of jubilation of how we could really get into this not that it's over but it's abated and I'm ready to burn I'm ready to make my contacts, new contacts and old contacts and that slowly happened over the past two years for everybody. Is New York back.. not quite.. but in some ways yes really it is the centre of jazz it has been since the 40s you know I mean. So from when you go down from below 14th Street to Canal Street and count the clubs you have dozens. I also had to make a living .. I mean that was the other thing you know you couldn't just go float around for six months you know. First month or two okay injury time count your blessings and your hopes and your disappointments but you know by the fourth or six month you know you’ve got to get on the case because you can't live on air and everybody's got responsibility I mean (?there is some series small past Masters but they’re recorded) and I did that and it was good and it paid very well. So actually I’ve been recording more than I ever did with overdubs and things like that ..that’s all since the pandemic."
W "Have they been studio located recording sessions or remote Dave.?"
D "I have a young lady five minutes from here who can do the overdubs stuff where I come in I have to play 28 bars or something like that. I can do that you know (laughs) and she's down the street .she’s on 89th Street we're on 77th Street so you know."
W. "So does she come to you Dave?"
D "No .. no she has her equipment. Its just a little room and she's even cutting back on it again because you know live you have to contend with different things but if you go into the studio it’s kind of we do no harm."
W. And when you got back on stage literally, and I can understand a massive contrast between, I'm not sure to what extent you did any social media involvement or streaming did you get involved in that side at all Dave?
D "Well my daughter is big on PR she is very.. Getting to be quiet well-known in PR jazz PR so I count on her of course and my wife (????)changes every day it seems. It's not that I find anything wrong with the social media is just that I don't have time for it. If I was 25 years old I’d be right on it like I was when I was 25 etc so everything in its time you know,"
W "And when you would got back performing live with other musicians what kind of reaction did you have to that any thoughts that you may have had before whether you were concerned are we going to get this together or what we feelings on actually being back there Dave."
D "Well it was positive you know we were coming from ashes and everybody was equal ..a small community like Jazz community ..maybe 100 young people involved you know then established guys like me we were glad to have something to be positive about because the pandemic we were just talking about was quite cruel ..shall we say ..in its way it struck and when you started to see some clubs opening up guys playing more you say yeah man let's go let's go support the music and support these young musicians. So it's been a cycle you know kind of down vibe .. into the middle where people are starting to interact until where we are now which is(? quite a bit happening .. you’ll pick it up I your few days here I’m sure?) You take that hot house magazine and you look in there and it looks like there's nothing but jazz clubs in New York. Manhattan not just Manhattan Brooklyn also and there’s an enthusiasm that’s natural to young people that we try to encourage. I teach here they come in here and I go to the positive side what I can do for them and what they should be doing. Look the glass is half empty .. half full let's do it half full tonight."
W "The kind of composition elements that you were doing during that time is that something you're working on now are you still adding to those pieces Dave or do you feel as if they’re .. Are you going to record them or what’s your.".
ID "I'm not sure I'd love to record them of course.. there's nothing monumental about what I wrote during the pandemic you know just a couple of things I think I could do and stuff like that my work with orchestra, big band everything, that's all things in the past and that would be a body of work that I fix and I start again you know like that but I don't look at composition that way I think composition is a chance to really make choices that have an inevitability about them when they're in the music and your job is to ferret out the useful and the not useful with whoever it is, with younger musicians with your own musicians. I mean I had a band a good band we did three recordings and a pandemic ended that because it was too much to get the guys together and I was a little nervous (??I’m not going to wear a mask I'm a saxophone Player I can't wear a mask ..which was kind of a problem ?) But the positive energy was started to evidence itself already."
W. "Do you sort of get the vibe that more small clubs have opened their doors since to kind of give the young the emerging musicians literally a stage do you feel as if that's the kind?"
D "Yes these places especially in Brooklyn they playing kind of door maybe … pass the hat literally pass the hat but that's what you do. That's what I did with my first Group(???) We did 10,000 miles in the states did a loop (???) Had everything booked we were the young cats that's what you do ..when you get established you bring it back to the bandstand and to the human element is there is any they're not necessarily has to be I mean I know bands were nobody talks to each other but more or less there’s a positive element of communication. Jazz is a great communicative field it's not just the music it's like what we're doing today journalism and art that's why we love covers so much. And I think the community is really, without being formal about it, is really enthusiastic about whoever playing and ‘I’m working Friday night with so and so ..oh yeah tell me a little bit about it .. oh Come on down play a tune you know that camaraderie is something very evident in jazz, can’t talk for rock'n' roll or for classical. I know one thing about Jazz it's about about communication and the music actually is secondary to a human relationship I mean when you talk about another musician you say ‘is he cool’ ..you know what that means.. that means he can play and he's a nice guy .. Then we start to talk about ‘well bar three you know."
W "Thank you Dave."
D "I"'ve never been questioned about the pandemic."
Musician
Birdland, New York City, 18 March, 2023
W "It's so nice to see you again. George
Thank you so much for participating in the project.
Just to recap, I have set about documenting thoughts and reflections that musicians might have about the time spent when they couldn't perform due to the restrictions and how it feels to be back onstage.
I wonder what thoughts and recollections you might have on those subjects please?
G. "Well I can tell you one thing. Once, we were playing at Smoke, and I think this was during the pandemic and people hadn't heard live music - we hadn't been playing much,
I mean that's what we do and this is our lives, so we haven't been playing much people hadn't heard any music as out there were thinking about how can we do this how can we survive how can we bring this music to people.
So one thing led to another they kind of opened the windows …opened the windows out and had space on the sidewalk where people could eat and sit round tables and hear music.
We were streaming, basically streaming but there was a minimal live audience out there, you know, eating and there were some people walking by ..the owner told me this..that people walking by stopped and started crying, tears started coming down their cheeks because they hadn't heard live music in so long.
So if that affected the audience and people, lay people like that you can imagine for us playing music, it's how we live it's not only our livelyhood but it's what we do it's how we express ourselves our philosophy, we get out there and make ourselves vulnerable we share this music with people.
It’s something that we can play, we can play in a basement, in our homes.. if we are brave enough if we take care of ourselves if we feel safe enough.
Pandemic or no we can play in the basement or play in a studio but it's not the same as when theres an audience there when there are people there.. you have that communication there ..the people are like our musical partners.
So when we play there’s energy going out and we can feel the audiences energy coming back to us so that really makes them our musical partners and so it's a very important thing playing and sharing music, first of all playing with each other with other people being able to do that not just sitting and playing and practising, you know, twiddling our fingers and trying to figure out what we are going to do when we get to play with other people oh what are ideas or maybe be productive that way but it's not the same as playing music for people being out there and having an audience to play for."
W. "George, I wonder when you couldn't get out there when you were unable to you were maybe stuck at home what kind of things did you think about then if you can cast your mind back?"
G. "Well …when are we going to be able to do this again and when are we going to be able to … what’s our income gonna be for one .. in a practical sense and when are we going to be able to share this music and get out there and do what we do because our lives kinda come to a stop, you know, so as I'm thinking about this we were sitting at home I thought maybe we could stream but then we still have to be with each other, we can take precautions.
What was going to my mind was my frustration with those people who didn't want to wear masks or I didn't want to take our ..didnt’ want to participate with shots that you had to take, you know, because in this world we only have each other really, you know, you come to learn that in a real way when you travel on the road when you're with a band, you know, you only have each other out here cause anything could happen and you have to depend upon each other.
But that in the real sense in when we live, you know, people I can see I can understand where people who live in a less dense area than New York or in major cities might feel ‘well I’m not going to see anybody if you stay on the farm’ or but I don't have any sympathy, or I can't relate to, people who say well I don't want to be inoculated but I still want to participate I want to go and do but I don’t want to wear a mask. If you don’t, you know, ‘ I have the right not to be inoculated’.
Ok you can stay home, you know, you don't have to do be so inconsiderate or just selfish as to not care what happens to others just as long as you can do what you want to do.
We live in a world where we want freedom of course but that’s all tempered by our responsibility - every time I hear somebody say 'it's my right to do this ..or..and I have the freedom to do this.'.
I'm saying to myself your rights have to be tempered by your responsibilities.. it’s obvious you don’t yell fire in a crowded ship .a crowded theatre ..it’s really simple to me.
So that's basically what was on my mind.
That and you know like knowing that at some point this would end. That and the things you know first of all how are you going to survive, how are you going to pay your bills deal with You know you have to go into your savings whatever you know.
What's your future going to be like?
I mean, we didn't anticipate all the problems that we run int0 - .that we had run into after the pandemic.
So basically - I'm just thinking about (it): I was just thinking about being home - are we going to be able to travel? … we’re not going to be able to travel if.we can be safe..if get on and do this together maybe we can get this done faster.
But being able to be out there playing music was my goal and our goal I’m sure all of us. That was our goal. But it's still pretty simple."
W Did you feel at that time were you able to focus on other thoughts and projects that you might have in mind or did you feel just a bit at sea as it were?
G "Oh no you are able to focus on that and say ‘ Ok well I got a recording coming you know like what can I do for my next record for my next CD?
I can organise music for that and you do that but after a while you know when it gets longer than you thought and you’ve done that and this thing gets ald ..then there’s frustration that sets in and you’re kind of concerned, you know, there are other people out there, .there are other musicians that may not be as fortunate as you.. that really you know, their next gig is paying for the rent .. you know ..and there’s nothing to fall back on.
But there were people that .. I'm not saying that I can go without work for ever as far as financial considerations go but ..there was that consideration with me too I suppose ‘how long is this gonna go?'
And we were looking at bills coming in and but yes I was able to focus on positive things but then after things started to, you know, kind of linger kept on going ..we still can’t get out what are we going to do now..well maybe we can stream ..we can do that.
But that's not working for every body..that’s not working for everybody. That’s not keeping everybody working but I would say it's just a matter of time , as time went on when it got longer it got a little more nerve wracking it made you a little more nervous and concerned."
W "Well George, thank you."
G. "Thank you!"
G r e g P o r é e
Musician
Hollywood, CA, October, 2023
W. "Well it's lovely to see you again and thank you so much for welcoming me to your home to participate in this project I wonder if you could give me an insight please into what you felt during the restrictions of Covid when you couldn't play live and just what went through your mind and what did you do perhaps. Any aspect you'd like to talk about."
D "Well I'll be honest with you I took advantage of the time to rest. I've been extremely busy you know I'm always busy. Well I'm not going to say I was burned out but I felt the need to cool out. So a lot of that time was spent watching some television and to a certain degree reading but it's funny because in the last few weeks I’ve had students who were involved in projects during that time and it was heartening actually you know they were the young folks and and they continued to put persevere as young ones do and so watching then and seeing retrospectively now because it's been long enough to have a past history this Covid 19 again it was really interesting to hear the projects. There was so money available for clubs to stay open, there was some compensation going on to help, so it wasn't just like we're on our own you know. But for me, we just moved here two years ago, so there was a lot on the plate that really I needed to listen to and everything and gather together my feelings about it but outside of the fear of your health going crazy it was like a sabbatical and of course the thing about money (? How. Can you survive when you don’t have an income ?) there was a lot of aspects that were involved and just well we couldn't do anything but hands up a lot of it was very positive .. except for the dying ..outside of that there was very positive atmosphere not during but during it everybody was like hangdog …. how are we ..you know
But in retrospect now it comes up to be a little more positive than it really was maybe I don't know we could conjecture about that all day you know. So R and R rest and recreation was my mantra."
W "Just to carry on with that theme did you feel as if taking that time for R and R.. Did you consider or compose new pieces or did you just enjoy the relief, release of ..
D **Little of both, a little of both I did a certain amount of writing at the beginning,…… living in Manhattan ..we came from Pennsylvania f??fiveteen ..thirtyfive years ?? To living in Manhattan finding some paperwork it's going to be challenging but outside of that initial response at the beginning I was pretty much not on the same page.. what can I say.. I felt that I needed to rest and be nicer to myself because normally I wouldn't take a rest, I've never taken a rest you know but this( ??????) And of course in my own situation I've been doing this for 60 years young guys look at you and say what are you doing, you know, so there's some responsibility for how you handle the prison aspects you know that your caught and you can't go anywhere I mean you couldn't wipe the counter with a sponge I remember when you bought groceries it would take hours to put it on the table because you had to brush everything up etc etc. They had a plague in 1919 somehow the world went on."
W. "So as you emerged from the restrictions and were able to perform live again is that something that you began to do or were you pursuing other things."
D "Yeah .. I mean have a lot of people who I am in contact with, you know, musicians and gigs were like ..you made up for the lost time (????? ) now we could do it. So there was a feeling of sort of jubilation of how we could really get into this not that it's over but it's abated and I'm ready to burn I'm ready to make my contacts, new contacts and old contacts and that slowly happened over the past two years for everybody. Is New York back.. not quite.. but in some ways yes really it is the centre of jazz it has been since the 40s you know I mean. So from when you go down from below 14th Street to Canal Street and count the clubs you have dozens. I also had to make a living .. I mean that was the other thing you know you couldn't just go float around for six months you know. First month or two okay injury time count your blessings and your hopes and your disappointments but you know by the fourth or six month you know you’ve got to get on the case because you can't live on air and everybody's got responsibility I mean (?there is some series small past Masters but they’re recorded) and I did that and it was good and it paid very well. So actually I’ve been recording more than I ever did with overdubs and things like that ..that’s all since the pandemic."
W "Have they been studio located recording sessions or remote Dave.?"
D "I have a young lady five minutes from here who can do the overdubs stuff where I come in I have to play 28 bars or something like that. I can do that you know (laughs) and she's down the street .she’s on 89th Street we're on 77th Street so you know."
W. "So does she come to you Dave?"
D "No .. no she has her equipment. Its just a little room and she's even cutting back on it again because you know live you have to contend with different things but if you go into the studio it’s kind of we do no harm."
W. And when you got back on stage literally, and I can understand a massive contrast between, I'm not sure to what extent you did any social media involvement or streaming did you get involved in that side at all Dave?
D "Well my daughter is big on PR she is very.. Getting to be quiet well-known in PR jazz PR so I count on her of course and my wife (????)changes every day it seems. It's not that I find anything wrong with the social media is just that I don't have time for it. If I was 25 years old I’d be right on it like I was when I was 25 etc so everything in its time you know,"
W "And when you would got back performing live with other musicians what kind of reaction did you have to that any thoughts that you may have had before whether you were concerned are we going to get this together or what we feelings on actually being back there Dave."
D "Well it was positive you know we were coming from ashes and everybody was equal ..a small community like Jazz community ..maybe 100 young people involved you know then established guys like me we were glad to have something to be positive about because the pandemic we were just talking about was quite cruel ..shall we say ..in its way it struck and when you started to see some clubs opening up guys playing more you say yeah man let's go let's go support the music and support these young musicians. So it's been a cycle you know kind of down vibe .. into the middle where people are starting to interact until where we are now which is(? quite a bit happening .. you’ll pick it up I your few days here I’m sure?) You take that hot house magazine and you look in there and it looks like there's nothing but jazz clubs in New York. Manhattan not just Manhattan Brooklyn also and there’s an enthusiasm that’s natural to young people that we try to encourage. I teach here they come in here and I go to the positive side what I can do for them and what they should be doing. Look the glass is half empty .. half full let's do it half full tonight."
W "The kind of composition elements that you were doing during that time is that something you're working on now are you still adding to those pieces Dave or do you feel as if they’re .. Are you going to record them or what’s your.".
ID "I'm not sure I'd love to record them of course.. there's nothing monumental about what I wrote during the pandemic you know just a couple of things I think I could do and stuff like that my work with orchestra, big band everything, that's all things in the past and that would be a body of work that I fix and I start again you know like that but I don't look at composition that way I think composition is a chance to really make choices that have an inevitability about them when they're in the music and your job is to ferret out the useful and the not useful with whoever it is, with younger musicians with your own musicians. I mean I had a band a good band we did three recordings and a pandemic ended that because it was too much to get the guys together and I was a little nervous (??I’m not going to wear a mask I'm a saxophone Player I can't wear a mask ..which was kind of a problem ?) But the positive energy was started to evidence itself already."
W. "Do you sort of get the vibe that more small clubs have opened their doors since to kind of give the young the emerging musicians literally a stage do you feel as if that's the kind?"
D "Yes these places especially in Brooklyn they playing kind of door maybe … pass the hat literally pass the hat but that's what you do. That's what I did with my first Group(???) We did 10,000 miles in the states did a loop (???) Had everything booked we were the young cats that's what you do ..when you get established you bring it back to the bandstand and to the human element is there is any they're not necessarily has to be I mean I know bands were nobody talks to each other but more or less there’s a positive element of communication. Jazz is a great communicative field it's not just the music it's like what we're doing today journalism and art that's why we love covers so much. And I think the community is really, without being formal about it, is really enthusiastic about whoever playing and ‘I’m working Friday night with so and so ..oh yeah tell me a little bit about it .. oh Come on down play a tune you know that camaraderie is something very evident in jazz, can’t talk for rock'n' roll or for classical. I know one thing about Jazz it's about about communication and the music actually is secondary to a human relationship I mean when you talk about another musician you say ‘is he cool’ ..you know what that means.. that means he can play and he's a nice guy .. Then we start to talk about ‘well bar three you know."
W "Thank you Dave."
D "I"'ve never been questioned about the pandemic."
M a r i s a R a w l i n s - B r a d f i e l d
Musician
Hollywood, CA, October, 2023
W. "Well it's lovely to see you again and thank you so much for welcoming me to your home to participate in this project I wonder if you could give me an insight please into what you felt during the restrictions of Covid when you couldn't play live and just what went through your mind and what did you do perhaps. Any aspect you'd like to talk about."
D "Well I'll be honest with you I took advantage of the time to rest. I've been extremely busy you know I'm always busy. Well I'm not going to say I was burned out but I felt the need to cool out. So a lot of that time was spent watching some television and to a certain degree reading but it's funny because in the last few weeks I’ve had students who were involved in projects during that time and it was heartening actually you know they were the young folks and and they continued to put persevere as young ones do and so watching then and seeing retrospectively now because it's been long enough to have a past history this Covid 19 again it was really interesting to hear the projects. There was so money available for clubs to stay open, there was some compensation going on to help, so it wasn't just like we're on our own you know. But for me, we just moved here two years ago, so there was a lot on the plate that really I needed to listen to and everything and gather together my feelings about it but outside of the fear of your health going crazy it was like a sabbatical and of course the thing about money (? How. Can you survive when you don’t have an income ?) there was a lot of aspects that were involved and just well we couldn't do anything but hands up a lot of it was very positive .. except for the dying ..outside of that there was very positive atmosphere not during but during it everybody was like hangdog …. how are we ..you know
But in retrospect now it comes up to be a little more positive than it really was maybe I don't know we could conjecture about that all day you know. So R and R rest and recreation was my mantra."
W "Just to carry on with that theme did you feel as if taking that time for R and R.. Did you consider or compose new pieces or did you just enjoy the relief, release of ..
D **Little of both, a little of both I did a certain amount of writing at the beginning,…… living in Manhattan ..we came from Pennsylvania f??fiveteen ..thirtyfive years ?? To living in Manhattan finding some paperwork it's going to be challenging but outside of that initial response at the beginning I was pretty much not on the same page.. what can I say.. I felt that I needed to rest and be nicer to myself because normally I wouldn't take a rest, I've never taken a rest you know but this( ??????) And of course in my own situation I've been doing this for 60 years young guys look at you and say what are you doing, you know, so there's some responsibility for how you handle the prison aspects you know that your caught and you can't go anywhere I mean you couldn't wipe the counter with a sponge I remember when you bought groceries it would take hours to put it on the table because you had to brush everything up etc etc. They had a plague in 1919 somehow the world went on."
W. "So as you emerged from the restrictions and were able to perform live again is that something that you began to do or were you pursuing other things."
D "Yeah .. I mean have a lot of people who I am in contact with, you know, musicians and gigs were like ..you made up for the lost time (????? ) now we could do it. So there was a feeling of sort of jubilation of how we could really get into this not that it's over but it's abated and I'm ready to burn I'm ready to make my contacts, new contacts and old contacts and that slowly happened over the past two years for everybody. Is New York back.. not quite.. but in some ways yes really it is the centre of jazz it has been since the 40s you know I mean. So from when you go down from below 14th Street to Canal Street and count the clubs you have dozens. I also had to make a living .. I mean that was the other thing you know you couldn't just go float around for six months you know. First month or two okay injury time count your blessings and your hopes and your disappointments but you know by the fourth or six month you know you’ve got to get on the case because you can't live on air and everybody's got responsibility I mean (?there is some series small past Masters but they’re recorded) and I did that and it was good and it paid very well. So actually I’ve been recording more than I ever did with overdubs and things like that ..that’s all since the pandemic."
W "Have they been studio located recording sessions or remote Dave.?"
D "I have a young lady five minutes from here who can do the overdubs stuff where I come in I have to play 28 bars or something like that. I can do that you know (laughs) and she's down the street .she’s on 89th Street we're on 77th Street so you know."
W. "So does she come to you Dave?"
D "No .. no she has her equipment. Its just a little room and she's even cutting back on it again because you know live you have to contend with different things but if you go into the studio it’s kind of we do no harm."
W. And when you got back on stage literally, and I can understand a massive contrast between, I'm not sure to what extent you did any social media involvement or streaming did you get involved in that side at all Dave?
D "Well my daughter is big on PR she is very.. Getting to be quiet well-known in PR jazz PR so I count on her of course and my wife (????)changes every day it seems. It's not that I find anything wrong with the social media is just that I don't have time for it. If I was 25 years old I’d be right on it like I was when I was 25 etc so everything in its time you know,"
W "And when you would got back performing live with other musicians what kind of reaction did you have to that any thoughts that you may have had before whether you were concerned are we going to get this together or what we feelings on actually being back there Dave."
D "Well it was positive you know we were coming from ashes and everybody was equal ..a small community like Jazz community ..maybe 100 young people involved you know then established guys like me we were glad to have something to be positive about because the pandemic we were just talking about was quite cruel ..shall we say ..in its way it struck and when you started to see some clubs opening up guys playing more you say yeah man let's go let's go support the music and support these young musicians. So it's been a cycle you know kind of down vibe .. into the middle where people are starting to interact until where we are now which is(? quite a bit happening .. you’ll pick it up I your few days here I’m sure?) You take that hot house magazine and you look in there and it looks like there's nothing but jazz clubs in New York. Manhattan not just Manhattan Brooklyn also and there’s an enthusiasm that’s natural to young people that we try to encourage. I teach here they come in here and I go to the positive side what I can do for them and what they should be doing. Look the glass is half empty .. half full let's do it half full tonight."
W "The kind of composition elements that you were doing during that time is that something you're working on now are you still adding to those pieces Dave or do you feel as if they’re .. Are you going to record them or what’s your.".
ID "I'm not sure I'd love to record them of course.. there's nothing monumental about what I wrote during the pandemic you know just a couple of things I think I could do and stuff like that my work with orchestra, big band everything, that's all things in the past and that would be a body of work that I fix and I start again you know like that but I don't look at composition that way I think composition is a chance to really make choices that have an inevitability about them when they're in the music and your job is to ferret out the useful and the not useful with whoever it is, with younger musicians with your own musicians. I mean I had a band a good band we did three recordings and a pandemic ended that because it was too much to get the guys together and I was a little nervous (??I’m not going to wear a mask I'm a saxophone Player I can't wear a mask ..which was kind of a problem ?) But the positive energy was started to evidence itself already."
W. "Do you sort of get the vibe that more small clubs have opened their doors since to kind of give the young the emerging musicians literally a stage do you feel as if that's the kind?"
D "Yes these places especially in Brooklyn they playing kind of door maybe … pass the hat literally pass the hat but that's what you do. That's what I did with my first Group(???) We did 10,000 miles in the states did a loop (???) Had everything booked we were the young cats that's what you do ..when you get established you bring it back to the bandstand and to the human element is there is any they're not necessarily has to be I mean I know bands were nobody talks to each other but more or less there’s a positive element of communication. Jazz is a great communicative field it's not just the music it's like what we're doing today journalism and art that's why we love covers so much. And I think the community is really, without being formal about it, is really enthusiastic about whoever playing and ‘I’m working Friday night with so and so ..oh yeah tell me a little bit about it .. oh Come on down play a tune you know that camaraderie is something very evident in jazz, can’t talk for rock'n' roll or for classical. I know one thing about Jazz it's about about communication and the music actually is secondary to a human relationship I mean when you talk about another musician you say ‘is he cool’ ..you know what that means.. that means he can play and he's a nice guy .. Then we start to talk about ‘well bar three you know."
W "Thank you Dave."
D "I"'ve never been questioned about the pandemic."
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