Jazz, Jazz, And More Jazz

The showmobile was set up for Jazz At Moca. It was the last Friday of the month. I was early as usual. I remembered back to when I was a little kid and my dad had a big collection of 78 RPM records, big Band Swing it was called and when you'd see jazz being played in a movie the guys would be wearing tuxedos, and it was like they had an entire orchestra playing. Of course that was before electric amplification took over.

When I took an interest in music in the late fifties Modern Jazz was the name of the game and electronics had allowed the shrinking of bands down to quartets and quintets. Tuxedos have way to suits with narrow lapels worn with skinny ties. At home, instead of a pile of 10 inch 78's with one song to a side we had 12 inch LP's turning at 33 1/3 RPM with perhaps 15 or 20 minutes of uninterrupted music per side. Soon monophonic was replaced with stereophonic, but people still "dressed" to play live.

Some part of my brain got jolted a bit as a group of guys wearing shorts and faded jeans under untucked sport shirts sauntered out on stage and started tuning up and doing sound checks. What the hell. It was a hot and humid Florida evening and we were thankful that rain wasn't in the forecast. The music was superb! (But I'll bet that everyone of them would tell you that an analog vinyl disc sounds better than a CD!)