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Things have been settling in real nice with Rod on the bass and we’ve decided to start branching out and doing something really bold like trying to play in the evenings every once in a while. We did a hit on Monday at the park around 5pm and the energy in the band was just great but there were not that many people. The proposal came up to barnstorm the Bowery Poetry Club that night. I think the exact words were “The Leprechaun Qui S’adore is playing. We can totally just take that gig over!” (insert sinister laugh)

It wound up being a little more polite. Stefan just knows every person at the Bowery Poetry Club as he did booking there forever and a day. It was their open mic night so we wrangled a 20 minute set in during the breaks.

The performers that were on stage were alternately genius, horrible, genius and horrible, and one who was so genius and horrible that he was my favorite. What a train wreck! Here’s a synopsis. An asian guy with a cane gets up on stage and starts shouting at the crowd. “Hello” The shout back. “Hello” etc… Then “I Love You.” Less shouting. Then “Tell me my name” The one’s that know him shout “Donny!” Repeat several times. Waiving of the cane. The DJ starts playing “Come on baby light my fire” and then he starts singing “Hello, I love you, won’t you tell me MY name.” It was spectacularly bad! I looked at Rob who had a face of utter confusion and appreciation. He concurred that this was his favorite act so far.

When the readings were finally over, we literally jumped up on the bar in the back of the room and started to wail. I got up on the bar and I was so shaky and uncomfortable that I had to sit down on the bar immediately and do like a fire-side casual kind of thing. Clifton just started playing a clangy minor thing which through experimentation turned out not to be “Ritz” or “I found a new baby” but, in fact, “Bie Mir Bist Du Scheon” Stefan jumped up on a tiny cocktail table. All the girls and guys were grinding. We had the place in pandemonium, singing and shaking for 20 minutes. I was playing trumpet as loud as I could and singing louder than I could. Clifton was hitting his guitar with as much muscle as he could muster. It was a god awful racquet! But it worked for the room and we left as total rockstars!

Hi.

We’ve been out in the park about 5 days a week and we are beginning to see some of the same people regularly. In the following few posts I’m going to introduce you to these colorful types.

I got to the park early as usual to warm up and claim our bench. A cool guy name Jerrold and his super-friendly dog, Mr. Perkins strolled up to say hi. J. has been around every day for the last couple of weeks. Sometimes he’s just walking his dog and sometimes he listens. He’s a song writer and he was real happy with the way I updated “Comes Love” He was familiar with the original lyrics and was glad that someone took out references to the cure for blowing a tire as “getting another shoe.”

He is also critical, but in a good way. He seems to have a list of the songs that really work for my singing and the ones that don’t. That’s a good list and I want to get a hold of it.

So anyway, Tuesday morning we’re talking about “Putting on the Ritz” and updating those lyrics. We’re having a fairly cultured conversation about Irving Berlin and about how you just can’t sing the original lyrics to that tune which contain references to “High tone” girls and other racially charged words. In the middle of this, a guy who I immediately recognize as Pierce Brosnan sits down right next to me on my bench, right where Stefan usually sits. His one child was climbing on Alice and his wife and other son were sitting on the adjacent bench.

Being a good New Yorker, I completely ignore him and continue my conversation with Jerrold which has now turned to agents and what they can do for you - how its generally hard to find an agent because to be of any real use they need to have heard of you already. etc… The whole conversation is very down to earth on the level, industry shop talk kind of stuff. Eventually Jerrold goes on his way and I start to take out our CD’s and generally set up shop.

My 007 bench mate asks about the CD’s and says he’ll buy them without even hearing us play because he can tell that I’m very serious about it. At some point, a European with a camera asks to take his picture but he waives them off saying he is with his family. Clifton comes up just as Pierce is handing me a $50 bill. Which I can’t break. So I ask Clifton to help. And of course, being a gentlemen I want to introduce Clifton to my new acquaintance but I don’t officially know him yet. So I introduce myself, “Hey, I’m Jesse” and reach out my hand. He says, “Hi, I’m Pierce.” “Pierce, this is Clifton.” etc…

This is a trick I actually learned from Clifton who met Lou Reed at one point. Lou Reed was curious about Clifton’s vintage guitar and started asking about it. Clifton pretended to not know who Lou Reed was so as to to make him more comfortable. “Oh, do you play?” According to Clifton, we know the public image of the celebrity but the celebrity themselves still has every need to introduce themselves and present themselves in the moment. Otherwise its more like pretending you know them if you only know them from the media.

Anyway, this tactic (and I say that because it actually was all premeditated while talking to Jerrold! - I recognized Pierce’s face immediately - It’s James Bond already) worked great. We fell into a very easy rapport. He introduced me to his wife and kids. We spoke about his older boy learning the bass etc…

Stefan said he was going to be late and Rob and Clifton and I were ready so we started with “Just a Little While” Just as it was time for Stefan to take a solo he comes spinning up the steps with his rolly cart filled with his bass clarinet and bari-sax. His tenor and his clarinet were in his backpack. He shows up in a flurry determined to get to the bandstand and be playing by the time the chorus starts. Pierce Brosnan is sitting in his seat with his youngest on his lap. He just rushes right up to his spot and completely takes over. Pierce, jumps up and out of the way and Stefan begins blowing into his clarinet as it is coming out of his backpack, playing it out of his case! Of course, all of us are laughing out loud at the antics.

Twenty minutes alter, after the Brosnans had gone, we started joshing Stefan about how he had scared James Bond out of his seat by his mad rush. Stefan didn’t know what we were talking about! He just saw some annoying tourist sitting next to me on the bench and he just barnstormed the guy so he could get his spot!

George Yi is a great swing dancer and now he’s a swing DJ. His job takes him to different locations for a few months at a time. Previously he was in Australia, and now he’s in Amsterdam where he’s helping to kick-start the Lindy-hop scene over there. George recently DJ’d at a few Lindy events and he’s been playing Tin Pan music.

Here’s a video that George just sent me of last Friday at the Lindy Exchange event in Amsterdam. The track is called “I Found a New Baby” and its off our first album, “Early Jazz and Americana” The players are Jesse Selengut - trumpet, Miguel Weisman - Harmonica, Nick Russo - Guitar, and Brian Petway - Bass. We recorded it around the corner here in Brooklyn and it is great to think that the music travelled all the way to the Netherlands and got people to dance.

This track is only available if you see us live. It’s not in any stores or on-line outlets. I think that George still has a few copies left (I gave him a bunch when he was here in NYC). So if you are in Amsterdam or are going to Harang, track down DJ George!

Another Shanghai Mermaid has come and gone. A doosey. This time at the Brooklyn Lyceum which was decked out and reminded me of an old USO show, maybe. A big space with finally enough room for everyone so it wasn’t so body - to - body. Still about 400 people there!

The highlights: We got to perform with Veronica Varlow. We did the piece that we did in her video. (FYI, the video nears completion and looks great) This is actually the first time we’ve been able to perform it live. The last time we tried we got shut down by the cops in flagrante delicto. This time was great. V.V. loves us and wants to create more oevre.

Stefan in his own delicto, inadvertently kicked his metal clarinet off the stage THREE TIMES in the very first set of the night! That thing is clearly Stefan proof. It works just fine. Stefan did the wonderful, party-stopping, breath-taking hysterics that include barging through all the table with his tenor, dancing and humping his tenor in front of / along / against a dancing girl.

Tuba Joe had a huge show. Man, that guy can play the TUBA. Dude.

Fun for all it would seem. Shout out to our favorite bartender CHAD PARKS. You rock, my man.

Saturday was our best day in the park this month. For once, Stefan and I didn’t have to run off for other gigs so the whole afternoon kind of stretched along very pleasantly. We can’t start on saturday’s until noon now. A few weeks ago a very matronly lady who’s wardrobe and demeanor screamed, “My family donates millions to this park every year and you will do what I say.” told us that we could not play while they were having story-telling over at the Hans-Christian Anderson Sculpture about 200 yards away. Stefan was funny about it. He knows New York on a very deep level and he gave the lady in the sun hat and purple foulard much respect. “That is not the lady you want to mess with.”

I got there at noon and waited for the crew to arrive. The first to show was Stefan’s mom, Jan. She came porting a camera ready to shoot us with a few lenses. She was such a sweetie and introduced herself right away. The next to show was Rob Adkins. This is only his second time playing with us and hopefully it will not be his last. He’s a tall, lanky, quiet type with a big broad smile and an easy demeanor. Clifton and Stef arrived in tandem and we got down to business.

Rob’s sound complimented us very very well. His sense of groove and the volume of his bass was perfect for the environment. Saturday’s always treat us right but the freshness of having a new player along who was so clearly enjoying what was happening lifted everyone’s spirits.

Our third set was the magic set of the day. Again, Bill Bailey stole the show and netted us a lot of CD’s sales. That tune is certainly going to find its way on to our new disc come the fall. In the middle of this Sara Simms showed up. A violinist with perfect pitch who was alarmed to be playing fiddle tunes in horn keys. Oh well. A very cool woman with a lot of cleverness and attitude. We hope she comes back again soon.

Right at the end of this third set, exactly at the moment where we had sold all the CD’s and passed the hat, it started to really really rain. We tried to stay dry for a moment under our shade tree and did our best to protect the wooded instruments. Stefan, clearly, just had to keep playing rainy songs… These included (to my ear) Happy Birthday, Footprints, God Bless The Child, random screaming, and others. He did this while a) hoping up and down on the Alice sculpture. b) putting his weight on his right hip and pushing himself around in circles with his left leg. c) skipping and prancing like a satyr. d) all of the above.

D.

Today was marked by the reuturn of Tuba Joe. Who’ll be with us all week and do the Shanghai Mermaid show with us on Saturday night.

We did ok today despite feeling a little shaky in the music. Stefan hadn’t touched any kind of horn in the last 4 days. That’s just weird. That guy is always playing the horn. Plus we had gotten used to the acoustics of having Cassidy on bass so getting Joe back is an adjustment for everyone.

Still, our new version of Bill Baily makes me smile every single time we do it. So dark. I love tunes that I get to make up new lyrics each time around.

Speaking of which - for the song “Bring it on Down” - the lyric of the day was - “Crazy little dolphin said with her flipper, I’ll show you my wet suit if you let me be your skipper.” Pure none-sense.

Central Park has been treating us just great! It’s been a lot of fun out there this week playing with Stefan, Clifton and Cassidy. The music is really gelling and we keep adding some new tunes.

Here’s a video that I found of us playing “Comes Love”

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A fun guy has been coming by this week. He’s got a big bright smile and a loud, awesome red jacket and told us that he has three or four shows up and running in the city. He’s the lyricist, Hal Hackady. Check out his Wikipdeia Page

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I’ve been playing New Orlean’s music with Linnzie Zaorksi on her New York tour. We played Joe’s Pub, Webster Hall, and Galapagos so far. Tonight we’re at the Lakeside Lounge. I’ve been learning a lot about Tin Pan and what we actually have to offer in terms of this music. Every experience I have draws me closer to the reality that this music requires a vibrance of joy and passion and we, as a group, have ample supply!

Great playing at Joe’s Pub and Webster Hall! Good monitors, good sound system, quality tech and stage people, good dressing rooms. At Webster Hall we even had big burly bouncers outside our dressing room. Ha Ha! That was fun!

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Twitter: For those of you that use twitter, we now will have updates available on twitter. Twitter is for little updates that answer the question, “What are you doing now?” You can access it with your mobile phone or with the web. I figure it will be helpful so I can keep you updated about the street hits. It will come in handy if things get moved around or if we experience bad weather or whatever. Here’s the address to follow us: www.twitter.com/tinpanband

So sorry!

We’ve been doing great. All the things that equal success are certainly happening for us. We sold 1,400 CD’s between April and May! That’s astonishing to me and I am very grateful. The gigs and private parties keep getting better, the repertoire keeps expanding, and the music keeps getting more joyful and also dirtier which is kind of cool.

So cheers to you and I’m off right now to go to Alice.

It was beautiful today out be the Alice in Wonderland Sculpture. Cassidy and Clifton are coming together real well with all kinds of different rhythm ideas and grooves. Fun.

Just as we were warming up and before Stefan arrived a tour group of Canadian Musicians was standing in front of us. A girl, Ashley I think, had some questions about the bass so we asked her if she wanted to play. We insisted and all her friends were chanting her name! So our first tune had a special guest. We played a blues in F, I wrote some lyrics for her on the spot!

A good day for sure. We are now sold out of the “Jazz and Americana” CD’s that I made last year. I just put in an order for a re-up so we should be in stock again soon.

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Headed to Phili tomorrow morning to play at the Italian Market Festival there. I’m curious and excited about it.

I’ll be brief but there is a bit of good news.

It all started this weekend. It was our best weekend in the streets as a group. We sold 130 CD’s in two days. The music was light and fresh and we had a great time.

On Tuesday I got a call from Tim at Music Under New York. He told us that we had been selected fro a banner but we couldn’t tell anyone yet because they weren’t releasing the results until Thursday. He was calling us to ask us to perform at the press event where they would announce the winners.

So that’s what we did yesterday. We went to Grand Central Station over by the S platform and performed three little tunes. We wound up with mentions in today’s Daily News, New York Times, and New York Post - the post gave us a nice photo and a great little review saying that out of the three bands that performed we “won the gold!!” We also were interviewed a bit and wound up being broadcast on NPR!!

Very stoked about it all, clearly!

Here’s some links I found…
1010wins.com - This one also has an audio clip we are on.
nydailynews.com
nypost.com - This one a good photo and says really nice stuff about us.
ny1.com - This one has a little video (.ram) file that features the band.