[Tradjazz] another successful OKOM event

[Bruce McNichols]

On Tuesday, April 22, 2006, we had yet another gathering of like-minded folk for an OKOM Trad Jazz Event.

Bill Taggart, our founder, has been producing such things for almost ten years now.  They are funded by Bill who provides the facilities along with food and drink. At one point I noticed Bill handing out several of our OKOM CDs (how's he ever gonna sell any?)

Our friend Don Robertson, of Napa California, sent a message inquiring about the event.  Below is my reply to him.

McN

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Jim Fryer (bone), Bria Skonberg (trumpet) and their band were their usual wonderful selves. Herb Gardner played piano with them.

Joel Schiavone (founder of the worldwide Your Father's Mustache clubs) joined them for a spirited version of Dinah. Then, Joel brought up a half dozen Mustache alumni and they did a set of typical banjo/sing-along material.

After that, we invited several musicians who had a jam session for quite awhile. That was followed by an ersatz version of my group, The Smith Street Society Jazz Band. It was me on banjo, Herb Gardner on trombone, my wife Lynne (vocals). To that we added Jim & Bria and Jonathan Steenstra on bass sax.  From the Bria/Fryer band, bassist Ed Wise played piano with us.

Then it was time to chow down. Bill and Patricia Taggart brought us upstairs where we enjoyed a catered meal, buffet style.

After about an hour, I gathered most of the musicians to come downstairs with me, for more music. When we got there, a session was already underway.

For the last session (many hours) we added Rocco Patierno (bone and vocals), Vinnie Borselli (cornet) and Robbie Scott (drums).

As we often do, we recorded the proceedings. This time we used 24 tracks (each mic on its own track) which will give us lots of mixing options. These informal sessions may or may not yield usable material for release, but we simply don't want to miss out on what might be fabulous.