Someone said to me recently that playing jazz in a good band has occasional sublime moments that are better than sex. Well, I don't know about that(from what I remember) but I know what he meant. It gave me the impetus to try to recall artistically ecstatic moments.: Rita Moreno in the stage version of West Side Story(London, early fifties); first hearing of Louis Armstrong's Cornet Chop Suey; Margot Fonteyn with Rudolph Nureyev dancing The Rose; Ascot Gavotte in the original stage version of My Fair Lady with Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison; Billie's Blues as sung by Lady Day with Lester Young in the TV show; Count Basie band's intro number - Royal Festival Hall; Rockin' in Rhythm by the Duke Ellington Band live at Croydon Hall; Turkish Delight, Cleo Laine and Johnny Dankworth at Montreal; Vivien Leigh and Lawrence Olivier in Twelth Night; the signature music of Dalzeil&Pascoe by Barrington Phelong. Just a few that immediately spring to mind. I was reviving my aquaintance with the New Black Eagle Jazz Band via recorded tracks from the seventies, courtesy Doug Jacques, and was knocked out by the tuba solo on Rent Party Blues. Eli Newberger was the tubist responsible. Sublime! Another one for the list! I remember seeing the band at the Stickey Wicket pub west of Boston several times.
Eli was a doctor in Boston and also president of the Child Welfare League of America. I met him in that capacity at a regional conference of the CWLA in Montreal in 1975 which I had a hand in organizing. The NBEJB was, and is, a lovely band. The photos above were taken at a Riverboat Shuffle in Toronto in the late seventies. Tony Pringle on cornet and Len Gosling from the Climax on trombone. Hi Di Ho!
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