My last post bemoaned the disappearance of local places to buy horns. Another aspect of moving instrumental sales online was the demise of places where you could do what you might call a “targeted hang." That is, a place where musicians could indulge themselves with some serious checking in and screwing off, while convincing themselves they were actually getting something done-fixing a dicty spit valve, re-corking a pad, getting a dent banged out, or looking at horns you couldn't afford. Buying a bottle of valve oil could take two hours. These were all excellent excuses for going in to sniff out who was in town, gawk at your improvisational betters, or simply think to yourself “yea, there are actually a bunch of people in this world going through the same crap that I am."
Night clubs are different. Institutions like Berklee are different. In fact, there were never many of these places in Boston, at least as far as I knew: Tottle's for mouthpieces, Rayburn's for everything, JDS (Jack's Drum Shop) School of Music and John Coffey's indescribable studio.
There's a lot happening on the blog, so I'll keep it short and come back later with a look at my little Stevie self waiting for a trumpet lesson, watching the entire trombone section of the BBC orchestra get loaded on John Coffey's booze. Talk about early inspiration...
Night clubs are different. Institutions like Berklee are different. In fact, there were never many of these places in Boston, at least as far as I knew: Tottle's for mouthpieces, Rayburn's for everything, JDS (Jack's Drum Shop) School of Music and John Coffey's indescribable studio.
There's a lot happening on the blog, so I'll keep it short and come back later with a look at my little Stevie self waiting for a trumpet lesson, watching the entire trombone section of the BBC orchestra get loaded on John Coffey's booze. Talk about early inspiration...
