Holiday Party...nobody sleeps tonight!
This weekend was Mr. Brad Kay’s annual holiday party, wherein most of the L.A. jazz community gets together in one small craftsman-style house and enjoys live Dixieland jazz jamming till the wee hours—and maybe some dancing if there is room...Everyone who is anyone shows up, and, as Mikal said, you have to dental floss yourself through the crowd if you want to get to the kitchen or to the bathroom, or to any part of the house. And you have to find air pockets in which to situate yourself. It’s legendary! This year, there were so many musicians and singers who wanted to perform that Brad made a list so that everyone could have at least one song...Brad’s house is full of fascinating antiques, like Victrolas, toy pianos, piano rolls, old show business photographs, an entire room FULL of shelves of old 78 record rarities...Huzzah!!
Claudia and me
David and Claudia--the newlyweds
Corey wailing...
Claudia and me
David and Claudia--the newlyweds
Brad and The List of Performers To Be Named Later
Mikal and me
Happily, last year’s drama did not repeat itself...I brought ginger snaps, port wine cheese, and chardonnay. Not a nut to be found. Did not drink a drop of alcohol. Ate only vegetables and dip and crackers, and my ginger snaps with the port wine cheese (it’s SO good, y’all!). I was sober and allergy-free all night long.
Claudia, David and I stepped out for a bit to get some air and went to a ’50’s café for dinner. Ironic, because none of us are huge fans of the time period. We even discussed it: we said how we didn’t like the ’50’s (women’s fashions and roles in society, some of the music, movies and TV), then kept coming up with exceptions, things we DID like about the ’50’s (movies like On the Waterfront and 12 Angry Men, and songs like “Tequila”), and finally decided that what we really didn’t like about the decade was the white-washed, wholesome, Stepford images that TV and film presented. Twin beds for married people. Doris Day. Squeaky clean and unrealistic. To people like us, who weren’t there, that’s what we thought it was like at the time. Then we slowly learned that reality was carefully hidden behind closed doors. In addition to Doris Day, there was Betty Page. I said, I know WHY the ’50’s was all domestic and full of happy homemakers—because World War II was over and the boys were back home, and it was time for the women to stop working and time for folks to get back to the marrying and family raising. But The Feminine Mystique showed us that, at least for women, that Donna Reed/June Cleaver, happy housewife image was an illusion. I want to know what the real ’50’s was like! So if anyone out there was alive back then, don’t keep it to yourselves! I wanna learn! Claudia and I still don’t like the hair salon coifs, petticoat skirts, bullet bras and scary, thick, painted-on eyebrows, though...
Back at the party, there was more hot jazz leading us through the night. It was so unbelievably fun to share it with dear friends! We danced whenever the tempo was right. The later it got, the more it cleared out, and we could move around in bigger circles. Yee-ha!! My friend Marta and I did a lot of dancing—she was sick and talking too much, losing her voice, so I told her to just dance with me and save her voice, and she did. Claudia and David, still newlyweds, performed, both singing, he playing ukulele and she dancing. They’re so perfect for each other...Claudia and I talked about singing together, working on harmonies, and possibly an act or two. The singing bug is back! Yay!!
Claudia, David and I stepped out for a bit to get some air and went to a ’50’s café for dinner. Ironic, because none of us are huge fans of the time period. We even discussed it: we said how we didn’t like the ’50’s (women’s fashions and roles in society, some of the music, movies and TV), then kept coming up with exceptions, things we DID like about the ’50’s (movies like On the Waterfront and 12 Angry Men, and songs like “Tequila”), and finally decided that what we really didn’t like about the decade was the white-washed, wholesome, Stepford images that TV and film presented. Twin beds for married people. Doris Day. Squeaky clean and unrealistic. To people like us, who weren’t there, that’s what we thought it was like at the time. Then we slowly learned that reality was carefully hidden behind closed doors. In addition to Doris Day, there was Betty Page. I said, I know WHY the ’50’s was all domestic and full of happy homemakers—because World War II was over and the boys were back home, and it was time for the women to stop working and time for folks to get back to the marrying and family raising. But The Feminine Mystique showed us that, at least for women, that Donna Reed/June Cleaver, happy housewife image was an illusion. I want to know what the real ’50’s was like! So if anyone out there was alive back then, don’t keep it to yourselves! I wanna learn! Claudia and I still don’t like the hair salon coifs, petticoat skirts, bullet bras and scary, thick, painted-on eyebrows, though...
Back at the party, there was more hot jazz leading us through the night. It was so unbelievably fun to share it with dear friends! We danced whenever the tempo was right. The later it got, the more it cleared out, and we could move around in bigger circles. Yee-ha!! My friend Marta and I did a lot of dancing—she was sick and talking too much, losing her voice, so I told her to just dance with me and save her voice, and she did. Claudia and David, still newlyweds, performed, both singing, he playing ukulele and she dancing. They’re so perfect for each other...Claudia and I talked about singing together, working on harmonies, and possibly an act or two. The singing bug is back! Yay!!
Janet and me
Corey wailing...
Finally, at 5 in the morning, Mr. Kay kicked us out, because he would soon be on his face, unconscious. By the time we said goodbyes and I got home, it was 6:30. Exactly the time little Bix usually wakes up and wants to play! But he apparently didn’t sleep much that night, and was aware that I was gone—he greeted me at the door, looking at me like, where the HELL have you been all night??? He ended up sleeping, too, all cozy on top of the covers.
Us little jazz babies, we sleep during the day...
Us little jazz babies, we sleep during the day...
Comments