Bob Burford - Part IV

It was around 1976 or 1977 in a theater (great acoustics) that had been remodeled as a ballroom on the south side of Chicago. It was a big-band gig and the audience, as well as the band, was almost all black. A perfect gig for jazz players. The stage was at least six feet off the floor. The band leader allowed the soloing musicians as much time and freedom as they wanted. The band was sitting on two sets of risers, left and right, essentially separating woodwinds and brass. The rhythm section was on the floor between the two sections.

A microphone was set up in the middle of the stage primarily for use on solos. A sax player, for instance, when it came his time to solo, would leave his section and walk out to the microphone which put him a few feet closer to the audience. As a guitarist, though, I had to stay seated in the rhythm section and play from there.

So everything about the job was normal. Nothing to write home about. A bunch of musicians doing their thing and the patrons doing theirs. As long as we played something they could enjoy dancing to, they danced. 

So it came my time to be featured. As I was warming up to whatever it was I was playing, the audience began to gather up to the stage. The closer they got ... and the louder they got ... and the more animated and boisterous they got ... clapping and shouting. That was a brand new experience for me. No one has ever responded to my playing like that. Typically, that kind of response is reserved for a sax player who’s run out of things to say, so he starts honking one note repeatedly, a la Illinois Jacquet. Not knowing what to make of it, I just continued playing.

On break after that set, a friend of mine, one of the alto sax soloists, said, “Man, where did that come from? I’ve never heard you play like that.” I said, “I’ve never had an audience react to me like that before.” “React to you?” he asked. “Yeah, just about everyone in the place was all jammed up against the stage.” He laughed. “I hate to break it to you, man, but you didn’t have anything to do with that. You obviously couldn’t see it from where you were sitting, but there was a very well endowed young lady down there doing a striptease and they were all cheering her on.” 

Hmmm ... Well, shit!