Jazz in the Village is alive and well and the only way to spend time on music. This letter is from Mezzrow & Smalls on 10th Street. Is it great or what!!
Dear Friends:
“The Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene” – that’s the actual full title of the New York City branch that investigates all bars and restaurants and doles out the fines, the “A”‘s and “B”s etc. I understand the health part but the “mental hygiene” never made sense to me until the other night.
It was a packed house at Smalls for Ken Salters group. Of course, it’s only when a business is in full swing do they send the inspectors – never when it’s convenient. Our most pressing issue has been Minnow, the jazz cat that lives in our club and defends us from mice and large water-bugs. We have a pretty good system down with grabbing her and skirting her out the back way as soon as we see an inspector show up. This time, we weren’t so lucky as there she was sitting in Mitch’s lap just as he arrived. This was a new guy, someone we hadn’t seen at Smalls before. He came down the steps and just stood there for a second – kind of bewildered. It definitely wasn’t what he was expecting to see – a jazz club in full swing, a cat, folks everywhere. Mitch tossed the cat and started to explain but the guy didn’t really seem to notice her. He walked in. Looking at the band and the crowd, he turned and said; “wow, they’re playing real instruments!” – Mitch smiled, maybe we had a chance. We took him behind the bar and showed him our thermometers, hand wash signs, all the things we knew had to be there but he hardly seemed interested. Then Tivon Pennicott started to take a solo on the tenor and the guy just stood there and smiled. He was in utter disbelief! He took it all in, like it was some kind of dream and just smiled. A real music lover. After about 15 minutes, he came back from behind the bar and went to Mitch. “You guys pass, I love this place!” – and then handed us our “A”, a clean bill of health – the scene is clean, as they say. It seems that in this case our “mental hygiene” was grade-A, what could be better for the mentality than a nice does of real jazz music, a great crowd and a good vibe? Cat? What, cat?
Regards,
Spike