Mild Man Blues

Woody Allen and His New Orleans Jazz Band
December 18, 2006
Segerstrom Concert Hall
Costa Mesa, California

The program for Woody Allen’s performance of Dixieland music at Segerstrom Hall included bios of every member of the band EXCEPT for Mr. Allen. A brief notice that Allen skipped the 1977 Oscars because he didn’t want to miss his Monday night gig is the only indication you’ll find that he has a career outside of the music world.

One can write that off to modesty, to a desire for the musicians to get a little time in the spotlight. The more cynical of us would dare to suggest that Allen’s band is a group of anonymous and gifted professionals (banjoist Eddy Davis, the first among equals) surrounding a world-famous amateur, and that there would be no way they’d be performing a nationwide tour without the name recognition of their enthusiastic but marginally-talented clarinetist.

Allen calls his group the “New Orleans Jazz Band.” I was fortunate enough to attend the show with a friend of mine who for many years hosted a blues and jazz radio show at WWOZ in New Orleans. He hosted it, in fact, until Katrina drove him out. His take?

“That….tone….” and he says the word “tone” as if he just found a caterpillar in a salad. We agreed that Woody made some great movies. And hope that, one day, when we’ve written 50 movies and won a few Oscars ourselves, we can indulge ourselves in a vanity project that will draw as large and enthusiastic crowds as Woody. Could it have been worse? Sure. It also could have been Nicholas Payton, or Preservation Hall, or the Night Blooming Jazzmen, or…or…or….