Alice in Wonderland – Stefan, Jesse, Cassidy, Clifton. I think we found a mid-week home for a little while. It seems we do alright with tourists and their kids. All the kiddies want to jump around on top of the sculpture (insert creepy photo of the mad hatter here).
Afterwards, I went to grab a Turkey Burger at Neil’s Diner. I was actually hoping to run into Billy from the Blue Vipers there. I was imagining that Neil’s was like the Sardi’s for Central Park early swing musicians. Stefan and I got to talking about all the different bands in the city that do this music. I mentioned Peter Ford’s last two house parties that seem to be great ways to bring the community together. I was thinking of a kind of biblical list of names and lineages that would describe the different outfits and their members. I want to make a graph or a clickable picture of the history as I see it… My friend Amy Staats once uttered a real gem of Yogi Bera quality: she said she had been to visit the museum of modern history!
Here’s what I know for sure. Jake Sanders, Michael Magro and I formed a band called “Treasures of the Sea”. They were already together when I met up with them but it wasn’t until the trio was together that we actually named the band. Eventually we all went our separate ways. Michael started the group called “The Loose Marbles” Jake and I (along with Tamar Korn, Miguel Wiseman, and Brian Petway) formed the “Cangelosi Cards.” Jake and I decided to go our separate ways and I formed “Tin Pan.” At some point some of the Loose Marbles who are more often in New York than New Orleans formed a group called “Baby Soda.”
There’s some other stories… The story of the “Blue Vipers of Brooklyn” has similar twists and turns and draws in other bands and associations like “Jose Flat Fix”, “The Brooklyn Rhythm Kings”, “Stefan Wremble Trio” And then their is the Michael Aranella story which also includes “The Moonlighters” and certain other associated groups. Of course this is all a developmental, experiential, social, soap opera. With luck, and the laws of genetics and evolution, these stories will stay varied and interesting. As I get more details I will publish them here on the category of “Modern History.”