Blackstone

Harry Blackstone, Jr. was perhaps the last of the great vaudevillian magicians, carrying on in the tradition of his father. In the fall of 1978 he mounted a 9 month tour which included a live band, a dance troupe, live animals with trainers, and a truck full of props and costumes along with a tech crew. I was able to recommend a number of fine musicians for the tour, as the Kenton band had just folded. Jim Ercole and I played the reeds, Al Hoel and Jon DeFlon were on trumpets, Roger Homefield on trombone, Jay Cummings played drums, Milo Paillotet was on bass, and the piano/conductor was Chuck Bird. It was a strange time, comic and tragic all at once. I think these pictures of the production numbers do best at capturing at least some of the unintended Fellini-esque ambience. I don't think Harry had any idea of the bizarre little world he had created. The show itself consisted of Harry doing his featured solo pieces (The Birdcage, The Light Bulb, The Rope Trick) alternating with the large scale production numbers. Life on the bus and off the stage was just as weird, all of these strange and dynamic young performers from different worlds and disciplines all living with each other day and night. This was a reality show decades before anyone had heard of such a thing. Nearly requisite recreational drug use, sexual indulgence and ambiguity, combining with the necessary (and neurotic) discipline of exercise and diet that dancers must endure, and the free-wheeling and hyper-sensitive nature of jazz musicians forced to play circus music, all of these conflicting needs and greeds colliding and combining daily. It was… intense. After only a few months off of the Kenton band I had gone out with the Blackstone tour, and from there to U.S. Air Force boot camp in a matter of a few weeks. It took me years to sort through and reconcile it all.

The Blackstone Bus

The Blackstone Ensemble

Blackstone Solo