(BG Independent News is checking in on some local performers to see how they’re doing with the lights turned off on nightlife. Here’s our second report.)
By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Saxophonist David Bixler headed back to New York City the afternoon of March 13. The night before he led the Jazz Lab Band I in what would be the last concert for a while on the Bowling Green State University campus.
Bixler and the guest artist pianist Frank Kimbrough from the night before shared the same flight back to what would soon be the epicenter of the national coronavirus outbreak.
Bixler had a low-key gig in Harlem set for that night. He figured he’d head straight to the bar from the airport. He called the venue as soon as he landed. They were open he was told, but they’d understand if he and the other two musicians didn’t want to play.
Bixler called off the gig. The other musicians, he said, seemed relieved.
A national state of emergency had just been declared.
No one knew what was happening.
Since then Bixler and some members of his family have been holed up in their home on the edge of Harlem bordering Washington Heights.
His wife, Heather, spent five days about three weeks ago with a high fever. She’s just getting her sense to taste back, Bixler said.
Heather Bixler never got tested for COVID-19. They just decided to ride it out. No one else in the household which also includes their grown daughter and her boyfriend, their 17-year-old son Sean, got sick.
For Bixler this has been a time of weighing priorities. He’s had more time with family than he has in years. As director of Jazz Studies at BGSU he’s been commuting for more than a decade between BG and NYC.
“Everyone’s questioning what’s really important,” he said. “It’s interesting to see who you are when everything you do is taken away.”
Maybe a lot of what he and other musicians obsess about is not that important. “There’s a reordering of priorities that’s going on, and I think it’s positive.”
Bixler was getting ready to release his newest recording by his newest ensemble the Bixtet. “Blended Heritage” brings together a jazz quintet with a string quartet, that includes Heather Bixler on violin.
The recording will be released on Red Piano records on May 15. He had two record release dates lined up in May, which will go by the wayside.
He’s posted one of the cuts “Blended Lineage Part 3 Trenches”on YouTube to provide a taste to listeners.
Bixler is counting on people looking for new music with everything shut down.
Bixler said he’s making sure he practices every day to keep his chops in shape for when the music scene opens up again. He has a few personal projects in the works. He set about to relearn or learn all the compositions of Thelonious Monk. He was inspired in part by the fact that the last time he played live with other people it was with Kimbrough who has recorded all Monk’s work.
Bixler is also revisiting ballads that he played in the past.
Figuring he’d have time, he also returned to an unfinished composition for soprano saxophone, bass clarinet and piano.
But the idea that he’d have spare time was an illusion. Everyone in the household is either teaching or taking classes online. They’re pushing their internet connection to its limits. He’s teaching BGSU students over Zoom, and trying to keep the Lab Band engaged with playing exercises and listening and commenting on a video of the Thad Jones Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra performing in Copenhagen in 1969.
Meanwhile he’s helping Sean with his schoolwork, not an unusual arrangement for people he knows.
Bixler’s uncertain whether the clubs he works in will survive the pandemic. Jazz clubs probably aren’t high on politicians’ lists of priorities, he said.
Even a storied venue like the Village Vanguard is endangered.
Once people are out and playing again, he’s not going to take what’s available for granted, whether it’s in New York or back in Bowling Green. “Everyone is starved for live music.”
Bixler’s ready to feed that appetite whether at a New York nightspot or at the Wednesday night jazz sessions at Arlyn’s Good Beer in BG.
Manley taking it slow
Back in Bowling Green, another saxophonist Bob Manley is savoring some time off. In the past year he played about 150 shows. He’s made a career straddling the worlds of rock, pop, and jazz.
“It was nice welcomed break,” he said when his gigs were canceled. He does miss his weekly jam with the Bob Rex Quartet playing jazz at the Village Idiot.
But now he’s not sure when that or his other work will resume.
In the meantime, he’s concentrating on practicing, something he hasn’t had the luxury to do much with his schedule. Playing as much as he does, he needs to give his muscles a rest.
Now he’s seeing the toll that has taken. Getting the metronome out, playing at slower tempos and in odd keys, makes him realize “how sloppy” he’s gotten.
Manley recently bought a new Yamaha tenor, which given he mostly has been playing alto, he hasn’t gotten a chance to really break in and get familiar with.
Manley and his wife, Ginger Barson, namesake of Ginger and the Snaps, are taking time to garden and putter around the house.
Manley said he’s not struggling financially since he’s collecting Social Security.
“I’m lucky,” he said. “I play with a lot of young cats. These guys live check to check. I don’t know how they’re doing.”
He hinted maybe when this is over he may cut back on how many jobs he takes. But then, he adds, “I still take the calls.”
