The Doorman’s Diary: 5.28-29.11

One thing I really appreciate about the jazz club is the willingness to accept the odd, the unacceptable, and the normative contrary. All are welcome without evaluation or discrimination. It may be what jazz clubs have always been about—the safe haven for the outcast / disenfranchised to perform and enjoy their music. If it’s our heritage, I embrace and celebrate it. As The Doorman, I make all feel welcome. Cases in point… one from tonight and one from the other night. Tonight we had an unlikely pairing—a couple you’d never expect to be together. They came late and were both on the generous side of six-feet tall. The white man looked like a stylized mountain-man with long wavy blond hair. His friend was a slim black woman with short, jelled hair with blonde tips that was sculpted close to her head. She had large dangly earings and 21^st-century glasses. She looked fierce, like Grace Jones—the Jamaican-American singer, model and actress from the early 1980’s. The remarkable plaid-flannel-mountain / “Nightclubbing”-Grace-Jones couple fit comfortably in the jazz club. The other night I welcomed a regular—another six-foot-plus jazz aficionado—a cross-dresser who favors matronly clothing styles. S/he showed up with two, similarly-attired female friends. I believe that the reason our tall friend returns to the jazz club and brings friends is because all of us at the jazz club treat her with respect… at least I hope that’s a reason.