The Doorman’s Diary: 12.16-17.11

As The Doorman at the jazz club I encounter the whole smorgasbord of humanity. Tonight a street person entered and I asked for the five-dollar cover. He reminded me of five things I’ve learned over the years about this fringe element. They:

1.  Violate personal space.  
2. Spray when they talk.
3. Smell.
4. Have bone-crushing handshakes.
5. Talk with the logic of an article appearing in The Watchtower—the Jehovah’s Witness magazine. They start off seemingly making sense and then suddenly veer off into an unrelated direction, fragmenting beyond comprehension.

After politely listening to his spiel, I got him out the door quickly and focused on the trio—drums, stand-up bass, and archtop electric guitar—that was playing tonight. The trio played a lot of original music and was very reminiscent of jazz guitarist Pat Metheny. There were no more than 35 customers over the night who settled in on this brisk night to enjoy the trio’s fluid, smooth delivery—an intimate smorgasbord of modern sound fused with traditional jazz.