"Take it, Big Dog!" Jamming with Jorma

Living legend Jorma Kaukonen, the guitarist from Jefferson Airplane and one half of the original Hot Tuna (alongside bassist Jack Casady), arrived in Israel in December 2010 for a special concert of Hot Tuna in Tel aviv, right on the eve of Jorma's 70th birthday! 

They landed on Wednesday, December 22, and upon their arrival, there was a quick "meet and greet" at a local used record store in downtown Tel Aviv, where I first met Jorma, his sweet wife Vanessa, and legendary bassist Jack Casady.

 

Jorma 

 

That night, Hot Tuna - Jorma and Jack, performed in Tel Aviv to a full house, and at midnight as it turned into Thursday December 23rd, Jorma marked his 70th birthday on stage, and we all cheered with him.  

...A day or two later, there was a special get together with Jorma as featured guest at the Jaffa home of one of the promoters of the show - Yamit Hagar, and a number of musicians and friends in the community were invited to participate in an informal jam. A number of us were sitting in a circle around the small room, with Jorma at the center, four or five of us holding guitars and following closely as Jorma played. 

That's me in the foreground - under the blurry gray cap. 

 

At one point, Jorma began playing the Hesitation Blues, a song I have been performing on stage for decades. He noticed that I was finger-picking the accompaniment in the style of Rev. Gary Davis and in perfect time with him, so he turned to me and said: "Take it, Big Dog!", and I took a couple of verses, trying not to crack up laughing from his comment.

My old friend, Rock and Blues singer Libi, was sitting next to me, and completely burst out laughing at the moniker "Big Dog", and for months after that, would not let me forget it, teasing me frequently with "Hey Big Dog!", "Yo, Big Dog!"....

 

We wrapped up the jam, and we all went outside to the sun and fresh air on the Jaffa beachfront nearaby. It was a lovely day, and a very special experience.  

  

 

A happy Bluesman, following the jam, 
getting fresh air at the nearby Jaffa beachfront.
 

 

 

 

 

That time I showed the Blues Brothers movie in the middle of Lebanon!

In the summer of 1984, I was sent up into Lebanon on army reserve duty for a month. The Israel Lebanon war was just entering its third year, and there was still plenty of fighting going on.

I was sent up as a communication equipment technician for a month of reserve duty in A-Nabatiya, a town somewhere in the center of south Lebanon. The army base was a multi-story  old tobacco factory at the edge of town, and it served as offices, barracks, and a supply center for our forces in that region.  

 

 One evening, I walked out of the electronics lab where I repaired damaged equipment, and I see a room at the end of the hall with a 16mm movie projector running. As I stepped in to check it out, I immediately recognized the sights and sounds of the classic Blues Brothers movie. When the reel ended, a few more soldiers came in to relax and watch the movie, and someone called out "does anyone here know how to operate the projector?". Trying to be a good guy, I foolishly volunteered, rewound the film, and started showing the first reel, and was about to leave, but a couple of the guys begged me to stay and keep it going, the movie was always good fun and a nice escape from the reality all around us in the midst of the war in Lebanon...

  ...and so it went - every time a reel ended, I was asked to stick around to rewind and keep the movie going. This went on for about 16 hours until around noon of the next day, when I finally said I really had to get back to work, or lunch... or anything else!  

I had scenes from the Blues Brothers playing in my head and filling my dreams for months after I got home from Lebanon...