Top to Bottom:
- Band, Old Roman Road (Celje);
- Audience in underground Celeia Ruins (Celje);
- GH & Klemmen Kotar, sax (Divaca);
- Marko Crncec in the snow;
- Jazzy al fresco (Postojna);
- GH in a classroom (Koper).
Croatia, Italy, Austria. Czech Republic – we got to all of them. But my home will always be tiny Slovenia – read on…
Fun Fact No. 1- Underground Jazz…I mean, ACTUALLY Underground…
CELJE
The current city is named for the Roman town “Celeia” they discovered and have lovingly preserved many stories underground modern-day Celje. We did a concert on the 2000-year-old Roman Road and the audience gathered in and around us in the old town square. Again, I might add: MANY stories UNDERGROUND. I have never respected what the roadies go through so much – loading in all our gear down so many flights of old Roman stone steps.
Fun Fact No. 2- Winter Tours and Barefoot in an Ice House
DIVACA
In the time we were touring over there twice year – winter and summer – we had a winter concert in a tiny jazz club in an old ice house in Divaca. The snow was piled up outside, but I impressed the band by powering through the concert barefoot. Popsicle toes indeed.
SKI RESORT CONCERT
I can’t remember the name of this village or resort and it’s just as well: 1) the owner never paid the band (Tomi, our manager, still paid us, though – he’s the reason for all the tours!) and 2) no one should make a great player like Marko Crncec stand around in the cold. It was 20 degrees, yes, lots and lots of snow. You can find it on YouTube, in a blurry, pre-5G format.
Fun Fact No. 3- Postojna Rules!
POSTOJNA
Postojna has been SO good to our band- I have a medal from the city, the best stages and lighting, great photos (check out a photo from Valter Leban here from our 2022 tour) – but one of our first gigs was at “Jazzy” – a cozy little spot right on the railroad tracks. When you REALLY crave a little coal dust and diesel with your latte.
Fun Fact No. 4- Confusing the Children
SCHOOL APPEARANCES
Almost every tour, Tomi would bring me into a school for the kids to hear about “The Evolution of American Popular Music.” If you enlarge the whiteboard, you’ll see the tangled blob I drew, probably confusing everybody. The real reason I was there was to give the kids practice in speaking and hearing English, as well – and usually they spoke better English than I did!
