Same song, new notes
INTERVIEW WITH PIANIST JOHN BERCAW
The band's name is different, but the music never changes. Except the notes are fresh.
"Last year, we called ourselves 'The Coke Otto Band,'" said pianist John Bercaw. "But that was too obscure and no one knew what it meant."
So this year, John Bercaw and the Aristocrats will perform for the annual Little Chicago Jazz Society
Membership Concert.
While the new reference may be a little less obscure because of a recent film, Bercaw just chuckles at the possibility of a connection.
"It used to be a musician's joke," he said.
The Aristocrats include Bercaw, vocalist Barb Guenther, bassist Steve Bruce, drummer Jimmy Seward, trumpeter Dave Petrik and Bill Gemmer on trombone.
"We've been rehearsing," Bercaw said, but paused a moment and laughed when asked what new stuff they've been working on. "It's the same old stuff at different tempos.
"When you play this kind of music, there is no new stuff," he explained. "You just go to the guys and ask, 'What stuff do you want to do now?,' because it's all stuff that everyone knows anyway."
Bercaw said that he's been playing with vocalist Guenther since the early 1980s when the rock band he was playing in with her husband, bassist Bruce, broke up.
"He wanted us to stay together to play some jazz," Bercaw said, "and in the process said, 'My wife's
singer, by the way.'
"So any chance I have to work with them, whenever anybody wants a singer, I give them a call.
"That's the way we put bands together. Everybody knows the same stuff."
Coke Otto, by the way, was an early name for the village of New Miami. As for the Aristocrats, you'll have to see the film.
(Photo by Cameron Knight/JournalNews)
