(Review by Russell)
It's a shack set back off the highway. It's the kinda place where you park the pickup, adjust your baseball cap, wander in, grab a bar stool and order a cold beer. Mid West America, Dullsville, Nowheresville, little happens here, you could be made to feel like Spencer Tracy in Bad Day at Black Rock except on this occasion it would prove to be a Good Night at Pudgy's.
A few minutes from Bix Fest's main base off Washington Highway you'll find Pudgy's. Basic, homely, a pool table, tvs showing American sports. Once a year, for a few hours, things change in this joint. Unsuspecting locals break off conversation as a bunch of out-of-town dudes walk through the door brandishing an assortment of hardware...an alto sax, a clarinet, trumpet, banjo, guitar, sousaphone. Bix Fest's annual jam session curtain raiser was about to get under way.
Guys who travel the world performing in prestigious concert halls and at major festivals mix it at Pudgy's with the best of the Illinois/Wisconsin A-listers. Andy Schumm (principally known as a first rate cornet/trumpet player) on clarinet, Dave Bock (trombone, sousaphone) and a host of others sat in and out, in between trips to the bar and socialising with all and sundry a matter of hours ahead of the practice and prospect of 'self-isolation' became the talk of the town. Beer, more beer, jazz 'n' more jazz, gone midnight little did we know the scale of the pandemic/panic daybreak would bring. Russell
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