pic of the week
| Gordy Pratt |
| Gordy hired me to play my first gig in the Black Hills upon my
return in the late eighties. It was for a vaudevillish melodramatic piece he wrote about
Deadwood that was being performed in the newly legalized gambling mecca of western South
Dakota. $25 a night; it was a pianist and myself and a troupe of actor/singers. Gordy
rewrote a bunch of Broadway classics with very clever lyrics that told the history of
Deadwood. I just had to keep time and kick all the jokes. What a delight after
trying to sell people on various forms of jazz my entire life. Gordy wrote about a dozen of those shows and singlehandedly became the Barnum & Bailey of the plain states. He eventually went out on his own; I think he plays all the parts now. A great classical guitarist underneath all the glitz. Plus he knows virtually every costumed person in the midwest. |
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