August - December 1973 Ellenville NY

     After our successful run at the Laurels Hotel Sammy decided to Book us into the Safari lounge at the Nevele Hotel.

     We got the same pay and room and board as we did at the Laurels and this time around we each got our own room. The hotel owned a small motel that was located near the entrance to the hotel grounds and we had rooms in there. I think there were 9 rooms altogether.

     The only drawback to this set up was the water which came from a spring and had a rotten eggs sulphur smell. Not too bad and it didn’t linger after you took a shower but, enough to notice while you were showering or brushing your teeth. It took a few days to get used to that.

     We set up in the Safari Lounge which had quite an interesting decor. On the bandstand with us was The Bobby Johnson Quartet. Bobby was an old school trumpet player who had moved from NYC up to Ellenville in the 60’s. He was a wonderfully soft spoken cat and he had been playing that room since he moved in to town. We alternated sets with his band.

     Occasionally during the week, small local acts were brought into the Safari and we would take turns playing those acts with Bobby’s band. It was an interesting mix of really good entertainers and wanna-be’s that probably should have been satisfied with their day gig.

     Bobby’s bass player and drummer were lodged in the motel with us. I remember that the bass player played a Fender P Bass Larry Graham style.

     Bobby’s pianist was a unique cat. Can’t remember his name.

     One day I walked into the lounge at the end of Bobby’s set and I noticed that the pianist had on white cotton gloves. We’d been there for several weeks by this time and I never saw him wearing those gloves so I asked him, “What’s up with the white gloves?” His response was, “Oh man, the piano is sending bad vibes into my fingers so, I’m not going to touch it anymore!”.

     I was impressed at his tactile sensibility.

The Safari Lounge

     This photo of the Safari Lounge looks like it was taken in the ‘60s and if you look closely you can see Bobby standing all the way on the right on the stage.

Nevele Showroom

     David Freye, the comedian played in the big room one night. He did a lot of political impersonations. His Nixon impersonation was hysterical. After his show he came up to the lounge and sat at the bar drinking by himself and fiddling around with a deck of cards. He was still there when we finished and we went over to say “Hi”. He was a very nice guy and asked us if we'd like to see some card tricks … we said sure. Well, for the next hour as we all got more and more tipsy he did one card trick and coin trick after another. It was quite a lot of fun and we were amazed not only at how many tricks he could pull off but, his ability to hold his licquor was rather James Bondian!

     I wish that I had a camera up there with me, the grounds and the surrounding area were beautiful. There was a hiking trail at the edge of the property that led up a steep hill to a waterfall that had an 8’ or 10’ drop into a small pool which then fed a stream running down the hill. If the weather was good I would hike up there and sit at the waterfall seemingly for hours. It was always quiet and I don’t remember anybody ever walking by when I was up there.

     As time went by I got to know some of the local staff members who were around my age. Every so often they would get in touch and invite me to a picnic lunch at their favorite swimming hole. It was a neat place. A big stream that emptied into a decent sized pond with rocks that were large enough to spread a towel out on and just lay in the sun. Jump in the water … Lay in the sun … Jump in the water … Lay in the sun … repeat!

     It was an interesting time to live up in that area of NY State. Not too many years past Woodstock and the surrounding towns still had a ‘60s vibe. Bobby’s drummer Joe and I used to drive into nearby New Paltz and go to a health food store in town for lunch.

     We worked there late from July to just after Christmas 1973. So, we got to see some of the winter sports up there. There were some very nice ski trails. Not Olympic type runs but they were good enough for people to have a lot of fun on. After the first snowfall I decided to go to the café where the skiers would come in for a snack or a coffee or a hot chocolate and watch all the fun. I had never been skiing and I was thinking that since I’m here maybe I’d give it a try.

     Well, after a few days of watching I started to notice that there were guests coming into the café with an arm all bound up or an ankle all bound up or even on crutches.  I guess the risk taker in me was not willing to chance it so, I decided to skip skiing and go for a Tai Chi lesson and then to the steam room instead.

Nevele Main Building

     Like the show band at the Laurels Hotel the guys at the Nevele were top Shelf New York City jazz players. After we got to know a few of the more seasoned cats they invited us to the open jam sessions that were going on several times a week in the show room at the Concord Hotel.

Oh yes Lil darlings ... invitation only ... casual attire!

     These were amazing jam sessions and Frank, Tommy and I went to as many as we could. It was really cool that the Concord allowed these sessions to happen! I met musicians from every hotel in the mountains. Later on in my career I would bump into these cats at some of the jazz festivals or clubs that I would work at with Grover, Margret and Za Zu Zaz.

Nevele Lobby

Straight out of the Jetsons