Ed Hagen & Friends

Jim Young and I booked Ed Hagan and Friends for one month in April or May of 1976. Ed's day gig was cooking lunches at The Grape. I can't remember when they stopped playing Thursdays through Saturdays and most Sundays, but it must have been for the next four years or so when Pat Coil's Recoil started playing weekends. We didn't charge a cover for years. And Ed continued playing regularly until I sold my part of the club to the other partners.

~~~

Shown above are Cody Sanderfer (drums), John Perkins (guitar), Ed Hagen (vibes and marimba), and Alex (bass; sorry I can't remember last name here but I will). Thanks to Jim Atkinson for reminding me that Alex's last name was Kemp. I bet you still might find him at the Stoneleight P. reading a magazine and eating lentil soup.

Ed had lots of friends: Steve Sunday (piano), Pee Wee Herman (piano), Lee Robinson (guitar), Genie Grant (female jazz singer extraordinaire), Jimmie "J.Z " Zitano (drums), Mimmie McShane (DSO cello) and almost every musician in town who could drop by for the last set to sit in. The photo was taken by Dick Hyman, a steadfast regular, one of my best friends until this day, and, as you can see, a great photographer.

~~~

More soon....

The Crew circa Christmas, 1980

Are you here? Tell us who you are? I remember Mickie Davis, Kirk Hampton, Carolyn Meese, Ruth (can't remember last name), Jan Hardesty, Rick Henderson, Jeannie Bartlett (Smith), Cindy and Dan, Rick Garrison, Jerri Lilly.

 

 

Easter Weekend 4/18/76

We opened up the jazz room on Easter Weekend, 1976--literally. Jim Young and I took down the wall between the bar and what had been a beauty parlor in the space that became the space where countless jazz musicians brought the best music to Dallas County. With sledge hammers and saber saws we took out the sheetrock and put up the wrought iron rails that we lined on the upper level with small tables for two. I loved those tables--loved leaning on those rails and watching the bands. Covered in dust, Jim and I carted out the broken sheetrock to the dump. mixed the mud for patching the ceiling, put up 1x4 around the old studs to make posts for the rails, and I'm remembering that the very next weekend we booked Ed Hagen who went on to be our house band for the next five years. It was on that weekend that we began stamping our identities on an old bar that had been built in 1947 and named Tabu.

Musicians

If you played at Strictly Tabu at any time, please post a comment. If you remember artists who performed, would you also please post a comment. Especially if you played during my years there (1976-1984).

Purpose of the Blog

I am attempting to gather as much information about Strictly Tabu as possible. Much I remember; much I don't. It's a wonder I remember much at all. Strictly Tabu was, indeed, an anachronisticly remarkable place--a funky jazz joint just barely inside the latently "gated" Highland Park.