Two lessons from the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge

Image © Damon's Brain

I stepped out of the cab onto the green glowing pavement with my partner in crime for the evening, Mr Justin Mowday. He is the CEO of DDB New Zealand and, this is just hearsay and vicious rumour, might like the occasional party.

He had come up with the fine idea to find a jazz club and, by chance, we had found Al Capone’s favourite haunt, now called the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge. Later on, by sheer good fortune, we would also sit in his favourite booth. However, this gangster-themed evening would take a gentler turn because of two events.

As we sat down with our very weak beers, the band was about to be introduced. The club’s owner was an older, slightly balding gentleman in what looked like a Hawaiian shirt. He looked like somebody who had flown helicopters in Vietnam or had to leave Florida very quickly. Either way, somebody who was wearing a thin Hawaiian garment in less than tropical conditions was not to be trifled with, under any circumstances.

Listen

This was confirmed when he explained the house rules. When the band plays, you shut up. You listen. You don’t use your phone. You listen. You don’t use flash photography. You listen.

And then, the band came out. Most of them were at least 75. The lead singer was Sheila Jordan. She is 89 years old.

Charlie Parker described her as ‘the singer with the million-dollar ears’. She was fantastic. She was funny. She could tell a story with her songs. Her age and frailty somehow amplified her talent. Her phrasing was surprising and the band that supported her knew each other so well, that you felt safe inside the beautiful, improvised experiment that is jazz.

About halfway through the set, a couple started talking. They were almost in the front row. Now, this is a club. There is going to be a bit of background noise, right? Wrong. Hawaiian-shirt man gets up from his booth. We watch from the safety of Al Capone’s booth as he, in about ten seconds, eviscerated them.

Reverence

I imagined him saying something along the lines of: “If you value your life and don’t want to die in a nameless Chicago alley, you will shut the f*ck up.” They stopped talking. I also noticed a bouncer the size of a large land mass, say Madagascar, gliding like a super-tanker through the club, looking for people who were talking.

They were not joking around. They were saying, “Shut the f*ck up and listen.” They were saying, “Respect the artists.” There was a reverence for the musicians that I had never really seen before.

So, Justin and I really started to listen. Now, if I am honest, I don’t know if I really have ever understood jazz. And, I suspect, there are many more like me. Sure, I know the names and have listened to a few albums. But perhaps, I have never really listened.

The drummer began to do a solo. I realised as he started his improvised journey that the whole club was listening the way I was.

It’s a strange concept to feel other human beings listening.

We were able to hear ideas being born. And maybe, for a moment, we kind of understood the jazz thing.

We were witnessing the absolute freedom to create. However, what’s more important is the audience had created the space and the understanding for the drummer to be that free, simply by listening.

Learn to listen, so the artist can do what they do. Learn to listen, so that you can hear something new.

“Man, if you gotta ask, you’ll never know.” – Louis Armstrong