"There's a funny thing used to happen. Oscar had this wonderful piece he wrote called Bohemia After Dark. And the bridge sounds like some American Indian-type thing—tom-tom. And this was very tricky rhythmically. And he used to keep this piece on the music stands, and naturally a lot of people would come to sit in. He used this as a theme to end every set. A lot of very important players would come down there—big stars and all that. He used to get the biggest kick—they'd sit in, and everything was fine; and at the end of the set, he'd say, ‘Theme, play the theme. There it is, up there, play the theme, go on out.’ And these guys would say, 'Oh, yeah, sure,' and they'd read it and do the first sixteen down fine, then they'd get to that bridge—to a man they'd mumble and stumble all over the place, couldn't play it. And Oscar used to crack up. This was his idea of a musical joke. 'Cause nobody could play it. They'd just sorta ride along and come to a big rut in the street. It was a very unorthodox phrase. If you got to look at it a little bit, you could play it, but it's not the kind of thing anybody would sight-read that well. So he used to get a tremendous kick out of stumping the experts, so to speak." - Pianist Dick Katz as told to Ira Gitler
Winner of the 2025 Jazz Journalist Association Special Citation for Historic Writings, Steven Cerra is the author of anthologies on Gerry Mulligan, Bill Evans, Stan Kenton, Dave Brubeck, Shelly Manne, Jazz West Coast Readers Vols. 1-3, Profiles in Jazz, Vol.1, Jazz Drummers A Reader Vols. 1-2, Jazz Saxophonists A Reader, Vol. 1, 2 & 3, Jazz Piano A Reader, Vols. 1, 2 & 3, Jazz Trumpet A Reader Vols. 1 and 2, A Companion Celebrating The 100th Anniversary of the Jean Goldkette Orchestras, 1926-2026 and a Companion to Jazz Interpretations of Porgy and Bess. His latest publication is A Bill Evans Reader Vol. 2 - THE NOTES; a collection of fully annotated liner, insert and boxed sets notes from Bill’s recordings. He also hosts the jazzprofiles.blogspot and cerra.substack blogs.
