Barrett Deems resumed his Tuesday night platform at the Elbo Room a few weeks ago, a month before his 83rd birthday. Surrounded by his 18-piece orchestra, the drummer, who’d been on vacation for six weeks, picked up the microphone and rasped, “It’s great to be back at the Elbo Room, which has been like a third home to me. The first is my home, and the second is the hospital.” He peered into the audience through large, dark-framed glasses. “Hey! Wayne and Donna are here. Good friends of mine. They’ve been married 48 years, and I only have one question.” He paused a beat. “Why?”
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During the first break Deems’s wife of 17 years, Jane Johnson, headed to a table to talk to friends. She plays alto sax in the band and is approximately half Deems’s age. Deems went to the bar and plopped down on a stool. He doesn’t drink, and never has. “No booze, no pills, no nothing. The only pills I take, and I hate to take them, are from the doctor. I’ve lost a lot of good friends to drugs and booze.”
The riot caused an international sensation, he said. “It was in all the magazines, Life magazine, everything. And they said the drummer this and the drummer that, and they didn’t mention a name. What the hell, it could have been an African drummer. So I’m mad. Then we went to Hamburg, Germany, and they tore up the set there.”
“That Old Black Magic,”‘ he noted. “Jane, that tune stinks!”
–Jeffrey Felshman
