In the '60s and '70s, when rock was king, for any North American teen who dreamed of musical fame, learning to play the electric guitar with suitably straddle-legged machismo was the only route to nirvana. Taking up other unfashionable instruments like the trumpet, saxophone, tuba, clarinet, squeeze box, etc. was nothing short of social suicide.
Decades later, scarred for life and near-deaf from heavy-metal overdoses, I'm still in musical therapy. Recently, this has involved liberal injections of vein-tingling world music. One recent such therapy session involved a trip to Aoyama's Club Cay. On the card Tuesday night was a two-band event guaranteed by the doctor to be guitar-free. Every man jack of Macedonia's Kocani Orkestar and Tokyo's Black Bottom Brass Band would be playing one of the above-mentioned "unfashionable" instruments -- tubas, clarinets, squeeze boxes, et al.
First up was Black Bottom Brass Band and they arrived -- not by way of the stage, but weaving their way in procession through the crowd of cheering punters.