When I first got to Toronto in 1980, some people I met suggested I get down to George’s Spaghetti House to hear Moe Koffman. Koffman booked the venue and also played there on a regular basis. Unfortunately, I never managed to do that. And now it’s gone and so is Moe.
Moe played at the venue so much, in fact, that a joke making the rounds in the day had a prospective attendee to the club calling up and asking who was preforming that night, then quickly adding “and I won’t take Moe for an answer.”
Koffman was best known as a flute player, though he played the sax and clarinet, which is a common form of multi-instrumentalism, or doubling, as they say. In 1957 he had a hit with “Swingin’ Shepherd Blues,” an incredibly catchy tune the likes of which appeals to music fans who might not otherwise care much about jazz. In fact, it’s just the kind of cross-over hit that makes jazz purists squirm. You wouldn’t want the uninitiated digging your music. In a way, it’s like Vince Gauraldi playing those Peanuts Christmas songs. For a lot of folks it’s the only jazz they might ever appreciate.
“Swingin’ Shepherd Blues” is a fun tune to listen to and fun to play. Good enough for me. Koffman died in 2001, but he had a pretty good run, having played with some of the brighter lights in jazz like Dizzy Gillespie and Peter Appleyard. And he did a lot of session work on the Canadian scene, including music for movies. Basically, he had a decent career in music, which is no easy task.
Sure, “Swingin’ Shepherd Blues” is kitschy, but catchy too.