Last week on this blog, I began to allude to problems that I have had in the past with Sambuca's, and linked to a story in a Musicians Union publication that discussed problems some other musicians have had with Sambuca's.

After I wrote that blog post, my email flooded with responses from local jazz musicians. All of them had their own negative experiences to share with me. In my opinion, many of their bad experiences were far more serious than my own. Yet they also all wanted to make it clear that they wanted to remain anonymous because they did not want to hurt their career or the careers of their friends.

Based on their feedback, I badly wanted to launch a full investigative report of the claims that musicians were making. However, it did not take long at all for me to realize that due to my negative experience with the club, I could not possibly write a fair story. That’s why I’m passing the story off to Blair Lovern. Blair’s love of country music makes him the perfect impartial reporter to investigate a jazz club.

But I think I owe it to all the musicians that emailed me to at least tell my story:

Just over a year ago, I brought my band Soda Popinski from New Orleans to Dallas for two gigs at Sambuca’s Addison location. The gig was set up two months in advance with Jamye Spurgeon, the manager of the Addison location. Jamye could not have been friendlier on the phone, and told me that she was hoping to get more bands like us to play at her venue.

When we arrived, we were greeted with open arms. Jamye spent some time hanging out with us in the afternoon. I told her that I had loved a Joshua Redman concert I had seen at the Addison club years ago. She bragged that the Spryo Gyra show that they had got an even bigger crowd than Redman's show. She said that over 700 people came in for the Syro Gyra performance even though that was way over the club's capacity.

Then the problems started. I asked Jamye where we could set up our merchendise table to sell CDs and T-shirts. When we were negotiating the gig, I specifically asked if we would be allowed to sell CDs and T-shirts, and Jamye said it would be no problem. Yet once we were there it was a huge problem. She finally allowed us set up a table behind the bar completely out of sight to the audience.

Then Jamye handed us a list of Sambuca policies. These policies included things like - no soliciting tips from the stage - which I had no problem with. However, they also included things like - drummers will be expected to use brushes instead of drumsticks - which I had a major problem with. In my opinion, it is okay to have policies such as that, but it is not okay to tell the band an hour before the show after they have driven in all the way from New Orleans. Luckily, the assistant manager Shawn was able to help us tame Jamye on the drumstick policy.

Once we started playing, it was clear the crowd was enjoying what they were hearing. We received requests for some Miles Davis tunes. Tips were sent up to the stage despite the fact that we did not solicit them. Shawn told me that we had more dancing in the club than any show that he could remember. The waiters actually all got together to come up to the stage and applaud after our version of The Meters classic “Cissy Strut”. But Jamye was flipping out the whole time. She kept coming up to the stage and making a throat-cutting signal in front of the crowd to suggest that we should turn the volume down. She yelled four letter words at us. She even cut the speaker hooked up to the keyboard at one point. She was upset about the volume, yet the club does not provide a sound engineer to run the mixing board and help control volume levels.

Before our final set at the club, she threatened our pay. All the while, the crowd was dancing and we were signing autographs after our sets.

After the concert, I went into her office and told her that there was absolutely no excuse for the way we were talked to. She continued on her rampage throwing out four letter words. Despite being on her staff, Shawn (who was also in the office) even told her that the way she talked to us was offensive.

Once back in New Orleans, we received two complaints from fans that had been yelled at by a lady that fit Jamye’s description. That pushed me over the edge. I put in multiple phone calls and e-mails to the owners of Sambuca’s. They never responded.

I finally got in touch with Rick Wells, the regional manager, by phone. After I told him my complaints, Rick started yelling at me with four letter words. He said my problem was that I thought of Sambuca’s as a jazz club. He said it was a restaurant and the musicians were there to play background music, not to showcase their own talents. He said he didn’t care how many people were dancing and having a good time, because Sambuca’s is supposed to be a sit down restaurant.

I maintain that Sambuca's advertises itself as a jazz venue. When they contacted me about a gig, they never said we were supposed to play background music. Frankly it defies logic to ask a band to drive in from New Orleans to play in the background. The good news is that in between sets and after the shows, audience went out of their way to talk with us and bought a whole lot of CDs, so we left there with some nice bank.

Anyway, that is my experience–..Blair can take it from here. Expect Blair’s investigative report about Sambuca’s tomorrow.