Jada – Looking Back 10 Years
Last week I was looking for old recordings of our family band from back in the 70s and 80s. I thought I had some files on my computer or some old CDs. I didn’t find any on my computer, but I did find an old CD. But it wouldn’t play on anything that I have. It’s an old recordable CD, so that may be the issue. When those things came out, we thought they’d be good forever! I guess that is not the case.
Today when I first started to consider a topic for tonight’s post, I remembered something. I do have a recording of our family singing – at least some of them. It’s a recording of my parents, my sisters Jamie and Karen, and me singing and playing in Lake Charles when we were making arrangements for my parents to move into assisted living. Then it donged on me – that was 10 years ago. A ten-year anniversary is sufficient for making a Throwback Thursday.
I would have liked a recording of the whole family, but I’m not even sure we have that. When I think of the family band, I think of the years that we played at Shakey’s Pizza Parlor in Lake Charles, Louisiana, from 1976 to 1981. And the name we performed under was – drumroll please – The Landry Family Band. When we started, the oldest three kids – Jodie, Rob, and Karen – were in college, while the younger three – Al, Van (myself), and Jamie – were in high school. That first year of performing – the 1976-1977 school year – was the only time that three of us were in high school at the same time.
Jodie had gotten married to her first husband in 1973, and by this time they had moved to Texas A&M. Rob started a Louisiana Tech in 1973, so he was away for most of the time. They didn’t play at Shakey’s as much as the rest of us. Karen went to McNeese in Lake Charles and actually got a job at Shakey’s, so she was there a lot. During the first year, we played Wednesday through Saturday nights. I don’t know how we did that with three of us in high school.
After the first year, Al graduated and he went to Tech as well, which meant he wasn’t at Shakey’s as much as Karen, Jamie, and me. But when he was there, we got to play some of the Dixieland songs. Daddy had a book that had arrangements for Dixieland songs to be played by the trumpet, clarinet, and trombone. Those are the instruments that Al, Karen, and I played, respectively. There were a few of the songs that we played regularly. I can’t remember the names of all of those tunes, but one of my favorites was Bluin’ the Blues. It was kind of jazzy, and it was a fun arrangement for all of us.
The one we did the most, though, had to have been Jada. “Jada! Jada! Jada, Jada, Jean Jean Jean.” Those were the words that I always sang. But I looked up the words online tonight and realized that I’ve said them wrong all these years!! It’s only been 50 years! The correct lyrics are, “Ja-Da, Ja-Da. Ja-Da Ja-Da jing jing jing.” When I posted this video 10 years ago, someone made the comment, “Jing jing jing.” I didn’t think he knew the song, so I thought he just typed what he thought he heard. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Oh, well. I still think I will sing “Jean Jean Jean” in honor of Karen, whose middle name was Jean.
When we recorded the song 10 years ago, we didn’t have all of our musical instruments. It was Landry Family Band Lite. So Daddy had to improvise. He didn’t let us stop with just one quick verse. He started us up again and accompanied us with his scat version of the trombone part of the arrangement. I find it very charming.