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The Ageless Jazz Band

 

Ithaca Times, February , 1993

Fifteen Minutes

    It's not every day that a film crew flies into Ithaca to watch you get some dental work.  "We've been wanting to do this work for five years," says Diane Ginalski, who works as a receptionist for dentist Ira Kamp.  "But every time I scheduled myself, we'd get an emergency.  So I'd take myself out and put the 
patient in." 

     Her golden moment in the dentist's chair finally arrived last Friday when CBS came to town to shoot Kamp for "This Morning."  Kamp doesn't normally work on Fridays, so there wasn't anyone around to play patient. Exept Ginalski. 

     "Exciting?" she says.  "It was interesting.  The camera is huge, this giant camcorder right there in my face, and all I could think of was 'Don't drop it, I don't want my front teeth broken.' So now my big mouth is going to be on national television." 

     "I'll tell you the story," says Kamp, trying to begin at the beginning: Aruba, where Kamp and the rest of the Ithaca Ageless Jazz Band were winding up their second annual winter gig.  "We were eating dinner, and there were four people sitting next to us.  I didn't know who they were. I thought they were 
just guests." 

     It turns out, they were members of the CBS film crew shooting a story about vacations in the Caribbean. "They heard us play, and they thought it would make a great human interest story." 

     So they came back to film the next couple sets.  There were cameras, lights, long shots, closeups, and interviews with Kamp, director George Carvel, trumpeter Michael Cerza and saxophonist Phil Erickson.  "We seemed to play even better on camera," says Kamp.  "I don't know what you want to 
call it, tension or whatever, but our energy really came together when the lights were on and the film was rolling. The people I talked to were pretty high after the experience." 

     But of course, it wasn't enough for the camera crew.  They still needed to come to Ithaca to shoot some footage of the Ageless plugging along at their other jobs.  Like teaching music at Boynton Middle School.  Or working as a carpenter. Or as an astrophysics grad student at Cornell.  Or fitting their 
receptionist with a new bridge. 

     "It wasn't long, maybe 15 or 20 minutes," says Ginalski.  "And it wasn't pretend.  I was really the patient.  It'll be on television in March. And of course the whole family has to see it." 

     "I won't skip work," says Kamp.  "But I'll probably watch it.  I'm not really drawn to that, you now?  You've got to be like Bill Clinton, where you get your picture on everyday." 

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