[Dixielandjazz] The Second Coming

[Ivor Jones]

Original Message -----
David Palmquist writes


>
> We must share our love of our music with others if there is to be a chance
> it will continue -- but as an art form instead of popular music. Not
> everybody has an ear for jazz, there isn't even a common understanding of
> what it is, and even in its heyday, other than the subset called Swing, it
> was never superpopular.

I would agree with most of the above, but certainly in England jazz WAS
super-popular especially with who advertisers would call 'the target group',
that is the teens and twenties. In London, in my experience, in the 50's and
early 60's jazz clubs were packed, we as a semi-pro band never played to
less than a full house. College dances always had a trad band. Jiving was
THE dance. For me, and many others of our generation, jazz suddenly came out
of nowhere and we all climbed on board, and,...... and this is the point, it
could happen again. You do get more if you had an ear for jazz because you
know what you are listening for, but the thing we have discovered here in
Portugal, and in Spain, when we have played there, you don't have to know
the mechanics of the music to appreciate it.  We are mainly playing to new
listeners  Classic jazz , generally, has strong melodic content, it makes
you tap your feet, and you both remember the tune, and can dance to it. It
is, as we all know, 'good time music'. And it should be fun to play and
listen to. But then you all know that.

> Let me get in a plug for David Berger, Wynton Marsalis and Jazz@Lincoln
> Center. These people are doing a tremendous amount to bring OKOM (or at
> least MKOM) to a younger generation. If we can develop an interest in
young
> people today for the music of Ellington, Armstrong, Morton, and their
> contemporaries, then the record companies may still find it worthwhile to
> meet the needs of our niche. Jazz CD's account for about 3% of the US$13
> billion a year Americans spend on compact discs (per the Recording
Industry
> Association of America).

If it put more jazz on the shelves the percentage might go up. When we
played in Cape Verde ( just off mainland Africa ) I found that in one shop
there was more classic jazz than I found trawling around Orlando for two
weeks.

I rest my (banjo) case

Ivor
>
>
>
>
>
> At 20:05 29-12-02, Kaye Wade wrote:
> >Last Night I went to Casey's in Canoga Park in LA area.  Evie's band
> >plays every Sat. Night - basically Dixie & Jazz.  There were about 7
> >people + the band that were over 50 yrs. the other 60 were 21 to 27 yrs
> >of age & loved every minute of the music. And I see the dancers at the
> >other clubs who are all very young.  We are not loosing, we are just
> >starting over.
> >
> >K
> >
> >--
> >Kaye Wade
> >Stuntwoman-Actress, Reflexologist
> >Vocalist & Bandleader -Kaye Wade's Riverboat Ramblers
> >& The Tinsel Town Ten Minus 3
> >PO Box 1068 Studio City  CA. 91614-1068
> >http://www.KayeWade.com
> >
> >
> >
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>
>
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