[Dixielandjazz] Re: Visual aspect - rather long

[Captain Rapture]

Nancy is right. I don't like monkey-suits, but people are looking.
j
I think one of the factors that helped end the Hangtown Jazz Company,
my band for 16 years, was the glum musicians.

I was back there on bass, dancing and emoting and hollering now
and then. The drummer looked seriously busy and the guitar/banjo
looked so concentrated, he may as well have been on mars. Still naming
no names, the trombone player was shy, but enthusiastic and the
cornet tried, but it was thin. The clarinet man, big and so very good,
looked sour and sometimes visibly angry.

That is not how to sell your music. You don't need a Liberace smirk, but
you do need to live the charm of your music. Funny: the bone man often
would not blink throughout his solo and me - I'd nearly fall into a swoon
after not breathing during my own solo.

Something about real men showing no emotion. When you are up there
performing a living work of art, it won't do to merely funnel your heart
out through your axe. Real creative artists share their souls through
every pore. It gives the audience more information. Reserve don't git it.

I remember being told to smile by a well-meaning older woman. as I
think about it, she was unclear on the concept. If a musician is hard at
work, it's not about how many teeth are showing, but not all in our
audiences are capable of truly appreciating the depth of what we do.

I was at the opening of the redone shakeys and I noticed all those
happy people. transfixed by loud noise. Horrid and, to me, utterly
devoid of charm, except for the two guys very happily flailing away.
They sold the noise by their obvious heart.

We need to work to keep quality and then honestly deliver it with
heart. Never play stuff we don't care about. The Saints can be repeated
if you don't beat it to death, but instead, offer out variations on the
theme, which defines jazz. If we stop hiding our hearts, we become
real performers and what we do is congruent - what we do
fits together to the eye and the ear.

That's all I have to say, hmmmmmmmm.

David McCartney
available Bassist who sometimes hollers.