[Dixielandjazz] Million dollar question

[Bill Gunter]

Hi boys and girls

Interesting thread (popular bands).

Randy Fendrick writes:

>You look at the festival lists in the American Rag or the Mississippi Rag
>and you can almost take the line up from one and carbon copy it to the 
>next.
>It would seem that Festival organizers and band committees are not
>interested in creativity but have become "bean counters" and are interested
>in only the bottom line, how much they make.  While it is necessary to make
>money, as festivals won't exist unless they do, it would seem to me that a
>little more creativity could go into the hiring of bands.

So you are suggesting that festival directors should say "screw the bottom 
line -- let's hire bands the audience hasn't heard before."

I hear you saying "I don't mean you should hire unknown bands, I mean you 
should use more creativity in the band selection."

I'd like to offer the notion that the "bottom line" IS PRECISELY WHAT THE 
DIRECTOR IS PRIMARILY CONCERNED WITH! See how long you can produce festivals 
which operate at a loss!  The margin is close enough as it is hiring the 
bands considered "dependable."

Also, regarding "Creativity." You'll have to be more specific than that. So, 
Randy, I know you have the interests of jazz in your heart and I know you 
would like to see festivals improve in some way and avoid hiring the same 
bands over and over again.

Would you please list for us at least three (3) CREATIVE ideas which you 
feel would accomplish this?

Such a list, I'm sure, would open up much discussion on the nature of the 
trad jazz scene in America today!

Finally, I wish to endorse what Bill Horton wrote regarding why certain 
bands are perennially popular. He said:

>The answer to the "Million Dollar Question" (why some good bands are 
>popular
and other equally good ones not) has to be "charisma."  If you have it, you
can get away with anything (e.g. B. Clinton & O.J.), but if you ain't got
it, too bad.

This observation has wide reaching applications far beyond "jazz" and it is 
the way of things on this planet.

How simple things are when reduced to their basic truths!

Respectfully submitted,

Bill "Thimbles" Gunter
jazzboard@hotmail.com

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