[Dixielandjazz] Dancing and Dixieland

[Dan Augustine]

     I noticed a common element among the comments of a number of 
successful OKOM/dixieland bands:
     "Lu Watters had always felt that jazz and dance should go hand in 
hand as they had in the early days." (_Emperor Norton's Hunch_, p. 
77)  He wanted to get as many people as possible out of their seats 
and onto the dance floor.
     Steve Barbone has recounted many times that people like to dance 
along with the music his band plays, even folks over 70 when fast 
tunes are being played.
     And in my limited (OKOM-playing) experience, i've tried to notice 
when people in the band and in the audience tap their feet or move to 
the music in their chairs or get up and dance.  If they're just 
sitting there, i start to play tuba with more emphasis on the beat, 
and sometimes when i do that i see them begin moving to the music.
     Ain't nuthin' new, i know, but maybe some of the time we forget 
that what brings some people out to hear us is the fact that can 
dance to our music.  They're not concerned very much with our (well, 
your) artistic solos, or the clever arrangements we do, as much as 
they are energized by the kind of music that makes them get up and 
dance!  After we get them in the room, we can slip them a little art 
once in a while, if doing so doesn't screw up their fun.
     At Sacramento, i always love to see the gentleman in one of those 
little personal electrically powered carts start slowly driving 
around the room, pumping a red parasol up and down in time to the 
music, with his little chihuahua clinging to the handlebars.  Pretty 
soon, a whole line of people will be following him, moving to the 
music, and having a ball.  Sure, it's nice when people sit there and 
listen attentively to every note and nuance, and clap 
enthusiastically, but hell, if jazz music doesn't move you in some 
way, what good is it?

Dan ("I don't dance, don't ask me") Augustine
-- 
**--------------------------------------------------------------------**
**  Dan Augustine     Austin, Texas     ds.augustine@mail.utexas.edu  **
**  "One should try everything once, except incest and folk-dancing." **
**                  --  Sir Arnold Bax                                **
**--------------------------------------------------------------------**