[Dixielandjazz] Dancing and Dixieland

[Margaret Squires]

Oh Dan!  You got that right!  I'm the music director for the Modesto
Dixieland Jazz Society.  We have a reputation for being a dance club.  There
are several musicans on this list who can verify it.  I've booked a few new
bands in to play for our monthly meeting, and I warn them about our dancers!
I don't mean that in an unkind way.  But to talk to SOME of the dancers,
they have no clue as to the name of tunes, name of performers, or even the
name of the band!....it doesn't matter to them.....but doggone it they
better be able to dance to it!  I emphasize "some", because we have members
who are dancers and are quite the experts in OKOM.  I think I stirred up a
bit of a hornets' nest at the first board meeting I attended.  As I was
talking about a new group I wanted to bring in, I mentioned that I told the
band leader that the music had to be danceable.  Every head at the meeting
nodded, which prompted me to later state "You know, I think it wouldn't
matter who we brought in, or how they sounded, as long as you could dance to
the music!"  Wow, that got 'em going!  (But I know it's true!)  But face it,
for a lot of people that's what our jazz club meetings are about....an
opportunity for people to dance and socialize.  Since I don't get to dance
very often, for me it's to hear the band and socialize.

Margaret

P.S.  If anyone's interested, we meet on the 3rd Sunday of the month.
Fulton Street is our band for January, and Cell Block 7 is our band for
February.  E-mail me if you would like more details.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Augustine" <ds.augustine@mail.utexas.edu>
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz@ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 01, 2003 4:49 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Dancing and Dixieland


>      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                                **
> **--------------------------------------------------------------------**
>
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