[Dixielandjazz] Dancing and Dixieland

[David W. Littlefield]

One of my earliest discoveries as a commercial dixieland player/bandleader was
that folks start bouncing and tapping various body parts almost immediately
to 2-beat rhythm at moderate tempos. I played with tubists and clarinetists
who were 4-beat types, upright bassists, played with 4-beat NO revival
bands, played piano and banjo at various times with a NO 20s style 4-beat,
plus swing, general dance in my dance band. For small group background
gigs, the banjo-tuba 2-beat 20s pop style has the greatest immediate impact
on general audiences. This doesn't mean that a good 4-beat can't get people
*grooving* fairly soon, but as far as I can determine, for the job of
getting folks *happy*, 2-beat is the most efficient. 

--Sheik

At 06:49 PM 1/1/2003 -0600, you wrote:
>     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.
...
>     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.