[Dixielandjazz] Re: Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 7, Issue 18

[Stephen Barbone]

> Norman Vickers wrote:
>
> >Steve Barbone writes:
> >Re:Borcher, Krum, et al have done a fine job. Wein just does it better, and
> >a visit to any of the festivals he produces will make that point very
> >clear. As will a look at who the performers are at a festival like JVC.
>
> Interesting point-- how does one judge quality of a festival?  For the
> promoter, I guess it would be profits or number of admissions.  From the
> point of view of the sophisticated festival-goer, it's many other
> things--quality of music, pleasant surroundings, pleasant fellow-listeners.
>
> A case in point of "success" with decreasing quality, is the New Orleans
> Jazz and Heritage Festival.  Wildly successful from admissions and,
> presumably, profits, NOJ&H is second only to Mardi Gras as a money-maker for
> New Orleans. However, it's held at the infield of the Fairgrounds Race
> Track.  As you put more and more people into an enclosed space, there is
> less individual space for the listener. There's more heritage--Zydeco,
> bluegrass, gospel, cajun-- and less jazz.  When it rains, it's a mudpuddle,
> when it's dry, it's dusty.  In all, it's still a bargain for the one who
> wants browse an event and sample the various kinds of music.  And, the
> natives are used to crowds and they're generally reasonably well behaved.
> If one is willing to put up with the disadvantages, he/she can sample lots
> of different kinds of music. For me, I remember the early days when it was
> uncrowded, lots of space and opportunity to sample different kinds of music
> and hear musicians new to me.
>
> Admittedly, there are big ticket concerts in the evenings around the city
> and sometimes players are found in some of the clubs.  I can't speak to
> that, not having attended except during the day at the Fairgrounds.  The
> NOJ&H Festival closes at dark, not having ability to illuminate the
> Fairgrounds Race track properly.
>
> The Jazz Society of Pensacola, now 20 years old and only 200 miles from NO,
> has been taking a bus to NOJ&H annually since 1982.  However about 8 years
> ago, the Society members rebelled and, in a stroke of sanity, decided to
> attend the French Quarter Festival ( held about two weeks ahead of NOJ&H)
> instead. Besides having more room and more things to do, the French Quarter
> festival is free!  And one should also mention, it mostly features local
> musicians playing New Orleans music.
>
> Re: the NOJ&H festival, as they sometimes say in New York, " It's so
> crowded, nobody hardly goes any more!"

Points well taken. I think, however, when we look at "Festivals" we need to get away from "personal" experiences, because that's all they are, personal. I may not like NOJ&H, but that is not the measure. The measure is: "Do the festival goers like NOJ&H."

It seems by all accounts that it is crowded with attendees who paid to attend. The tongue in cheek statement "It's so crowded, nobody hardly goes any more." Seems not to apply to NOJ&H any more than it applies to New York City. It seems that multitudes of people go to both.

If one likes OKOM to the exclusion of all other jazz and/or music then neither New York, nor New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is the place to go. If that person can attend the free French Quarter Festival two weeks later, it would seem to me to be no contest.

However if one likes many forms of Jazz and/or music it would also seem that NOJ&H and New York City's JVC Festival are good choices. (in the USA) If one is willing to spend a little money to see the best Jazz musicians in the world. Even on a regular non festival basis, NYC has more jazz and/or music available than any other US City.

But all of this begs the point and gets based upon a very narrow personal view of music. The point I make is that George Wein produces the best Jazz Festivals in the USA if not the world and he produced the first ever, 50 years ago. The measure is not whether Ben, or Steve, or Rebecca, or Norman goes, or even agrees. The measure is the success of the Festival to the majority of the persons who attend. Yeah, all those other people out there who may not share our knowledge of, and
appreciation for OKOM.

He builds it and people come. Isn't that success? Quality of the music? Surely we are not going to argue that JVC has low quality jazz are we? It far surpasses that of any other jazz festival in the USA, if not the world. To think that Sacto has better quality of music than JVC would be pretentious as well as very wrong. And what proof is there that music quality of NOJ&H is decreasing? Because of Zydeco? Because of more heritage and less jazz?  That seems to be what the attendees want,
no? And wouldn't it be stupid for NOJ&H to feature OKOM at a price when a few weeks later the French Quarter Festival puts a semi-spotlight on OKOM and it's free.

And in this day and age of cries to "subsidize the arts" because they can't make it on their own, the commercial success of George Wein's Festivals simply reply "hogwash". Jazz can make it on its own and I should think that folks around the festival circuit would be pleased to have an example of how it might be done.

Who needs all those "big names". Why most Festivals, that's who. (Please don't cite the few exceptions like Sacto and Pismo). For one thing, Sacto is not doing that well and by not having enough money to bring in some of the really great East Coast OKOM bands, their musical quality has gone down hill from everything I hear. (second hand opinion from supposedly reliable sources so take it for what it is worth) And Pismo doesn't even appear on the radar screen, as good as it is and nice as
it may be to many of us on the list.  Perhaps Pismo would like to keep it that way and I can readily appreciate that.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

PS. BTW. What is a sophisticated festival goer? ;-)