[Dixielandjazz] Preservation Hall & showmanship

[john petters]

Tom said
I maintain that the PHJB suffers from that one big problem that many OKOM
bands suffer from>
> > NO FIRE IN THE BELLY, not much excitement happening to attract and keep
an
> audience coming back for more which is what you need to build and maintain
a
> real fan base and following in any genre of music.
This is not only true of NO bands today but also of other bands that I have
heard from around the UK and Europe.
Looking at it from the point of view of a promoter, I am sent lots of CDs by
bands wanting gigs at my festivals. A very small proportion of the bands
have anything new or exciting or different to say. Some do and I give
preference to those. Some acts I have to book for commercial reasons. The
audience at one of my festivals requires wall to wall trad with banjos.
That goes with the territory.
Given the choice, I prefer my smaller festivals where I hand pick musicians
who have something to say and say it in a variety of styles. Hence with a
group of a dozen or so musicians at Stratford last year we were able to put
on a three hour show that traced the history of jazz from Ragtime to 40s
Ellington and do it with sincerity excitement and conviction. Fire in the
belly was the key componant in all of the musicians who took part.
Jazz should never be an act of resting on ones laurels. Art Hodes at 85 was
still searching for new things to say after over 60 years as a top player.
Al Casey told me that when he was on tour with the Harlem Blues and Jazz
Band in the 80s all the guys had walkmans and were listening to musi all the
time.

Perhaps many OKOM musicians are content to remain at a given level of
comptetance and professionalism and cannot be bothered to go for a higher
goal. I know many never bother to go and listen to the great recorded works
of yesteryear.

I've just done two different and very successful gigs on boats. Last night
we did a trio session, tenor sax, guitar and drums on a sea going ship from
Clacton to Ipswich. We were booked as musical wall paper. We played on deck
in glorious sunny weather until the sun went down. No Amplification out
doors.We entertained an audience of non jazz fans and sold some CDs.
Entertained is the key word.
This afternoon, on one of the hottest days of the year I put my five piece
(Ken Sims, cnt, Duncan Batchelor - a young clarinet player, Tim Phillips bjo
and Keith Doanld, bass) on the Riverboatr Georgina on the River Cam at
Cambridge. Again we played acoustically. We had 2 coach loads of folk who
were not our regular jazz fans. They all enjoyed the music, which was fiey
and hot to match the weather. We played New Baby with a tom tom intro and 2
chorus drum solo which usually attracts the attention. That got, we played
Georgia Camp Meeting, Buddy's Habit,  Snag It, Walkin' With The King.......
The gig finished with Tiger Rag, where Tim joined me on the drums for a drum
battle which concluded with him blowing air into the tom tom to vary the
pitch while I played and finally playing, laying on his back on the floor,
the lower head of the tom while I played the top head. Musically this maybe
questionable, but it never fails to get the biggest applause of the session.
So IMHO good musicianship, backed up by a first class show should be the aim
of every band - and have arrogance or confidence to know that you are going
out there to win.

John Petters
Amateur Radio Station G3YPZ
www.traditional-jazz.com