[Dixielandjazz] Top 10 Reasons--decline of Dixieland Jazz

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/26/03 10:42:28 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
jazzboard at hotmail.com writes:

> 
> Unless you can somehow push a magic button and suddenly make the music a 
> representation of youthful rebellion against old mouldy outmoded musical 
> forms dixieland will go nowhere!
> 
> Enjoy it while you can . . . time is running out.
> 
> Actually we're all extremely fortunate. We've managed to keep "OUR MUSIC" 
> alive for us far longer than most youth today will be able to keep their 
> music alive for them in their old age.
> 
> As a side observation on this phenomenon, if you have a business that has 
> become plagued with groups of youthful punks hanging around and driving away 
> 
> customers, start playing dixieland on your P.A. system and the young punks 
> willl leave instantly.  Is that pathetic or what!!!
> 
> 

Dear esteemed colleague William Gunter:

These are the last words I ever expected to hear come from your mouth even 
though I have learned to expect controversial comments from you to keep threads 
alive or start them.

On this issue I believe you are totally off the mark, and for a person of 
your great communications skills, this is simply inexcusable.

You are no doubt one of those who said vehemently that Rock & Roll will never 
last, well amigo, tell that to Mick Jagger who turned 60 years old today and 
who still sells out football stadiums around the world with music that is now 
almost as old as OKOM.

Tell it to Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Bob Dylan and a host of 
others who are still drawing magnitudes of fans and youth because they are 
still popular because their music was good and endured the test of time, and was 
also constantly marketed to new audiences.

So was Mozart. Wagner and all the other greats of music.

If OKOM is to die it is the fault of the OKOM players who failed to 
perpetuate their influence and love for the music to younger generations who would 
indeed embrace it and embellish upon it and find a way to make it their own.

Eminem will evaporate soon and your comparison to his genre is pathetic at 
best, I am actually surprised that you of all people would even admit his 
existence, I don't, nor do I accept or expect to hear about many other rappers and 
their kind ten years from now.

We are in an ever changing world of seekers of the new truth, and just like 
the last ten years found a new market for swing and jitterbug music and zoot 
suits, so will OKOM and Dixieland find it's rejuvenation heyday, it could come a 
lot sooner if more people of your generation would be persistent enough to 
take it to the youngsters who have no idea where to find it.

Promoting a Dixieland Jazz Festival to the members of your Society is not 
enough, you have to find a way to mass market it to new people who do not even 
know what the HELL IT IS.  Even the new people who stumble onto this list have 
no idea what the Hell OKOM means or stands for.  

Many folks on this list are like sheep wandering around in the darkness 
looking for a way to find OKOM and folks who like what they like and think like 
they think, well if you want more folks to like it and find it you have to take 
it to them or at least make it easy for them to find it.

So far OKOM ain't done that very well and that is the problem like it or not.

The Rolling Stones have a professional Publicist to keep them in the news and 
media all the time, how many OKOM bands do you know that do that, that is how 
you attract new fans and keep the old ones, when you fade away into being a 
Moldy Fig then you have no one to blame but yourself.

when was the last time you saw Paul Newman in a major movie role?  but you 
remember his name because you see his picture in the supermarket every day on a 
bottle of spaghetti sauce or salad dressing, you see big movie stars in the 
rotten tabloids everyday with stupid lies and bylines to get you to buy the 
paper which is mostly trash and fabricated lies about them, however it keeps them 
in the public eye and reading about them weekly.

When was the last time you saw an OKOM star in the Enquirer or even in the 
news? other than an obituary column.

Most OKOMer's are rank amateurs at best and have no clue how to be big time 
in show business or even successful for that matter. And that is primarily 
because they all think from gig to gig and have no idea about marketing and how to 
progress beyond the next pizza parlor.  You are or certainly should be in 
charge of your own destiny in this business, and not totally dependent upon what 
your local Jazz society dictates that you should do or work for to maintain 
and achieve their goals.  IF ANY OF YOU HAVE A FIVE YEAR BUSINESS PLAN (other 
than Steve Barbone) I WOULD LOVE TO SEE IT.

I know what his will look like, because he understand marketing and business 
and applies it to his retirement hobby and is having great success and a lot 
of fun doing it.
So am I.

Now this ought to stir up some controversy on the list. But think about what 
I SAID CAREFULLY, BEFORE YOU SPOUT OFF FOLKS.

Cheers and entertainingly yours,

Tom Wiggins
Saint Gabriels Celestial Brass band
Marching to the beat of a different Drummer