[Dixielandjazz] the life expectancy of dixieland

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/27/03 2:26:06 PM Pacific Daylight Time, jazz
board at hotmail.com writes:

> 1. There are no more rebels in it.
> 

I disagree with this, because there are some of them on this list, and a good 
number of them that do play avant garde and improvisational exploratory 
music, maybe you just haven't gone to see them.

Most Dixielander's won't go to see them however because they do not fit into 
the small musical box that many die hard Dixielander's want them to fit into.  
Therefore if you don't give the artists freedom to explore other genres of 
music and intertwine it with Dixieland and Traditional Jazz then of course the 
music will suffocate and die.

I sincerely hope you live long enough to be proven wrong, because believe it 
or not there are a lot more of us out here than you think, but we don't play 
in Lodi or small valley towns where there is not even enough people to run a 
good cattle rustling operation much less support a full time Dixieland Band 
unless of course it is a one piece Banjo Dixieland Band, or maybe a two piece if 
you add a washboard.  In some small towns you could add a Kazoo and have a 
Philharmonic Orchestra as well with the same act.

Ya gotta go where the people are if you want to expand your audience, and you 
also have to tour and keep moving with the music to bring it to new audiences 
every night.

Eminem makes about 60% of the gross ticket sales at his concerts, why? 
because he is a business and he knows how many tickets he can sell in any given 
market and knows what his act is worth, at least at the present time.

The best paid Dixieland band works for whatever they are offered by the Jazz 
societies that hire them without much consideration given at all as to how 
many tickets they can sell.   If the act does not know what they are worth at the 
box-office then how can they ever expect the promoters to know.  Wanna find 
out just how much your act is worth, go promote a date all by yourself and see 
how many of your loyal friends and fans will show up and pay $10.00 to hear 
you.  If not enough of them will show and pay then you know you are not good 
enough to attract a paying audience and some acts who are not paid what they are 
worth should not complain about it.

On the other hand many good acts have no clue what they are worth so simply 
accept what ever is offered to them just to play.  There is Always Good work 
and Good Pay for Good Acts, always has been and always will be, but you have to 
take care of business and go out and promote your business and act to get 
those jobs.

Look at the Beer Business, or the auto business folks, Legal Drug business, 
folks they all promote their products and advertise them constantly.  There 
certainly is no shortage of competition in automobile manufacturers and they 
compete with themselves with so many different models.  The Same applies to the 
Beer Business, cosmetics, etc.

Music is a business, treat it like one and it will treat you like one, 
Dixieland, Jazz, pop Rock, R&B, punk, Classical or whatever.  Anything less is just 
a weak cop out.

Someone else told me that the world is going to end today, but I am not 
worried because it is already tomorrow in Australia.

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins

Nuff said about this subject, some folks want OKOM to die and will do exactly 
what it takes to make that happen, "Absolutely Nothing" but there are a lot 
more of us out here working it everyday and making progress to not only 
preserve it but to broaden it and it's audience and we are succeeding in spite of the 
nay sayers.