[Dixielandjazz] Re: Riverwalk, Live from the Landing

[Don Mopsick]

Rebecca writes:

<<However, like you, I would like to hear just a regular set with just good
music and no particular story involved. I like the relaxed sound that comes
from the JCJB when they are NOT taping.  Perhaps that could be the "subject"
for an upcoming show!>>

Perhaps, perhaps. You never can tell.

Rebecca, you got it about right in your description of what goes into
producing the shows.What your are suggesting already exists, we call them
minimum script."concert" shows.  We can't do too many of these in a 52-week
season because the current climate in public radio doesn't support a pure
music show, today you've got to include a narrative/documentary.. That's how
we've managed to survive on the air where pure music/concert shows have
fallen away. Let me add that NO ONE, including us, expected us to still be
on the air after 13 years, but we're all thankful for the good run we've
had.

Janie McCue Lynch writes:

<<At the Sacramento Jubilee last month, we went to the Crest and stayed
through both sets of the Cullum taping. I was ready to leave before the end
of the first set; however, stayed because spouse and friends wished to.

The music was technically proficient, as always, but lacking spirit.  Dead.
The clarinetist (no  names here)  was slumped down in the first row, looking
bored as all get out, and his performance reflected that. (I mean, perhaps
he could have at least pretended he was interested? )

THEN we saw the group at the Edgewater Ballroom at the Radisson....dressed
casually and PLAYING......having fun..or at least giving the impression that
they were....and conveying same to audience.  Great show.  Enjoyed them
immensely.>>

Janie:

I can't imagine WHO that clarinet player was, but I can tell you what he was
experiencing during that hour: intense concentration and a struggle to get
it right on the first take. And unless there was a train wreck, we only got
one take. With this kind of pressure, hour after hour, show after show (we
recorded 7 hours in 2 days, and there were two guest bands, the Black Eagles
and the Independence Hall Jazz Band), one tends to forget that there is a
live audience in the theater.

The Crest Theatre sessions were somewhere between a concert and a studio
recording session, almost like letting an audience witness what goes on when
a butcher makes sausages--not always a pretty sight, but they sure are tasty
when they're done.

The only thing I can compare this to (in my iimagination only, I wasn't
there) was the studio scene in NY in the 50s and 60s as experienced and
related to me by guys like Bucky Pizzarelli and Milt Hinton. Sometimes they
spent whole days recording in one or two studios, all high-pressure
performing situations. I can't imagine a live audience enjoying watching
that either, unless out of morbid curiosity.

>From my point of view behind the bass, though, I have to say that throughout
the Crest Theater sessions there were many moments of enthusiastic audience
response, so we must have been "putting on a good show" at least some of the
time. Sorry that your hour with us wasn't one of those.

By the way, keep those show ideas coming--you're talking to the right
person.

mopo