[Dixielandjazz] Re: Bad Music - Was Tribute Bands

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/5/03 11:15:20 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
barbonestreet at earthlink.net writes:

> ".  Even the sidemen in many bands seem bored, and have that look on their
> face that says "Gee, I wish I was someplace else." In this instance, the 
> kids are
> smart enough to realize that much of it is simply bad music.
> 
> And that, IMO is why there is not much of a young audience in the USA for 
> most of the
> bands playing this music called Dixieland.
> 
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
> 
> 
About a year ago I introduced a hot young trombone player to this list, who 
was on his way to Berklee on a music scholarship.   I first heard him playing 
Dixieland charts given to him by his music teacher in high school, he had been 
heads up enough to have formed a little five piece band of other buddies.

They started getting a few bookings from around their local community for 
more money than most  professional OKOM bands around here in California earn for 
a gig.  Like $600.00 to play at house parties in the neighborhood which 
encouraged them to stay in music, but did not give them any sense of the reality of 
the working situation for professional musicians around them.

Unfortunately they sounded just like many of the semi pro bands around here 
playing Dixieland, why?  because they had been introduced to it and taught and 
supplied the fake books or charts by a tired old Dixielander with no fire in 
his belly or fight in his blood to go out and make a living promoting himself 
and his band and the music when it was  still HOT in his youth.   Now mind you 
this teacher was under 40 years of age, and I have known him for at least 
twenty of those years.

He was going to school to get a teachers credentials while all of the rest of 
us were out playing live music and earning a living.   He never got a job 
playing with any organized bands that I ever heard of and went form college right 
into teaching high school kids.

 I once went to one of his Jazz Band concerts and heard the kids playing his 
terrible original charts that were boring at best, the parents in the audience 
sat through it out of respect and glee for their kids in the band, but were 
totally bored.

I saw these kids in less than six months snatch decent gigs and make enough 
money to buy themselves cars playing Dixieland, simply because they went out 
and put out flyers and knocked on doors and found places to play and get paid.

The last time I heard them at a gig they got $600.00 for for two hours they 
sounded bored and said that they hated playing that old Dixieland stuff and 
could not wait to get to College to play some Jazz.   The charts they were 
playing were indeed obscure songs that were not good the first time around, but 
thought to be hip by their teacher in high school.

I asked them to put away the charts and improvise and play what they felt on 
the same music, and they could not do it, none of their solos said anything, 
this in my opinion is the fault of the teacher and mentor who misguided them.  
I am not saying that ALL music teachers fall into this category, but a great 
many of them have and do today.  There are some very fine teachers out there 
that do inspire these kids, but damned few that I have come across at least in 
California who ever give Dixieland and Traditional Jazz more than an "O bye the 
way this is old timey jazz kids, nobody wants to play this anymore because we 
are hip and avant-garde now and have advanced jazz to greater heights."

These teachers missed it in their youth so how can we think they can inspire 
the kids behind them to anything other than what they were taught and exposed 
to by their teachers.   They can't even spell Woodshedding!   Most of them 
beleive Jazz started with Miles Davis, or John Coltrane or Ornette Coleman,  some 
of them Chick Corea, and Kenny G.

They could however step out and play some Blues and R&B tunes they had heard 
on the radio and played them with real enthusiasm and blew away their audience 
of old folks, their parents and grandparents and neighbors they were 
definitely not into Rap, or Hip Hop, these kids were serious about playing Jazz.

I still say we need to get back into the schools and teach and expose this 
music to young kids and educate them properly about music and the history of it 
as we teach them to read and play it.  Waiting for them to learn it in College 
is a terrible waste of young budding Jazz geniuses.

 In my opinion the reason we don't have new Eddie Condons and Bix's and Louis 
around anymore is that somebody dropped the ball folks.  I am not looking to 
place the blame, but somebody needs to pick up the torch and go light some 
musical fires in these kids.

Blues societies all over this country are operating Blues in the Schools 
programs very successfully, with little or no money, there is no reason why we 
can't do the same thing with Real Jazz or OKOM.

There are many Jazz grant programs available in this country for these kinds 
of projects, why aren't some of us going after them and putting them to good 
use.  Now is the time for all good Jazzers to stand up and be counted, put 
something into the industry except lip service. 

  Hate him or not Ken Burns started a fresh movement for jazz it and opened 
many doors of opportunity for Jazz again, if we do not collectively go through 
those doors then we do not deserve to be in the industry anyway, and should be 
relegated to sitting at home listening to our old record collections and 
dreaming about how it could have been.


Now if you think I am all wet, somebody take your horn and go down to your 
local grammar school today and sit out on the playground at lunch time and play 
five or six tunes and watch what happens.  Don't bother to ask the principal 
for permission, tell him/her the jazz society sent you, If you ask for 
permission it will take them six months to decide who has the authority to give it to 
you, and is it covered by insurance, maybe even check you out with the Police 
to make sure you are not a Pervert unless you are a female.

I am headed over to the local pre-school for lunch with three snare drums and 
two bass drums and sticks and beaters to give about forty kids their first 
drum clinic.  Taking my grandson along with his own bright red snare drum too.  
And forty Kid size "Jazz for Kids T-shirts" as a reward for their trying to 
play the drums.  Bet we find some budding undiscovered talent too. 



Cheers, and go get em.

Tom Wiggins

Stamp out Bad Music, Hire a good band

"Nothin' but the Best and Later for the Rest"   ...John Lee Hooker R.I.P.