[Dixielandjazz] The blues over last night's 'Blues.'

[Jim Beebe]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <TCASHWIGG at aol.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2003 3:23 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] The blues over last night's 'Blues.'


> In a message dated 10/1/03 11:31:37 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
> jbeebe at centurytel.net writes:
>
> >
> > Again , I couldn't watch all of this show and had to shift to dial
> > twiddling.
> >
> > Where is Ken Burns when we need him?  Or even Wynton Marsalis and his
> > cronies who mucked up Ken Burns' Jazz series.  Certainly any of them
could do a
> > better job with this Blues' presentation.
> >
> > How many minutes did the camera guy linger on the fat woman shaking her
> > behind.? That was excruciating.
> >
> > This Blues series is in serious need of an expert editor...and writer.
> >
> > On the plus side there were good sections on BB King. Interesting
history
> > and interviews with him.  Plus performance shots.  This is the way the
whole
> > show should be.
> >
> > Curmudgeonly yours,
> >
> > Jim Beebe
>
> Have to agree pretty much with you again Jim:
>
> Blues has always been treated like the ugly sister or stepchild, and not
> given real professional attention like Ken Burns did with his documentary
on Jazz.
>
> Some of it no doubt is due to the poor materials and archives available on
> Blues which was back burnered when Jazz took hold way back when.
>
> I was particularly appalled by the story with B.B. King and Oscar Brown
> telling how the city fathers just elected to tear down Beale Street all
together
> rather than restore the old neighborhood and all its history.  With the
> exception of B.B. Kings' club there simply is not much there and when I
visited there,
> it only had an average local band playing.
>
> Today Beale Street looks like a shopping mall, and there is almost no
> atmosphere in the neighborhood at all.  The Beale Street Blues Hall of
Fame is a bad
> joke as I remember it from a visit a few years back.  I was totally
> disappointed.
>
> The city of Oakland did the same thing twenty years ago and destroyed the
> entire nightlife scene in downtown, then we got them to preserve a section
of Old
> Oakland and got some developers on the project and started to rebuild and
> renovate about five square blocks with plans to put in restaurants
nightclubs and
> compatible businesses to revitalize the downtown section.  The city kept
> stalling the developers and did so into bankruptcy, then pulled the plug
on the
> development and gave it to a Canadian firm that wanted to build high rise
office
> buildings three blocks away.
>
> To date they have spent no money on the Old Oakland development project
and
> much of it is still vacant and with no businesses coming in the
foreseeable
> future.  The city shifted their interest to developing Jack London Square
with
> airport and Port of Oakland money, but after total renovation much of it
also is
> sitting empty or being used temporarily for local artists displays of
> sculpture and paintings from the local school kids.
>
> I tried to get them to develop the largest building in the Square into a
> major nightclub restaurant, but they elected to lease it to Barnes and
Noble for
> what looks like the World's largest book store in a city that can't even
teach
> their kids how to read.  It has to be the biggest tax shelter on the books
for
> Barnes and Noble.  There is almost never anybody there.  Or the City is
> paying them to stay in business with a sweetheart deal like they made for
Yoshi's
> Japanese Sushi restaurant, with a 350 seat Jazz room next door.
>
> Meanwhile there is NO nightlife or restaurants downtown to attract anyone
in
> the evenings, it is Ghost town after five o'clock.

  The sad thing about all of this is that good music and good food are a
profitable combination.  I kept my group going for many years by playing
good entertaining jazz in a nice restaurant-club.  But the most clubs
themselves would never admit that we were an important ingredient in the
mix.  If restaurants-clubs would only realize this there would be a lot more
musicians working.  Years ago when the gangsters ran them they did know this
and clubs and  musicians  were thriving.


> Redevelopment is more the cause for the decline in Live music than
anything
> else the way I see it, like poor people live music has just been displaced
in
> the name of progress and modernization, but at a terrific loss to the
people
> and lifestyles of Americans.

So true.  And urban sprawl is ruining rural america. As long as developers
can get loans they are going to continue raping this country,  buying up the
farms and throwing up army barracks housing developments. Don't get me
started on this.

Jim Beebe


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