[Dixielandjazz] Rehoboth, A Successful "For Profit" Jazz Festival;.

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/21/03 9:41:34 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
barbonestreet at earthlink.net writes:

> 
> Yet we see MAJOR jazz musicians (you know who you/they are) playing at
> festivals where audiences buy an "all event" ticket for $65.  And then,
> some in the audience bitch because the breaks were too long between
> sets, or the venues too far apart to hear everybody and that they felt
> cheated because they couldn't hear 24 hours of music over the weekend,
> only 20!!!
> 
> Wow, shouldn't we be asking ourselves: "What is wrong with this
> picture?"


>From what I have seen in the past few years attending some of them incognito, 
I am under the opinion that they are more caught up in quantity rather than 
quality, which can also be interpreted as cheap.  We have more bands than they 
do so come to our festival attitude.

As Steve points out in his post I learned a long time ago that there is 
ALWAYS a market for QUALITY and people who want QUALITY will pay whatever the cost 
necessitates to bring them the QUALITY that they want and deserve.  The 
Rehoboth Festival and the numbers indicated prove it.

If the musicians and bands would get their act together to go outside the 
circle and promote themselves and the music to new audiences who are willing and 
waiting to discover OKOM the music and the acts would benefit greatly.   

Today's market of OKOM is primarily made up of private clubs and societies, 
that while trying to promote and perpetuate the music and the bands, simply for 
the most part only cater to the same dwindling marketplace which continues to 
get smaller every year as the fans and artist unfortunately pass on, or 
become to incapacitated to perform or attend the events.

> 
> Is the U.S. audience for OKOM really made up of aficionados, or are they
> just Cheap.
> 
> While it certainly could seem to be both, however, in all fairness to those 
> true aficionados who do travel all over the country from festival to festival 
> and purchase badges, pay for hotel rooms, and transportation, meals, 
> beverages, CDs, T-shirts and souvenirs, we should not put them all into a 
> stereotypical category.

 Or are OKOM bands and OKOM Festival Organizers just not> 
> professional enough to get fair value for their products?
> 
> Herein in my professional opinion lies the root of the problem.
> 
> Organizers and tend to find the cheapest and often least desirable venues to 
> present the music, like outdated Elks lodges, Moose Halls, etc., where most 
> of the younger generations would not be caught dead going to, because it is 
> just not hip to go there.
> 
> ON the other hand however, they feel very comfortable going to an abandoned 
> warehouse on the docks for a big party because it is hip this year, or even a 
> giant party with bands in a farmers plowed under field, with brought in 
> generators to operate the PA and Laser light shows that give it ambiance.
> 
> Putting a concert together in an old Elks lodge with long cafeteria tables 
> for folks to sit at gives the ambiance of just that a high school cafeteria, 
> no intimacy, hiring or begging five or six bands to play and then have jam 
> sessions with it for six or seven hours is asking just too much of an audience, 
> aficionados or not.  The money that does come in simply will not go far 
> enough to afford those bands sufficient money to pay their expenses much less make 
> a living and support their families.
> 
> Try getting six plumbers to come out to fix your toilet, or six doctors to 
> come and check you out for free or less money than they could make working at 
> McDonalds.  I have seen far too many stage concerts and productions where the 
> sound man (who did not know what he was doing, or the lighting technician 
> with the same handicap made more money for his salary for the day than the 
> headline act on the stage).  Same thing goes for the Bartenders, and waitresses, 
> who get a salary plus tips.
> 
> Every profession in the world wants and demands and  often goes on strike 
> for more money more money, some are justified, some are not, but musicians just 
> keep going out to play for whatever anybody offers them just to get on a 
> stage or play in front of anybody.  Not only OKOM folks, Rock is even worse, 
> they pay to play in many venues, and have to promote themselves at their own 
> expense and if they do not draw a good crowd they can't even be invited back to 
> the venue to perform again until they can.
> 
> There is a definite lack of professionalism in this industry and has been 
> for many decades, mainly because no one ever bothered to teach musicians 
> anything much about business, therefore they have chosen to let others dictate how 
> their business is conducted, and the end result is they are at the bottom of 
> the pecking order.
> 
> I wonder how many serious takers there would be if guys like Steve Barbone 
> and Myself offered seminars on the industry on topics like Marketing your 
> band, Booking, Promotion, touring Vs club dates locally.  I can't speak for Steve 
> personally, but I would be happy to provide seminars at the Jazz camps and 
> maybe we could get the new youngsters to pay attention and learn some of the 
> other important aspects of being a musicians and a band leader to insure a 
> reasonable amount of success for themselves, their sidemen and the future 
> promoters of the music.  Unfortunately Talent is only about 10% of the game folks.

    Being successful in this business is indeed a lot of work, however if 
musicians would ever understand that they have to > spend as many hours on the 
> job promoting and marketing themselves as most other companies (Yes, your Band 
> is or you are a company, or commodity) do then there would be a lot more 
> success stories and less about the decline and dying of OKOM.
> 
> I think if there were sufficient interest, we could be persuaded to put them 
> together for roundtable discussions at the Society Jazz Festivals around the 
> country and offer some valuable experience and insight in how to improve the 
> overall situation and our segment of the industry before it does indeed die 
> off.


Entertainingly yours,

Tom Wiggins

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