[Dixielandjazz] Sacramento Jazz Jubilee Update

[Avache1 at aol.com]

As a non-drinking musician, I was not that upset by the removal of the drink 
tickets.
I rarely used them except to occasionally purchase some food. Since I play 
the Jubilee as an all-star, I really have no problem with this. However, I can 
see Tom Wiggins point and also the point of "Mr. Wonderful." I'm not surprised 
that the Sacramento Jazz club is having financial problems. It seems to be the 
way our entire country is going these days. California especially, and with 
the bizarre recall election, and the election of "The Terminator " as governor 
I don't see many of those problems going away.  
I play at many jazz festivals and parties across the country every year, and, 
believe me, Sacramento is not the only festival feeling the crunch of our 
lousy economy.
One must ask that perhaps if we weren't spending billions of dollars on a war 
that we should not have fought in the first place maybe there would be more 
federal money to support the arts, including major jazz festivals like 
Sacramento. Instead we throw away billions of dollars, every week while several of our 
brave young men and women die in a country where the majority of the people 
don't want us to be there anyway. This makes no sense.
Sorry didn't mean to digress, however I might offer a small suggestion to the 
problem. Perhaps the festival could reintroduce the one drink per musician, 
per venue, policy that was taken away a few years ago. However, instead of the 
festival paying for these drinks they should be provided by the venues 
themselves. Since they are getting free music, sell out crowds and, and huge profits 
on drink and food sales it seems this is the least they can do.
Anyway, it's something to think about. Sorry about the political remarks but 
all this stuff makes me mad.
Allan Vache'