[Dixielandjazz] Re: Letter on Sacramento Jubilee

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/5/04 7:50:31 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu writes:


Third, as others have said, this guy is either lying or was at a 
different festival when he talks about "group after group of guys 
with straw hats and banjos playing 'When the Saints' Go Marching 
In'"--no group i saw had straw hats and no group i saw played Saints. 
Sounds to me as if he just doesn't like dixieland in the first place; 
so why go?  

Maybe he was talking about previous years when he did see the Straw Hats and 
heard  Saint's by everyone playing, and is one of those many thousands out 
there who never came back because he got turned off the last time he was there, 
and now has that old attitude that all Dixieland and Traditional Jazz sounds 
the same.  Heck he probably thinks there are only ten or twenty Dixieland songs 
ever written.   He is obviously a member of the unwashed born again Jazzers 
that are the core of such Festivals and Societies.

These are exactly the folks that should be cultivated however and converted 
into Jazz enthusiasts at some level to keep the numbers of attendance up to 
keep the events viable economically.   If the societies continue to ignore these 
folks while the older fans are dying off in record numbers then indeed there 
will come a time in the not to distant future when it will simply be too 
expensive to do such festivals.


> ?  I bet dixieland would gain a 
> wider audience if (as Steve Barbone has always said) we go play where 
> the people are, especially in other huge 'jazz' festivals that seem 
> to ignore dixieland.  As the attendance at his band's concerts at 
> these festivals continues to demonstrate, if you play this style of 
> music well and entertainingly, people will not only come and listen 
> but will really enjoy it and seek it out next time.
> 
>    Dan
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------

No question about it and I should know, Since 1990 My band has not played ONE 
SINGLE DIXIELAND FESTIVAL  or one date for any Jazz Society in the USA. Have 
not even been asked to play at one, or even how much we charge.    But then 
again I am sure we are not the ONLY group in that situation.  So Be it. 

Musical content:
"We got along without them before & We can get along without them NOW"

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins