[Dixielandjazz] You think *we* have problems?

[Nancy Giffin]

Paul Edgerton wrote:
<   "...So mainstream festivals are the answer, huh?
This article seems to suggest otherwise:
<http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/artsentertainment/2001994424_jazz02.h
tml>

Wasn't this thread about the success of much more modern festivals than
Centrum?

I read the article and then visited the festival website, which claims
Centrum Jazz Port Townsend is a "mecca for lovers of straight-ahead jazz."

Mainstream? That's a term that means many things to many people. To some,
it's straight-ahead jazz, to others, it's more modern jazz.

What or who is really to blame? We have to consider the economic struggles
that Seattle (and much of the Northwest) have encountered in recent years.
Perhaps that's why the (somewhat) nearby TerrifVic Festival in Victoria,
B.C. has disappeared.

I read this article differently. To me, it says that the more traditional
festivals aren't bringing in the numbers (since I consider straight-ahead
more trad than modern).

I notice that in Toronto, whose festival presents jazz in all its many
diverse forms -- from trad to rad -- had RECORD attendance this year,
despite the fact that local tourism has not yet fully recovered from the
SARS scare of 2003.