[Dixielandjazz] Re: Sacramento Jazz Jubilee

[LeslieMRag at aol.com]

Hi, Listmates:

Just wanted to point out that The Mississippi Rag didn't participate in the 
bad publicity for the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee. We've always had a supportive 
attitude toward Roger Krum and the Jubilee, going all the way back to when Bill 
Borcher started the event. We didn't get into the flap about Jubilee finances 
because we are too far away and too limited in staff to get into investigative 
journalism, and we don't believe in commenting on anything unless we are 
provided with hard evidence. Our experience with the Jubilee has been consistently 
positive, so we weren't about to attack without good reason. We figured that 
those most involved in the Jubilee would act like the intelligent adults they 
are and come up with appropriate answers to solve the problem because they 
knew that the Jubilee would otherwise fold. Obviously, the right answers were 
found by the right people, and I'm very pleased to hear that all went well. We 
plan to run a great photofeature on the 2004 Jubilee in our upcoming RAG.

Carol Leigh laughingly said to me years ago that I could launch "The 
Mississippi Enquirer" because I knew where all the bodies were buried, and it's true 
that there are an astonishing number of spats, animosities, jealousies, 
misunderstandings, and unfounded rumors that we hear about in the RAG office 
(sometimes from callers who want us to fight their battles for them but won't identify 
themselves). As we see it (and the "we" is basically me and my sister, Jody), 
The Mississippi Rag is a MUSIC publication, not a daily general newspaper or 
prime-time news show, and we aren't going to use valuable space on stories we 
can't verify when we could be devoting that space to Jelly Roll Morton. If 
legal action is taken and documentation is provided regarding something of 
interest to our readers, we will report it, but we don't get involved in cat fights 
or "he said, she said" battles. There are simply too many of them.

And, in nearly every hassle we've witnessed, we've had good friends on both 
sides, so we don't see the combatants as wearing white hats or black hats. 
Basically, we believe that the trad jazz/ragtime world is populated by decent 
folks who sometimes shoot themselves in the foot and/or get caught up in turf 
wars. Certainly we care when people or organizations are hurting personally or 
financially, but we know our limits in determining the truth and that guides our 
response. There are legal options for serious problems, and there are 
diplomatic options for personality differences. Happily, the Sacramento Jubilee 
exercised the best option of all--common sense--and got all their ducks in line. I'm 
hopeful that another organization that's fallen on hard times, the American 
Federation of Jazz Societies, can do the same. 

Leslie Johnson
editor at mississippirag.com OR
lesliemrag at aol.com
 
In a message dated 08/10/2004 5:23:50 AM Central Daylight Time, 
dixielandjazz-request at ml.islandnet.com writes:

> The drop in attendance is directly attributable to the bad publicity we
> received.  This was begun when Roger Krum, The Jubilee's Executive Director, 
> appeared before the Sacramento City Council and asked for a loan from the 
> city.  The newspapers jumped on it with both feet.
> 
> There was many articles in the Sacramento Bee with some pretty outrageous 
> and faulty information being reported.  One local columnist was unnecessarily 
> pretty brutal.
> 
> Of course, the word got out on DJML &in the various Jazz publications such 
> as the Mississippi &American Rags.  People didn't know for sure if there would 
> be a Sacramento Jazz Jubilee.
> 
>