[Dixielandjazz] Jazz in Texas / CD sales

[Dan Augustine]

Steve and others--
     Yes, i agree, this is a very positive aspect of dixieland here in 
the hinterlands.
     Last (um, let's see) May, i drove up to Dallas (not for the faint 
of heart) to PLANO to attend the Tommy Loy tribute-concert at the 
Bavarian Grill in Plano.
     I found the food (German, of course) to be very good and 
authentic, the wait-staff to be both knowledgeable and friendly (hey, 
it's Texas), and the musicians to be expert and professional.  Jon 
Stutler and his band are just simply great folks and great musicians. 
(And of course how could one get better than Tommy Loy, even in 
absentia?  He and his spirit were all around us, we could feel it.)
     Mr. Bob Romans (long may his and his band's flag wave) also was 
there (by dint of a long flight from the Left Coast), and i supped 
with him (now, no jokes) and traded confidences about dixieland and 
the venue (not that i had any to impart).  Mr. Romans, long of our 
ilk, is a marvelous human being, as well as having a magical ability 
to coax his trumpet (formerly, Tommy Loy's trumpet)(or any trumpet, 
for that matter) to play melody.  This is not as easy as it sounds, 
for those of you enamoured (to use the British spelling) of 'rap' 
music (an obvious oxymoron, since to be music sound must have melody, 
and rap has no melody).  Mr. Romans hides his brilliance under the 
seemingly pedestrian recounting of the main tune, but this is no easy 
selection of notes, as it is a difficult line to tread between the 
iconographic reproduction of the notes that are written and one's 
interpretation of the same notes but with a more timely and personal 
flair.  Bob simply plays it right. (What else can you say?)
     We had a grand time playing along with Jon Stutler's band (me on 
tuba in the third set, sitting on a Bavarian picnic-table seat half a 
beer-loud foot from paying customers), and the audience was both 
understanding and appreciative (yeah, they were drunk too).
     I didn't know his band did that many gigs, and as a new member of 
the board of the Austin Traditional Jazz Society i am going to try to 
entice him and his band down to Austin for one of our concerts.  We 
have nowhere to go but up, and the thought of a continuum of 
dixieland between Dallas and San Antonio (Razzmajazz to Temple/Waco 
to Austin to Jim Cullum), with so many wonderful musicians and 
musical styles in between, generates visions of traditional jazz in 
central Texas that echoes back to Jack Teagarden's days. (Can you say 
"hubba-hubba"?)
     Believe me--and i've lived in central Texas for 30 years--Texans 
LOVE their music, and all we've got to do (dixieland-wise) is make it 
available, and they'll gather 'round.
     It won't do any good (because the relevant musicians won't read 
this message), but i'd love to go downtown to Waterloo Park (and 
other places) in downtown Austin and play dixieland for free at noon 
(or whenever) every day, just to build an awareness of the style and 
the gladness of it, and maybe get some gigs out of it.  (Did you 
know, by the way, that Brother Elazar Brant, of Jerusalem fame, used 
to live and play in Austin?) But it takes more than one tuba-picker 
to do it, and as of now, i don't know of any other musicians who can 
or want to do this.
     So here we are.  So (as Kurt Vonnegut's characters used to say) 
it goes. (Sigh. Back down to earth....)

     Dan
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>From: Steve Barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
>To: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
>Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Jazz in Texas / CD sales
>
>Hello Dan Augustine:
>
>"Jon Stutler   Jon at Razzmajazz.com is having great success in Dallas.
>THE RAZZMAJAZZ DIXIELAND BAND   "Havin' Fun Playing America's Music"
>Metro 817-477-1997   (fax  817-560-0708)  Toll Free 1-877-477-1997"
>  "Come see us every Tuesday night and the first Saturday of the month from
>7-10:00pm at the Bavarian Grill, 221 W. Parker Road, Plano, Tx.   Be a part
>of the audience as we record "the Good Times and Great Jazz Show! for
>broadcast the following Sunday evening at 6:00pm on Legends 77, KAAM, 770AM."
>
>So, why not call and or visit him and find out how he does it? He is 
>doing a potfull of gigs. Help is just a few hours up the Interstate 
>from Austin, plus it is an audience with which you can relate.
><snip>
>Cheers,
>Steve Barbone

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**  Dan Augustine    Austin, Texas   ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu     **
**    From the California Civil Code, "Maxims of Jurisprudence":      **
**              "#3537. Superfluity does not vitiate."                **
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