[Dixielandjazz] Don't people dance anymore?

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/2/04 12:55:03 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
csuhor at zebra.net writes:

> DJMLers have written often about the need to go the extra mile to 
> create audiences beyond our small “niche” fans in most places—inventive 
> marketing and promotion, showmanship, going to the schools, etc. I 
> reckon that’s what it takes.

I agree with everything you said Charlie, and especially because as you said 
New Orleans is a Very Special place and hopefully always will be.


 But I don’t think the problem is that > dancing has gone out of style, not 
> in the least.

No not at all except for our kind of dancing, which the younger generations 
missed out on mostly, fortunately some of them are finding it somehow no matter 
how long our generation and the one before it believes that they will come 
just because we play.

It take ingenuity and creative thinking to get past most of the obstacles 
thrown up by the folks in charge of most social events these days, you know the 
ones who say oh we don't hire any old timey music, nobody listens to that stuff 
anymore.  ( outside New Orleans anyway) So many of them think anyway.  They 
did not grow up or get exposed to the music but did grow up with all the other 
genres and what is being played on the radio today.

We have to relentlessly and shamelessly PROMOTE this music to the unwashed 
and often the uncaring people in the media power circuit, however we must also 
change a bit with the times and not just go do the same old thing that Louis 
and Buddy and Bix did, we need to diversify and adapt other music to our 
formats.

Everybody in music today is Hell bent on thinking they are a great Songwriter 
and have original music better than anybody else on the radio, however most 
of them are trying to sound pretty much just like what they hear on the radio 
in the hopes that they can get airplay on their music.  In many cases the radio 
programmers are actually telling them to make their music sound that way to 
get airplay, but in many instances it is only a ploy to get rid of the new 
artist that they have no intention of playing anyway unless of course he is 
bringing them advertising revenue or his record label is buying radio time to 
promote the act.  etc.    

By the time you get your band and music to sound like what is on the radio it 
is already too late they are looking for something else, musical fame is 
often a very fleeting thing no matter how good you are, just when you master the 
game they change all the rules again.  :))


> And I don’t see loosening restraints on alcohol consumption and driving as 
> a point of 
> attack on the problem.

And certainly neither do I Charlie, and I hope that is not what my post was 
interpreted to mean, I was merely trying to point out a major issue that indeed 
changed the public attitudes.  It is the same argument that guns don't kill 
people, people kill people some with guns unfortunately.


 It’s not clear that laws against drunk driving > are really limiting the 
> music business, but if it were, 
> 
> I know countless live music club owners and promoters who would strongly 
> disagree with that with exceptions like New Orleans however which has very 
> liberal Liquor laws, and I have not yet found another place with drive through 
> Daiquiri and Margarita shops to service the drinking drivers.   ( even if the 
> sign above the window says "Don't Drink and Drive" that has never deterred the 
> perpetual drunk driver any more than "Just Say No to Drugs" slows down an 
> addict.  The Problem is much deeper than the law.  The laws only suffice to 
> bring in additional money to combat the problems that the problems cause and feed 
> the court systems and those who make a living in that circuit.
> 
> If we had no criminals what collection agency would all those Criminal 
> lawyers work for, if and when we find a way for Lawyers to make a living keeping 
> major felons in Prison rather than getting them out, maybe we would see more 
> safe and sane streets to walk down and enjoy Freedom on.


I’d rather have > fewer gigs and fewer traffic deaths than be the victim of 
> overdoses of 
> booze and libertarianism.
> 
> Charlie Suhor
> 
> I heartedly agree, and we in this country often overdose on both with common 
sense thrown right out the window.

With that I am selling my cars and moving to New Orleans (still a great 
Pedestrian community) I will immediately apply for the Position of "Town Drunk" and 
walk everywhere having a good time.   ( Now if we could just get them to 
close off all the street in the French Quarter to cars we could all have a 
stumbling good time dancing in the streets).  I would rather club hop via horse or 
donkey buggy rides anyway).


If we had no Alcohol in our society, how would music survive?  no advertisers 
or sponsors for major festivals and events that provide live music.

Oh I suppose we could have all music in the Symphony halls with no Alcohol 
available but soon that would preclude the live music necessity for the annual 
Gala and the after the symphony parties in the surrounding pubs etc.

Elliot Ness tried to get rid of it and it did not work than and it won't work 
now, but we do need to find a way to keep the habitual drunks from behind the 
wheel.  I believe that should be worked on by the bartenders and those in the 
alcoholic beverage sales business to strictly monitor those they serve to 
keep them as customers for the long haul, after all a dead drunk does not make 
them any money either.

I can see the slogan now "Keep em coming back" serve them in moderation and 
have them check in their car keys when they buy the second drink, maybe a 
breathalyzer test when they come in and again on the way out to get your keys back. 
 But then again we all know you can't reason with Alcohol or a drunk.  
Perhaps the answer is to ban all automobiles and go back to horses.  Bicycles seem 
to work pretty well in Holland and the Far East, not to mention how much fun it 
is to sit outside a Dutch pub at closing time and observe the Drunk Dutchmen 
and women trying to find their own bicycle and navigate it back through the 
streets to go home.  It is quite sobering however for one of them to miss the 
bridge or the path and take a plunge in one of the many water canals flowing 
through some of the cities I have visited.    More fun than monkeys in a barrel.  
:)


Cheers 

Tom Wiggins