[Dixielandjazz] Getting a wider audience / charts

[barbonestreet at earthlink.net]

Dan Spink wrote (polite snip)

"Let's start this whole discussion over  and just talk about how to bring more young people, or old or middle aged  people, to OKOM. It's just that simple.The more people who like it the more often you get booked. Duh!"

Dan & Listmates:

Gosh don't encourage me. I've been writing about just that for the past several years much to the disgust of some band leaders on the list who think I'm blowing my own horn to get OKOM festival gigs. As if the OKOM festival goers were my target audience. NOT!!!;-) VBG

I doubt that playing with charts will get younger audiences. Basically because the music/rap they see/hear now do not use them for the most part. VISUAL is the key. Look like you've prepared the concert/presentation in advance etc. If you want a tight ensemble sound, use charts to rehearse, but MEMORIZE it for the performances.
Unless you do not play/rehearse that often. Then do the best you can.

How can you respond to a NEW audience if you are not hip to what they are picking up on? How else can you play requests? Or throw a tune in that fits with what they seem to be enjoying? Heck, we don't even go into a concert or a jazz nightclub, or a restaurant with a set program, other than the first few numbers. Then we choose tunes (from my short list of 200) that we think they will dig, based upon how they reacted to those in the beginning. I keep the folded over list in my pocket.

Someone decreed that without charts you get wrong/different chords between bass & piano? NAH. As Brian Harvey says, You have the wrong musicians in your band if that goes on. All you need do is designate the primary chord instrument (piano, banjo, guitar, choose one) as the guy who everybody will follow. Condon worked with about 100 jazz musicians at his joint over the years. No problems even though they seldom, if ever, rehearsed. Jazz is, or should be, a universal language. And real jazz musicians should be able to converse with each other using that language. They should be able to take their axe into a joint, sit in with other real jazz musicians and converse intelligently. If they can't, they are not real jazz musicians and should be content with playing Bill Bailey and it's 52 variations as their book.

Chord substitutions? Heck, you should be able to hear them when they occur. Or buy the "substitution" books and figure them out. Dick Hyman's Vols. 1 & 2 would be a good place to start for jazz, maybe not YKOM, but substitutions are an integral part of jazz. (Why even John Farrell uses them, I think) Listen and hear, then play what you hear. Your ears, if they are good, will not lie to you. And, as any sophisticated listener knows, no matter what note you play, you are only a half step away from the right one. Just repeat it and resolve it.

Any, repeat ANY competant Dixieland Musician should have at least 250 tunes in his/her memory banks. The pros have many more in theirs. Those who don't aren't working enough and need to get more gigs, or need to rehearse new tunes once a week.  

Now, I speak as a "Chicago" style jazz band leader, primary emphasis, first on swinging and then on solos. With a "working" Dixieland Band and professional musicians.  If you are into reliving the work of someone else, or dig ensemble music, or play in a hobby band, then by all means get charts and rehearse. And/or listen to bands who do just that. But for goodness sake, please try and commit them to memory and/or follow the lead horn and the primary chord guy when in doubt.

Brian Harvey spoke about Basie's charts. I think I posted before about the time I saw the band, mid 1970s, from an Opera House side box, looking down on them from 20 feet in the air. They played a one and a half hour concert. All opened their music books at the beginning and NOBODY ever turned a page during the entire performance. NOBODY ever needed to check a chord, or a line, or a harmony part. Of course, that was a "working" band of professional musicians who had memorized the book. Basie confirmed that to me afterwards.

Dixieland is not Aramaic. It is a relatively simple language. 9 year old Jonathan Russell joins our band next weekend and he has absolutely no trouble playing with us, nor we playing with him. Even though we do not rehearse together and are separated by at least 2 generations. We just listen to each other and so when he decided to play lead on July 4th last, we simply adjusted and filled in behind him. Simple as that and it delighted both the crowd and his mom and dad who were quite surprised. More so than we.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

PS. Am writing for a different computer. Mine blew up and I am reconfiguring a new Mac. Please forgive spelling errors and double posting which may occur. I am having a bit of trouble sending messages and am just now sorting out why. Obviously I am not a real computer guy. :-) VBG



: