[Dixielandjazz] Are charts good for audiences? (Was Dixieland)

[Snogpitch]

As a fan of RocknRoll music, I've been to many concerts by Joan Jett and the
Blackhearts.  Occasionally she will introduce "new" songs just penned or
freshly created for her latest CD.  She can be uncertain with the
lyrics/chord changes 100%, so she has a stage hand bring a clipboard from
off stage and place it at one of the monitor speakers at her feet.  Being
front row, I can tell when she actually looks at the sheet, which is
probably less than a 1/4 of the entire tune.  After the tune is over, the
stage hand quickly pulls the clipboard back offstage.

For those of us who are her groupies, we may not know the entire new song
either.  Making sure she is getting the song right, for us, is important.
Even a song she has performed probably over a million times, she forgets
where she is.  She even commented on that in one of her interviews, saying
that she was watching one of her audience members, and that person started
singing along, but with the wrong verse.  In turn, Joan forgets where she
was in the tune, and sings along with the wrong verse as well...talk about
audience focus!  I have witnessed how she follows the audience singing first
hand as she watched my singing the harmonizing lyrics to her main lyrics.
After the refrain was over, she smiled at me, as if knowing, man he really
likes those other lyrics.  Of course being front row does help with that
experience at a rock show.

I know, it's not exactly jazz related, but it is audience related.  And
regardless of the stylings of music, the audience should connect with the
artist, and vice-versa.


On 9/3/04 5:40 PM, "TCASHWIGG at aol.com" <TCASHWIGG at aol.com> wrote:
> 
> Imagine paying and going to see Barbara Striesand or Tony Bennett, or Frank
> Sinatra walk out on the stage with a lyric sheet in their hand or worse yet on
> a music stand in front of their face blocking the great element of a singer's
> ability to sell a song to an audience, their facial expressions.
> 
> I have always preferred to see and hear a group that had committed the song
> to memory and could improvise it and make it different every time they played
> it.  This keeps the music interesting and no predictable to the musician and
> the audience and fosters greater spontaneity and interaction which usually
> produces more enjoyable events for all.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Tom Wiggins
> _______________________________________________


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