[Dixielandjazz] Missing Out on Current Bands

[Steve barbone]

> "Brian Harvey" <brer.rabbit at tiscali.co.uk> (polite snip)

> Mr. Barbone wrote..........the current OKOM audience misses out by not
> keeping up with OKOM as played by
> contemporary musicians of this caliber and that is a shame.
> 
> You may be right Steve but that makes you think so?

Well, I know that few Americans (and I'd bet the farm that very few Brits)
have that Independence Hall JB record, and that very few have heard Jon Erik
Kellso, or Duke Heitger, or a whole host of other bands and top notch
American OKOMers.

By the same token, I'd bet the farm that very few Americans have any idea
about what the 5 star Brit Bands are doing, or 5 star European Bands are
doing. 

And that something less than 25% of the "fans" on the DJML have bought a
reasonable number of CDs that feature these 5 star American and European
Bands.

> For my part I have
> found that  in the UK the top level of OKOM musicians can be found in
> concert halls and not jazz clubs who in the main don't know what a fair fee
> is. To find this five star level of jazz you just have to look for it. It's
> there - well over here it is.

Yes, the music is there but very few "really" seek it out. and I think fewer
still buy the CDs of the current bands. In this country, 100,000 people may
attend the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, but very few bands sell as much as 500
CDs there and many sell less than 100. Not a good ratio and that's why CDs
end up in the bands' garages gathering dust.

Sheik posted this "Oliver music album as his favorite: Peruna Jazzmen "Plays
the music of King Oliver", GHB BCD-436. How about a poll to see how many on
the DJML own this album, and/or "Louis-The Oliver Years" - Independence Hall
JB -Stomp Off Records. Sounds like Sheik and I own both, how many others on
the list own even one out of the two? Yet everybody loves King Oliver's
music. Go figure. 

Or how many of us have CDs of Jon Erik Kellso, or Nicholas Peyton? It is
already a lost cause with Peyton because he left the genre a year or two ago
in order to make more money in modern jazz where more fans buy CDs. His
latest album as a sideman with Terry Gibbs reprises the bebop of 52nd
Street. And, it is SELLING like hot cakes according to the local jazz radio
station here in Philadelphia.

There you have my soul bared about why I preach listening to musicians who
are still alive, playing this music. To keep them from leaving the genre,
like Peyton, for greener pastures. Not only that, but guys like Kellso and
Peyton are better than 95% of the dead OKOM trumpeters. (IMO, of course.:-)
VBG) 

And, I admit to being totally ignorant of the Brit (and European) guys who
are in the same category, except for two, John Petters; The Gota River
Jazzmen. But then, I am not only a fan of OKOM, I am a fan of music and so I
listen to a much more varied sampling of it. Even to some dead guys.

Examples: Brahms (to get inside Richard Rodgers music), Bartok, Back and
Milhaud (to get inside Brubeck's music) Baby Dodds circa 1940s to get inside
the music of the modern jazz drummers (Blakey, Morello, Elvin Jones) etc.,
etc., etc . So much music, so little time.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone