[Dixielandjazz] Jazz in The USA - Was Jazz In The UK

Patrick Cooke patcooke at cox.net
Tue Sep 28 20:47:10 PDT 2004


>add Pete Fountain if he is still performing with a permanent group.

Pete Fountain and his group play Tues & Thur at Casino Magic in Bay St. 
Louis, MS.

Pat Cooke
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Arnold Day" <arnieday at optonline.net>
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2004 6:25 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Jazz in The USA - Was Jazz In The UK


> In that case, Steve, my original question was based on a false premise and 
> "Traditional Jazz" is doing quite OK here then. It didn't appear so to me 
> from all the many pessimistic posts on this list! OK, so we have the ones 
> you mentioned (including your own) doing quite nicely, thank you. Maybe 
> you could add Pete Fountain if he is still performing with a permanent 
> group. But are the other regional bands you mention, with many of which I 
> am familiar, actually professional, full-time groups? If they are, good 
> for them.
>
> But the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra you say? Well, here is their mission 
> statement:
>
> "First formed in 1988, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (LCJO) is the 
> official "house band" for Jazz at Lincoln Center activities. Under the 
> direction of Wynton Marsalis, the orchestra is dedicated to developing a 
> performance repertory of historic compositions and newly-commissioned 
> works for big band. The LCJO specializes in the music of Duke Ellington, 
> and its annual presentation of Ellington's music at Lincoln Center has 
> become a cultural hihglight of New York City. The LCJO annually tours the 
> United States and has also performed across Europe and Asia. Their music 
> is documented on three recordings produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center for 
> Columbia/Sony Music, including Portraits by Ellington (1992), The Fire of 
> the Fundamentals (1993), and They Came to Swing (1994).
> Performance highlights include concerts in The Hollywood Bowl, Vienna 
> Opera House, Chicago's Orchestra Hall, Tanglewood, London's Royal Festival 
> Hall, and the Symphony Halls of Boston, Atlanta, Detroit, Munich, and Hong 
> Kong. The orchestra has appeared on television broadcasts in France, 
> Spain, Finland, Germany, and the Czech Republic, and has also appeared on 
> "Live
>>From Lincoln Center" and the "Tonight" Show. Along the way, the LCJO has
> performed numerous concerts for young people and has conducted workshops 
> and master classes for students at universities and high schools 
> nationwide.
>
> The historic repertory of the LCJO includes compositions and arrangements 
> by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Sy Oliver, Thelonius 
> Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Jay McShann, Benny Goodman, 
> Charles Mingus, Bennie Moten, Eddie Durham, Edgar Sampson, Eddie Sauter, 
> Woody Herman, John Lewis, and others. Jazz at Lincoln Center has 
> commissioned works for the LCJO from Benny Carter, Joe Henderson, Jimmy 
> Heath, Chico O'Farrill, Freddie Hubbard, Wynton Marsalis, Christian 
> McBride, and Stephen Scott. Guest conductors for the LCJO have included 
> Benny Carter, Jon Faddis, Robert Sadin, David Berger, and Loren 
> Schoenberg.
>
>>From January through March of 1997, the LCJO will tour 24 cities across 
>>the
> United States and Europe performing Wynton Marsalis' highly acclaimed epic 
> oratorio on American slavery, Blood on the Fields. The recording of this 
> work was release by Columbia Records as a 3-Disc set in the spring of 
> 1997"
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Ahem.....jolly good!!  Just my opinion, but if Wynton and his associates 
> were not the beneficieries of huge private and public subsidies, they 
> would all be driving taxis (am I allowed to say that in America??). 
> Seriously, I have no objection to their music but it sure ain't what I 
> would call "Trad". Now, Nick Payton, he can really play the stuff when he 
> wants and is allowed to. Have you heard his recording with the late Doc 
> Cheatham?...fabulous! (Verve, 1997). But I see they (the LCJO) have made 
> four recordings in their 16 years existence. WOW! The relatively humble 
> Lightfoot band I mentioned has made 47!
>
> Still, I sure hope you can pass a dose of your optimism and commercial 
> know-how onto a few other musicians on this message board. I think you are 
> right; it's just a matter of getting the message out, putting on a fun 
> show with a bit "slick", and not compromisising on the basic style of 
> music you play. Perhaps the regional small theaters are one way to go, as 
> seems to have happened in the UK. Not too many years since   Johnson "Fat 
> Cat" McRee put on those great concerts at the Hayloft Theater in Manassas, 
> VA
>
> Arn
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Steve barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
> To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2004 12:39 PM
> Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Jazz in The USA - Was Jazz In The UK
>
>
>> We have many opinions that OKOM Jazz Bands are not viable in the USA. 
>> IMO,
>> that is simply not the case.
>>
>> There are 3 VERY VIABLE OKOM bands in the US and MANY other Working Jazz
>> Bands in the US that make a living on a "territorial" basis.
>>
>> The VERY VIABLE that fill venues.
>>
>> 1) Preservation Hall Jazz Band
>>
>> 2) Lincoln Center Jazz Band (Its N.O. Jazz Versions)
>>
>> 3) Jim Cullum's Jazz Band.
>>
>>
>> The "working" Jazz Bands include mine in Philadelphia, Vince Giordano in
>> NYC, and a HOST of others, too numerous to name.
>>
>> In my case, our band is the major source of musical income for many of 
>> the
>> top musicians in the area. They cancel other gigs to make Barbone Street
>> dates.
>>
>> In Giordano's case, look at the line up he has for the Pennsylvania Jazz
>> Society on October 16. Trumpets - Randy Reinhart and Jon Erik Kellso.
>> Trombone, Brad Shigeta, Reeds, Dan Levinson &Mark Lopeman and Dan Block,
>> Brass & String Bass + Bass Sax,  Vince Girodano, Violin, Andy Stein,
>> Banjo/Guitar Mark McCarron, Drums, John Gill. This band performs on a
>> regular basis in New York City.
>>
>> If near the area, I suggest folks go see them at the BARGAIN rate of $18, 
>> 2
>> to 6 PM, Easton Moose Club.
>>
>> In my case, we have two MONSTER gigs coming up in addition to all of our
>> regular stuff.
>>
>> October 30: Beaux Arts Ball. Philadelphia's Premier Party. Attendance 
>> 3500,
>> at the New Constitution Center 7:30 PM to 3:00 AM. Varied admission 
>> schedule
>> for this charity event, from $75 to $2000. We play one hour sets at 7:30 
>> PM,
>> 10:00 PM and Midnight. Maybe a final at 2:00 AM if folks are still 
>> partying,
>> and we suspect they will be.
>>
>> Nov 6 and 7; Dover Downs Wine & Jazz Festival, Dover Downs Casino. We 
>> play
>> one hour sets at Noon, 2 PM and 4 PM. Both days. Other headliner is Tito
>> Puente Jr. (Both of us back by popular demand from 2003) We expect an
>> audience of 1000 at each of our sets.
>>
>> Point being there are some extraordinary opportunities for OKOM bands out
>> there which we mostly ignore because we do not follow the current
>> entertainment scene. Most of us are simply not hip to what is going on 
>> these
>> days because we are no longer a part of it.
>>
>> EXCEPTIONS ARE A FEW OF US WHO ARE NOT SUFFERING FROM THROMBOSIS OF THE
>> BLOWHOLE. Bands like the ones mentioned have found a niche playing for 
>> the
>> new audience here in the USA, while the rest simply wallow in self pity 
>> and
>> bitch about lack of interest among the uncultured youth.
>>
>> Heck, I'll bet most of us even missed the press release that Queen Latifa
>> has just recorded a jazz album (standards) while saying that she is 
>> leaving
>> hip-hop for jazz. Ha Ha, doesn't she know, (like most of us would 
>> declaim)
>> that there is no market for jazz?
>>
>> Hey old folks, get hip to the fact that there is a market for jazz. Bill
>> Gunter gave us the part of key in his post.
>>
>>> Audiences want to participate rather than listen. They want VOLUME.
>>> they want youth. They want ATTITUDE!
>>
>> Isn't that what OKOM should be? Isn't that what it used to be? Before the
>> current crop of bands de-balled it? Golly gee, if you want to dance to 
>> music
>> are you somehow an idiot? My my, how far the music has gotten away from 
>> what
>> it really was. All in the name of Art so we "listeners" could massage our
>> egos in our old age. ("We recognize art, you don't, you philistine.")
>>
>> However, his:
>>
>>> They want stuff that will offend anybody
>>> over 30. Pander to that sort of
>>> audience and you, too, can be a millionaire.
>>
>> Is just myopic sour grapes. The usual old folk's lament. Exactly what our
>> parents and grandparents said at the dawn of the jazz age. The kids under 
>> 30
>> ARE the audience and it's time we old, artery hardened, reactionaries
>> realized it. After all, most of us came to love jazz when we were that 
>> age.
>> All they want is music with a message. That's what ODJB, NORK, King 
>> Oliver,
>> Louis, Bix, Condon, Scobey, et al delivered.
>>
>> Have we already forgotten that simple fact? Alzheimer's perhaps?
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Steve Barbone
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Dixielandjazz mailing list
>> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz 





More information about the Dixielandjazz mailing list