[Dixielandjazz] Squirrel Nut Zippers & Jazz Festivals

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/28/04 9:28:55 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
robert at ringwald.com writes:

> 
> 
> Sacramento has been pricing these groups.  They are out of our price
> league.
> 
> BTW- The headliner for Sacramento next year will be Maria Muldar (SP).  She
> has recorded 3 Jazz albums lately &will be here with her quintet which
> includes Jim Rothermel.
> 
> --Bob Ringwald
> Placerville, CA USA
> 

Herein folks lies the problem that I laid out and nobody listens to, and I am 
sure this will piss of my friend Bob as well as a few others.

Any Festival that grosses the amount of money that Sacramento Jubilee does 
can afford any damned headline act they want to buy.

To say that a group like the Squirrel nut Zippers are out of your price range 
is pure BS, why don't you say it the way it really is Bob.

They are worth more than you are willing to pay them.  And any act that knows 
what they are worth in ticket revenues and is smart enough to ask for it is 
out of the Jubilee price range.

Maria Muldaur whom I have known for many more years than I have known about 
this list is no Headliner, she plays as a supporting act on many medium size 
USA Blues Festivals and often plays 100 seat venues in the Bay area.  Primarily 
these days she is a nightclub act.

She is a fine singer and a good Blues Act, but as a headliner for the Sac. 
Jazz Jubilee, give me a Break.  But as best I recall a one hit wonder artist who 
has made a living off her one big hit, Midnight at the Oasis just for the 
benefit of you folks who never heard of her and will no doubt be underwhelmed at 
this announcement.


If you can afford to pay Maria what she normally makes for a festival you can 
certainly afford to pay the Squirrel Nuts or any other act that could sell 
tickets and draw enough people to carry their own weight at the box-office.  The 
problem is that your booker or committee does not know how to buy a headliner 
professionally or maybe they just don't know what a headliner is.  Heck man, 
in the Northern California market Lavay Smith can draw twice as many paying 
customers as Maria these days.

The reason the Sacramento and other Jazz festivals don't have any real 
Headliner acts is because any headliner act or any act with a real box-office proven 
draw value is out of your Willing to Pay price range.  This is 2004 not 1924.

Headline acts are acts that make a living as professional touring full time 
acts not some semi obscure singer who had a hit record forty years ago.

I book Authentic Blues Singers who had one hit record twenty or thirty years 
ago and they still consistently make $5,000. to $10,000.00 a concert date, so 
if you booked a headline act for less than that your booker has no clue what a 
headline act is.

Traditional Jazz societies have wallowed in mediocrity for so many years that 
it has become the norm.  If I ever found one that was actually doing what 
their mission statement said they were doing I would join it, so far I have not 
found one.

The societies have driven away most of the really great professional acts and 
players in the OKOM field because of their unwillingness to pay them livable 
fees for their services or even recognize and reward the ones that actually do 
have enough draw power to sell tickets to justify their fees.

I made this point clear yesterday and you just proved it.  So all those who 
think what I said was BS can now see it in action.

Dave Richeaux also said that if you booked one or more of these kind of acts 
and did not change and expand your advertising and promotion base you might 
also lose money by booking them, so it boils down to either you know how and 
what to do or you don't know and are floundering in the ranks of the amateur 
promoters without a clue how to do it in the 21st Century.

Brady McKay will draw you as many or more people than Maria in ticket sales, 
Maria would be a nice addition to the Blues Stage to replace your local Blues 
hero Mick Martin for one year or as a special guest with his show.

Oh Well,  it was nice being your friend for a while, but you guys are 
hopeless.  Bill Borchers is turning over in his grave watching you guys destroy what 
he built.  Too bad too because he left you folks with a nice successful 
festival.  If all the other festivals in Traditional Jazz follow your organizations 
direction they will no doubt all be out of business sooner than later.  Just 
like everyone with their doomsday predictions for OKOM cries.

That is too bad.

That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it,
unlike my listmate Dave:

Go ahead and shoot me, 

Tom Wiggins