[Dixielandjazz] Headliners - One More Time

Steve barbone barbonestreet at earthlink.net
Wed Sep 29 16:05:12 PDT 2004


Paul Edgerton wrote (polite snip)

> The Squirrel Nut Zippers, or the Big Bad Voodoo Daddies or even the Dirty
> Dozen are indeed bankable and have name recognition, sure enough. The
> Superbowl can afford 'em, but STJS can't -- not this year, anyway. The
> trouble is, dropping down a notch from that level of popularity to something
> more regional like, say, Royal Crown Revue buys you a lot less, and for the
> same reasons you're using to argue against the choice of Maria Muldaur. They
> aren't headliners in the normal sense of the word. (Actually, neither are
> SNZ or BBVD.)

Case in point on Dirty Dozen which Paul mentions above as being a bankable
name yet still beyond Sacto Jubilee's price range.

This is where you folks have to get creative. Think separate venue. EG,
Barbone Street appeared with Dirty Dozen at the Berk's Jazz Festival last
year. Same stage, same venue, one 50 minute set each.

House was sold out at 600 who paid $35 a pop to see this 2 hour show. That
gross of $21,000 paid for the venue (Lincoln Plaza Hotel ball room), the
sound guys, and both bands. In other words, it covered all expenses and had
a few bucks left over for the profit coffers.

Give me one good reason why any damn fool OKOM festival in the world, of a
reasonable size, cannot do the exact same thing making a few bucks and
appealing to a slightly different crowd than they normally get?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

PS. The year before, we did it with Preservation Hall at the same hotel
ballroom in Reading PA (population 90,000) with the same result. If Reading
can afford those two bands, surely Sacramento, the capitol of the Golden
West, can do it too. ESPECIALLY since Berk's Jazz Fest is a smooth jazz
festival and we were the only OKOM bands there.
 




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