[Dixielandjazz] Dancing & The Young

[Steve barbone]

"Robert S. Ringwald" <robert at ringwald.com> wrote (polite snip)

> At our (Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society) monthly Jazz Sunday concerts,
> we have a small dance floor.  A few months ago, someone began putting powder
> on the dance floor.  Because of the amount of older folks who attend the
> concerts, this is very dangerous. . .

> We tried posting signs asking that no foreign substance be put on the dance
> floor . . .etc  

> ...the problem did not go away thus at the Feb, 2005
> concert, we closed the dance floor.  It caused quite an uproar.   Quite a
> few people really got angry.
> 
> But, from lemons, we got lemonade.  Some young Swing dancers came to our
> music committee meeting.  They got on the committee as dance advisors.  They
> have instituted self policing of the dance floor.  They have printed flyers
> telling people what to do with the soles shoes so that they can dance on any
> floor, including carpet, without using powder or dance wax.
> 
> They are advertising our monthly concerts in their dance club newsletters.
> Thus, we are getting lots of young Swing dancers out to our concerts now.
> They love dancing to the live music.
> 
> If this trend continues, in the future, we may have to think about finding a
> larger location for our concerts.

Hi Bob:

Right On. Nice to hear you are expanding the audience. The kid swing dancers
are hip to dancing on any surface, (preferably wood) without using powder on
the floor. They prep their shoes somehow and dance on other hard surfaces as
well. Our swing dance followers dance in "Athletic Shoes" (Sneakers)

And like you say, they dance their butts off to Dixieland. No reason why the
trend should not continue and no reason why you should ever have to close a
dance floor because some idiot (usually older) puts powder down. The young
kids are dancing so fast and so athletically that they do not want to slip.

As you say, this is a great way to get to young people with the music.

Interestingly enough, Kids are how Dave Brubeck got so popular, as he will
tell anyone who will listen. While trying to figure out how to get gigs,
circa 1950 or so, he and his wife got a hold of a College Directory. They
wrote a generic pitch for a concert at Colleges, duplicated it, hand
addressed the envelopes and mailed to about 150 Colleges and affixing the
stamps the old fashioned way.

First year results at Colleges & Universities, 6 concerts. Second year 12
concerts. Then they got "discovered" by Joe Glaser and his agency and they
no longer had to do it themselves. And Glaser, of course, used that entre to
book his stable of jazz musicians at Colleges also. He too, became wealthy
promoting jazz.

Thus a generation of College kids, (us) grew up with Brubeck and the rest is
history. Made him a very wealthy jazz musician. As an aside, if you saw
Brubeck during that period (Quartet with Morello, Brubeck, Wright and
Desmond) the other reason they were so successful is that they were having
as much fun as you and the audience were.

Good lesson there. He did not just burst upon the scene. He created his
luck. He went out and played where the kids were. And he broke a lot of
"Jazz Rules" with his offerings. Pity that you and I are not 25 years old
with fire in the belly. It would be quite easy to do the same thing, right
now, with swinging Dixieland.

Maybe we should be teaching young musicians the business end of the music
business? I made a big sign to remind me. It is on my office wall, here on
the Farm:

"IT'S THE AUDIENCE, STUPID, THE KIDS"

Best of all, they treat us so deferentially, like "artists" as Gary Kiser
said about European audiences. Can't do enough for us. And since Barbone
Street plays mostly for kids, it just doesn't get any better than that as
far as we are concerned.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone