[Dixielandjazz] Schools Dumbing Down The Music?

[Steve barbone]

on 8/24/05 11:14 AM, Bob Romans at cellblk7 at comcast.net wrote:

> Hi Listmates!
> Can any of you remember when the Beatles and Elvis  hit the scene/top
> charts? Remember the reaction all of the sexy little teeny boppers had! Then
> all of the boys who were going through puberty, and all THAT entails, saw
> what it took to get the girls...LOUD DRUMS and AMPLIFIED GUITARS...how many
> Dixieland/OKOM  bands have those two ingredients?

Barbone Street does. :-) VBG

> We have to remember that the kids today have developed their taste for music
> from THEIR dumbed-down parents/grandparents! We should just be happy playing
> for whomever will listen to us until we can discover that magic here-to-for
> unknown trick to get an audience who can appreciate what it takes to learn
> how to play OKOM! It will NEVER be as popular again as it once was. Get used
> to it.

It may never be as popular as it once was, but it sure as hell can be more
popular than it is. All it takes is a little modification on the band's part
and a mindset not to be satisfied with being happy to play for anyone who
will listen. 

Just go out and create your audience. Simple as that. Caveat, you can't do
it playing old style, blue hair, white folks "Dixieland". It MUST SWING, BE
DANCEABLE and APPEAL TO THE GUT. Simple as that.

Not too different from what Condon, and Louis did from 1947 till they died.
Yeah, they had loud drums and sometimes a guitar, even if not amplified. But
then Bechet went into Nick's in the 1940's with a group that had two
amplified guitars and he swung his ass off.

Why am I so positive about it? Because at least 4 days a week I am playing
for an audience that includes kids who absolutely love the music even though
they have no idea of what exactly, it is. And they dance and jiggle to it.

All the result of 10 years of finding "our" audience and making the music
relevant to it. Hell, I even published a 10 page FREE treatise on how to do
it which is largely ignored.

Nah, the music didn't dumb down, the bands did. When we stopped playing for
dancers about 1941, the decline of its relevance was clearly visible.

Cheers,
Steve