[Dixielandjazz] Jazz preservation in Europe?

[iVOR jONES]

Once again I must agree with Kash,

Labels don't mean too much here in Portugal either. We are often described 
as a 'novelty' band, and if they differentiate it's just  modern or 
'Dixieland'.

In this country, like most I suppose, modern dominates at jazz festivals. I 
and our Portuguese trombonist, took two days, travelled about 600 miles, 
with demo discs and  brochures, visited 14 different cities/towns, met 14 
cultural directors or their assistants. I usually went like this :-

'What do you do ?' 'Well we play jazz'  'Sorry, no,  people won't come to 
listen to jazz',  'We play the old type of jazz, listen to the CD' , 'Oh 
this is different, yes we are very interested, we will be in touch'.

And they were, some had already booked their programme for the year, and 
told us,  but as a result of our travels we have had 8 bookings from these 
towns alone. Played one last night, as a matter of fact. In a stone 
amphitheatre in a park with a lake behind us with fountains playing in the 
moonlight and a very enthusiastic audience. A great experience ? Bet yer 
bloody life mate, as Mr Heasler would say.

Ivor



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Kashishian" <jim at kashprod.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2005 10:10 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Jazz preservation in Europe?



Kash wrote>
> There is little of the "pigdeon holing" that goes on in the U.S. as far as
> styles go here.  I mean, we can't even decide on what Dixieland is on this
> list so we call it OKOM!  Over here, if they hear a band they like, they
> enjoy it!  No one asks "is this New Orleans style or is it Chicago style,
> etc.?" Or say to us, "oh, you didn't do the verse to Alexander's, so you
> don't really qualify as a proper Dixieland band", or "you don't have a 3 
> man
> front line, so....blah, blah, blah!" They don't know that much about it, 
> or
> even care.
>
> If it's good music, they enjoyable it, and don't sweat it's history, it's
> styles, or even it's life expectancy.
>
> By the way, and it is only MY opinion, whether or not people like Jamie C.
> are having great success or not has nothing to do with what any of us are
> doing.  I can't believe anyone will connect his jazz with our jazz.  I 
> only
> mentioned him here on DJML because I didn't know who he was, and I found 
> his
> style innovating, exciting, and fun.  Jazz?  Some of his tunes were 
> standard
> jazz, the rhythm section most of the time was jazzy (the drummer was
> excellent!), but I see no connection with what we all do with what he 
> does,
> except that he "entertains", and that is what I hope we are all trying to
> do, also.
>
> Jim
>
>
>
>
>
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