[Dixielandjazz] Playing Dixieland On The Outside - Was Rap & Other Forms

[Steve barbone]

Barbone Street does a lot of work on the "outside". Meaning private parties,
dances etc., as opposed to steady club dates.

What we find is that there are a great amount of R & B, Soul, Rock Bands
etc., out there, competing with us for dance gigs.

Sometimes we think the world only crazy about Rap, or Hip-Hop. Not entirely
accurate. The "Party Circuit" is crazy about DANCE MUSIC. And you can get
DANCE GIGS of all genres from Jump, through R&B and Rock to Dixieland.

Here in the Philly area are many DANCE bands like The Intruders, The
Crusaders, The Flaming Caucasians etc., etc., etc. All playing DANCE MUSIC
at private parties and other social events.

By design, Barbone Street works around the fringes of this Dance genre. In
6/7 piece Dixieland/Swing form, quintet swing, quartet swing and trio swing
forms. The latent demand for tuneful, danceable music is huge.

We find that the audience wants to dance, and there are a fair sized group
of people within it that respond to OKOM as we play it.

So we might all cheer up in the thought that in the real world of working
musicians, there are lots of gigs for OKOM, be it American Songbook, Swing
and/or Dixieland. 

At all kinds of venues from High Schools to Universities as well as
Retirement Facilities, Public Parks, Music Festivals and Modern Jazz
Festivals, etc. The OKOM Festival circuit audience is small by comparison,
and far too inbred for musicians to make any real musical progress with the
Polyphonic Counterpoint most of us categorize as Dixieland.

Cheers,
Steve