[Dixielandjazz] Share the jazz!

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/18/05 12:43:11 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
jazzadvocate at kbcom.net writes:

> But at the clubs...  At set break, he holds court, and the band and the 
> regulars rise from their tables or step down from the stage and come to him.  
> They pay respects, share a joke, have a drink--but mostly pay their respects.  
> And that's all he needs--that and the music.  King of the night, the jazzman 
> smiles and nods.  -- By Duante Beddingfield
> 

A nice article Ron thanks for posting it.

It of course brings up a subject bantered around often on this list.

When the band members stopped stepping down off the stages at breaks to pay 
respect to the audience that pays them to be up there in the first place one 
way or the other, they started losing their audiences and their gigs and the 
venues also closed due to lack of enough business to support the place and or the 
bands they hired.

Far too many musicians failed to see this handwriting on the walls, and found 
themselves wandering around looking for a place to perform and an audience to 
perform to.

The audience is KING even if Artie Shaw hated them, you can't survive without 
one and remain in the music business, so we should all treat it like a 
business and it will treat us like one in return.

Kind of like "well our band and music got so good that hardly nobody comes 
out to hear it anymore, or the Club owner ran all our customers away, or the 
club owner raised the price of his drinks too high (never mind that we demanded a 
raise before he did it)  well you could have asked him to put on a cover 
charge for your services and see how many fans were actually coming there for your 
music????

Never! Never! Never! under estimate the necessity of the audience (any 
audience) they are the source of and for your existence as a musician and often the 
source of your next gig.


I once played a boring gig in a joint that had only three people in the 
audience, but one man kept applauding after every number and shouting encouragement 
to the band who had already copped that I wanna get this over with and get 
outta here attitude.  The customer and his two friends sat there till the joint 
closed and then came over to me and booked us for one of the best well paid 
gig that band ever had.  A lesson I never forgot.


Cheers,

Tom Wiggins
St. Gabriel's Celestial Brass Band