[Dixielandjazz] The Impact of Kenny G.

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/21/05 7:14:40 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
barbonestreet at earthlink.net writes:

> 
> Click!!! Tom, you just turned the light on for many of us.
> 
> Not only that, but did you notice that Metheny opines that what the G man
> plays is indeed jazz? At least he had the sense to differentiate G's
> abilities from Grover Washington Jr., who invented the smooth jazz genre in
> the early 1970s.
> 
> Grover was a master of his horn, and a fellow Philadelphia reed man. G made
> smooth jazz popular, but Grover was the innovator. Kind of the Buddy Bolden
> - ODJB story all over again.
> 
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone


Thanks Steve:

  I hope so, as much as I hope others will see the simplicity in this 
situation, if we can all just back up and look at it with reality in mind we can I 
think and figure out what has happened and change the course of history more 
than we might imagine.

Hi folks I just came back from an interesting evening listening to Mike Vax 
and his Big Band at world renowned Jazz Club Yoshi's in Oakland California  :)) 
 A high brow Sushi joint that has a nice Jazz room on the side.  They bring 
in the best of the Academic Set of Jazz on a regular basis.  Master players 
with recognizable names that play a lot of pretty mundane crap to an academic 
crowd of about two to three hundred folks who think they are Hip but that really 
could not swing from a rope in their own back yard.

Mike took on some interesting things in his repertoire this evening that 
surprised me and did something that usually does not happen.  I stayed for the 
second show.

Mike does not try to imitate Stan Kenton nor is he proclaiming to be a Ghost 
band playing Kenton Charts.  Mike is trying very hard to do his OWN thing with 
music and it is a hard thing to do when you have an audience of preconceived 
notions of what the Hell BIG BAND JAZZ is supposed to sound like and what the 
Band is supposed to play.

Does this sound familiar to all you Dixieland and Traditional Jazz Bands on 
the list?

I was standing talking with Mike when an over zealous FAN approached him with 
her schpeil about how he needed a promoter and she had all the right ideas 
She thought to make the band big Stars. :))  Have any of you heard this before 
?? :))

Mike and I just exchanged one of those knowing looks as he asked her if she 
would like the job.  ROTFLOL.  Again.  They all think it is so easy to be a 
band leader and all we really need is their advice to become Michael Jacksons and 
Ray Charles and Benny Goodman and Harry James etc.

Now on this area I have to agree with Artie Shaw that the audience is mostly 
absolutely clueless, ( not Artie's Words ) which makes us as band leaders walk 
a very fine line between the urge to slap them sillier than they already are 
and bite our lip and smile and find a gracious way to thank them for coming 
and hope they enjoyed the show and please do bring your money and friends and 
come back and pay again.

It does unfortunately take all kinds to make the cash register ring.

But back to the music, Mike dropped a totally unexpected number on the 
audience more than once in the second set that I would have loved to see the 
reaction from the first show audiences for.

He played a Big Band arrangement of Procol Harem's Whiter Shade of Pale that 
would have blown away the first show audience if they had bothered to stay for 
the second show which by the way they were invited to do for free.  There was 
also an excellent number from the Carlos Santana song book.  Now the big 
surprise folks, It was indeed OKOM, but you would have to open your ears to 
embrace it and respect what Mike and his folks did to make it OKOM.  Back to the old 
saying there are only two kinds of Music Good and Band, tonight I heard some 
good music by a guy who gives a damn and is not afraid to take chances and not 
stay locked into 1930.

As I said in an earlier post today, if you want to change and broaden the 
audience for OKOM you have to go reach out musically to the younger crowd that 
has first of all most likely never heard of any of the tunes you are playing nor 
the artist who made them famous.

Just like Kenny G did with his desecration of Louis Armstrong, but bottom 
line folks is this there are now millions of young folks making love to Louis 
Armstrong music because of Kenny G than teenage girls who got pregnant to the 
smooth jazz sounds of Johnny Mathis in the back seat of Buicks in the 1960, s.

Chances Are if we pay attention to letting the younger generations DISCOVER 
our kind of music and then encourage them they will also embrace it just like 
we did.

I think the secret lies in the packaging and marketing of it point blank.

Just being good musicians and players is not diddley squat, nobody gives a 
damn, high school and college bands turn out thousands of such players every 
semester with absolutely no place to go.

There is no shortage of GOOD musicians, but there sure as Hell is a shortage 
of good professional promoters and people who have any clue at all what to do 
with any of them or how to properly market and present them to the 
unsophisticated hungry audience begging for a place and situation to see and hear them.

As for successful Big Bands these days we all need to take a look at Harry 
ConnickJr., to see what the younger generation is into and will pay to see and 
hear.  Harry's band has that fire in the belly sound and Look while most big 
bands look and sound like exactly what they are, a bunch of High School music 
teachers gettin' together to try and impress their students and their parents.

The lady who was trying to lay into Mike was trying to tell him what his band 
needed, like a young high school chick singer in front, to attract all the 
high school band members to come out to his concerts.  Mike just rolled his eyes 
and I bit my lip to stay out of the conversation politely.  Mike told her he 
had already tried all of that and more and the kids had been invited to the 
concerts for free and they still would not show up.

Well, the answer lies in how you approach the High school kids and make them 
an intricate part of the music and the program, it MUST be COOL for them or 
they will run from it lest they be considered as NERDS, The answer folks is that 
what was COOL in our day is not perceived to be COOL today.  Many Musicians 
are simply totally out of step with the reality of today and the kids and young 
folks who go out and party and spend money.

No self respecting high school or college kid wants to go out on a date and 
see a band of guys that look like his or his dates Mom & Dad, however they will 
go out and spring $30.00 or more to see a COOL Hip Cat Like Harry ConnickJr., 
some hip lookin'  dudes who dress like today's fashions.

The visual impact is much more important to most bands than they will ever 
think, as it has been said on this list recently, today's music listeners do not 
hear it they see it first.

I know this goes against the grain of all the hipsters from the sixties who 
got away with that dress as you want style.  Well, Reality check folks, 
dressing up is back in style and dressing to look better than your audience is a 
winner.  Look like you are Somebody, Walk like you are Somebody, Talk Like you are 
Somebody and then Play like you are Somebody and by God you can soon be 
SOMEBODY.

Don't believe me, did any of you watch the Grammies, Take a look at the 
Oscars coming up and see if I don't suddenly make sense.  Like it or not IMAGE is a 
major part of show business if not all of it for some folks.

Well enough rambling for tonight,

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins