[Dixielandjazz] Shaw & Goodman

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/1/05 4:39:00 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
rbroadie at dc.rr.com writes:

> 
> Great hearing from you after so long.  Sorry about my prolonged absence from 
> 
> djml.  I've had 2 major surgeries in the last 3 months and may have more to 
> come.  I figure I'd better start writing more on the list just so I can get 
> some of my memories stated while I still have them.
> 
> By the way, how'd you personally like Woody?  I always thought him to be one 
> 
> of the good guys, even though his business instincts were as skilled as the 
> tall blonde vocalist that sat in for one chorus of "Valentine" at my New 
> Year's gig last night.  She wasn't invited back for an encore.  Dick

Hi Dick,  welcome back, I didn't know you were under the weather, I thought 
you were away on a big engineering assignment.   I guess you could say you 
actually were, only you were not doing the engineering on the project. :))   Hope 
you are mending well, and can stave off whatever may be coming.

Personally I liked Woody and found him to be a warm and likable guy in the 
short time that I had to know him.  As Al Springer said he died broke, 
unfortunately he was not the first nor will he be the last musician to join that not so 
elite club.  I enjoyed his music then and still do today.

   I think maybe Woody just had the Heart to Play and the money did not 
really matter that much, but he certainly should have been charging about 30% more 
than he was the last time around, or perhaps he would have been better off 
reducing the size of the band to a more economically manageable size towards the 
last years.  No doubt a lot of what caused him to keep losing money was where 
and how his agents kept booking him rather than trying to seek new younger 
audiences for his music.  We live in an ever changing climate for live music and 
if we do not stay up with the trend it is soooo easy to get left in the past.

But I may have to eat those words, since I refuse to do that with my show, 
and have been known to do shows that paid the band and I waited for mine to come 
later in bigger gigs, which is always appreciated by the sidemen, until I 
book one of those big ones and they forget about all the ones I took just so they 
could make a living and stay a band. :))   That is how most bandleaders get 
the reputation of being Rip off leaders, trying to stay even.  ha ha:))   Now 
if you got a one man band, you got real sideman problems heh?


As I get older I often reflect on the past 40 years that I have been in music 
and try not to think of how much money I have made ( and spent )  in the 
music industry,  I have had some winners and some losers, but I try to not count 
it in dollars, but rather in the Smiles I have been rewarded with from 
audiences, which will keep me happy long after the money runs out again.  :))   So far 
I am one or three  up on the losers  :))   but that could change with the 
next big deal or tour.

I have always found Money to be a Great Tool, and if used carefully it can be 
used to make more to spend making more smiles and others happy as well, can't 
take it with us anyway.

Here's wishing you and all the listmates many smiles and enough money tools 
to put them on your faces for many years to come.