[Dixielandjazz] More Gig Tips

[David Richoux]

One of the best "Southern Baptist style" Gospel Chorus I have ever 
heard is the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir - they have had members 
that are Buddhists, Moslem, Practicing Jews, Shintoists and just about 
every variety of Christian over their long history - and they are 
really, really good!  I have performed with them at several festivals 
in the San Francisco Bay Area and they also have no problem with the 
religion of Jazz... ;-)

  They have a website: www.oigc.org

Oh, BTW, this afternoon I was playing a gig in the lovely town of Colma 
(Graveyard for San Francisco) in the annual celebration of the life of 
Emperor Norton. We played "America the Beautiful" in our last set and 
when we finished a man came up and introduced himself as the  
great-nephew of  Katharine Lee Bates, the composer of that poem!
(full lyrics at http://www.fuzzylu.com/falmouth/bates/america.html  )

Dave Richoux

On Jan 8, 2005, at 2:01 PM, TCASHWIGG at aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 1/8/05 1:23:09 PM Pacific Standard Time,
> sign.guy at charter.net writes:
>
>> Having said all that my new vocalist is Jewish.  Since we have a 
>> dozen or
>> so
>> Christian tunes in the book I was planning to try and book some of the
>> churches in the area that have regular musical events.  Any advise on 
>> how I
>> should approach her on doing them or just forget about it?
>>
>
> Hi Larry:
>
>  If she is or wants to be a Professional Singer, she needs to 
> understand that
> you sing what the Bandleader calls to make the gig go smoothly and 
> give the
> audience and or buyer what they paid for and want.  If not send her 
> packing, it
> probably would not be the first or last time for her in her career.
>
> Besides, she should understand that the most famous and Favorite 
> Christmas
> Song in the Jewish Repertoire is, "What a Friend We Have In Jesus"   
> as they
> count their Christmas shopping sales receipts every year from the 
> Gentiles.  :))
>
> Then tell her that the band has no problem playing Hava Naguila  
> (Spelling)
> at all the Bar Mitzvahs and Jewish Weddings etc.  We are supposed to be
> Professional Musicians being paid to perform whatever the buyer 
> wishes, if we cannot
> or will not do that then we should become plumbers or something else.
>
> Cheers,
>
>
>
> OLE REV- Tom-Bob Wiggins
> Who Loves to play That Old Time Religion music and Jazz it up, which 
> makes my
> Mother's   Baptist church cringe, since it becomes very difficult for 
> them
> not to get up and dance which they don't think folks should do.  Seems 
> they
> overlooked that scripture in the Good Book that said they would be 
> Dancing in the
> Streets shouting alleluia's.