[Dixielandjazz] Re: Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 31, Issue 23

Wed Jul 13 14:39:02 PDT 2005

Do any of you subscribers have a website or an e-mail address for Jan Sutherland and/or her band.  We spoke with her at the 2005 Sacramento Jubilee where she expressed an interest in learning more about the Connecticut Steam Jazz Festival.

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Today's Topics:

1. RE: Re: "As Time Goes By" (Jim Kashishian)
2. Re: Old f***ts memory & Acker Bilk (Andy.Ling at Quantel.Com)
3. Playing For Free (Steve barbone)
4. Frances Langford Obit (Steve barbone)
5. Barbone Street @ Perkins Arts Center (Steve barbone)
6. Re: Playing For Free (iVOR jONES)
7. humor in jazz (Cebuisle2 at aol.com)
8. Re: Playing For Free (tcashwigg at aol.com)
9. Re: humor in jazz (tcashwigg at aol.com)
10. Old wind-passers and Acker Bilk (Robert Smith)
11. Re: Playing Loudly...some clarification (Vaxtrpts at aol.com)

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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 10:16:42 +0200
From: "Jim Kashishian" 
Subject: RE: [Dixielandjazz] Re: "As Time Goes By"
To: 
Message-ID:

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

"As Time Goes By" (1931. Herman Hupfeld) 

Bill Haesler used this song to end his last post to DJML, which causes me to
tell all of you what I did last Saturday evening.

Not having a gig, the wife talked me into going to a Rod Stewart concert in
Madrid.
I got some last minute tickets up in the Gods which cost me 40 Euros a piece
(not particularly cheap!). The downfront tickets were 125 Euros each!

Well, had we been down front we wouldn't have been able to sit in our
expensive seats as everyone there lept out of their seats as soon as Mr.
Stewart walked on stage and stayed standing. Our seats had a good view...if
you had binoculars! I couldn't understand a word he sang until he got to the
mushy part of the evening when he did 4 of his American Favorites songs,
including As Time Goes By. On all his pop hits, which are very good by the
way, the drums reached us at the far end of the sports arena, but the voice
didn't. 

No matter! Everyone around me was thrilled with the music, including my
wife! I enjoyed the theatrics, the stage presentation, the lighting, some
really fantastic electric guitar (which cut above the drums!), but no voice.
Not that he has much of a voice, but there was none in the sound that was
reaching us. It's amazing that that makes no difference to the fans who are
just thrilled to be there.

That's the thing with the big stars, they don't have to win over their
audience. The audience is in their pocket before they go on stage even.
Different for us guys & gals, right? Unless we are at one of our local
clubs, we normally have to work pretty hard to win over a crowd. It can
happen by the 3rd song, but normally seems to happen (in a concert) towards
the end. Then, they suddenly want you to play 25 encores! (We do one,
followed by a second...which is normally two choruses of Mood
Indigo....really quiet, really slow. Easy way to get outathere!)

Anyway, Rod Stewart put on a great show. I wish I owned as many neat
clothes as he does. He put his whole wardrobe on, I believe, during the 2
hr show.

The American Favorites part was very clever, and used real, old style band
stand music stands, a full string section, and his normal backing group
behind music stands & dressed in white tuxedos. Good show. Kinda bland
vocals, which bored the kids down front, and they all sat down for the first
time. No matter, "Maggie" got them back on their feet!

He was clever to only do about 10 minutes from those Favorites albums. Did
a nice version of What a Wonderful World, and his gravily voice worked well
on the tune.

Saw a non musician friend of mine after the show. He loved the girl
saxophonist. He said he didn't know if she played well or not (she did!),
but he like her. Mainly he was concerned with her long legs & miniskirt.
Now I know why I never toured with Rod Stewart!

Jim

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Message: 2
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 11:25:51 +0100
From: Andy.Ling at Quantel.Com
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Old f***ts memory & Acker Bilk
To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Message-ID:

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Graham Martin said :-

> 
> I am pleased to hear that Acker is still blowing so well. 
> 
> The last time I heard him play was in Melbourne quite a few years 
> back and I think that was the tour where the New Melbourne Jazz Band
> were the supporting act. Ross Anderson reminded me it only a couple 
> of days back when we were corresponding about a topic I put on this 
List.
> 

He has been ill, suffering from the big C, but he seems to have pulled
through. He has slowed down a lot, but his fingers can still move
and the energy from the rest of the band more than compensate.

> I followed Ackers thump, thump band during the 50s and 60s in the UK
> and I used to love his corny announcing style and jokes:
> 
> "Good night folks, and remember - if it was not for Venetian blinds 
> it would be curtains for the lot of us!"
> 
> And the ongoing gag:
> 
> "Someone has just found and handed in a bunch of keys. We think this
> one is the key of A Flat" 
> 
> Ouch! But you really had to be there.
> 
> Ah, wheel out the Tardis and take this OF back.
> 

You don't need a Tardis, he's still trotting out the same old stuff.

They did a song for a welsh man called "My Blue Evan". He was a welsh
miner that got hit on the head with a piano, so the song was in
A flat minor.

As you say, you had to be there.

Talking of loud (from another thread). We were near the back, but in
the firing line of Enrico Tomaso's trumpet. Boy was he loud when he
wanted to be. My ears were ringing. He's one mean trumpet player.

Andy Ling

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Message: 3
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 10:38:22 -0400
From: Steve barbone 
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Playing For Free
To: DJML 
Message-ID: 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Tricky issue.

Sometimes it is just fine to play for free, or for reduced rates. IMO, the
test is: "Does it undercut the existing musical market"?

If no, IMO, then free or cheap is often OK. Some Examples:

1) For a charity event where everyone has donated their services. Barbone
Street does this a couple of times a year. However, I always pay the sidemen
out of my leader fees earned on previous gigs and donate the band. By
spending "my" money, I am sure to carefully evaluate the situation.

2) Where OKOM has never appeared before and a "NEW" gig is created. Some
years back, a well known local OKOM band (not mine) booked a gig into
Ortliebs Jazz Haus. Ortleibs is a famous Philadelphia venue for modern jazz.
Way back when, Bird, Monk, Dizzy et al all appeared there. NEVER any OKOM.
The leader booked a 7 piece band there for $350. He subsidized the sideman
pay out of his own pocket so that several "stars" would come from NYC to
play in the band. It was a GREAT BAND.

Big hue & cry was raised by some other OKOM bands in the area. Like, "man,
he is cheapening the market for OKOM bands there. Now we'll all have to work
7 piece gigs for $350."

That was. IMO, specious reasoning. Because OKOM never had appeared there.
The leader CREATED A NEW GIG for OKOM and did not undercut the existing
market for OKOM gigs since there were none there previously. And nobody was
holding a gun to the other bands heads and forcing them to play there.

Playing fees vary widely with venue, event, etc. In a small jazz nightclub,
you can't make a fortune with a 6 or 7 piece band. Simple economics. If only
50 people come out to hear you, or the venue only seats 100, you have to
work cheap.

The raison d'etre for these cheapos is that you usually book weddings,
corporate events and other higher paying gigs through club dates. And jazz
nightclub dates are usually the most creative and the most fun.

The NYC OKOM scene is a perfect example of that. The TOP players in NYC
often work for a mere pittance. ($25 to $50) Why? Because that's where the
market is. 

You have Dave Ostwald's Gully Low at Birdland playing for the gate. When
damn few fans show up, they play for coolie wages.

But then there's Woody Allen at the Carlyle where the cover and drink fees
are BIG. I suspect that band gets reasonably good money.

Ask the others why they work cheap and they will tell you that they do it
because they have to pay their rent and every $25 helps.

It is a tricky issue. The working pros usually have to take all the gigs
they can get in order to keep up. They're running as fast as they can just
to stay in the same place. Some are lucrative, some are not.

Bottom line? Just don't undercut the market or it will get worse. And focus
on the development of that "New Audience", not giving away the music to the
"Existing Audience".

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 10:47:23 -0400
From: Steve barbone 
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Frances Langford Obit
To: DJML 
Message-ID: 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Here's the Frances Langford Obit from the NY Times today. None of us old
folks, or those who served during WW 2 or Korea will ever forget her. She
was a trouper. 

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

Frances Langford, Trouper on Bob Hope Tours, Dies at 92

By RICHARD SEVERO Published: July 12, 2005 - NY Times

Frances Langford, a mellow contralto who ventured into combat zones with Bob
Hope's troupe during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam Wars to
serenade tens of thousands of servicemen with ballads that reminded them of
the girls they left behind, died yesterday at her home in Jensen Beach, Fla.
She was 92.

Her death was announced by her lawyer, Evans Crary Jr., The Associated Press
reported.

Although she regarded herself as more of a singer than an actress, she
appeared in roughly 30 films and was half of the successful radio comedy duo
"The Bickersons," in which she and Don Ameche played a mismatched, querulous
couple. He was devoted to ignoring her and concentrating on sleeping, the
only time in the day, he said, when he felt alive; she was an insomniac who
needed him as a refuge because she couldn't get to sleep. The show became so
popular that it received a Sunday night spot of its own.

But among radio listeners, moviegoers and later a vast audience of G.I.'s,
Miss Langford was known for songs like "I'm in the Mood for Love," "You Are
My Lucky Star" and "Hooray for Hollywood."

Mr. Hope thought of her as one of his three gypsies - entertainers who were
willing, like him, to travel all over the globe to entertain the troops. The
other two were Jerry Colonna, a bulgy-eyed comic who liked to sing "On the
Road to Mandalay," and Tony Romano, a guitarist who sang, arranged and
accompanied other talent.

Mr. Hope recalled her with characteristic snip: "She knows just how much sex
to pour and still be dignified." The troops frequently asked Miss Langford
to sing "I'm in the Mood for Love," a ballad by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy
McHugh, her hit record from an otherwise forgettable 1935 movie, "Every
Night at Eight," which was mostly a vehicle for George Raft and Alice Faye.

"The greatest thing in my life was entertaining the troops," Miss Langford
told The Palm Beach Post years later. She said she was fascinated as well as
frightened by being in or close to combat zones. On one occasion, near
Bizerte in North Africa, she saw six planes shot down. On two occasions she
was in planes that developed engine trouble; one of them crash-landed in New
South Wales, Australia, on a flight from Guadalcanal. The other plane landed
safely, but not before Miss Langford volunteered to don a parachute and
jump. 

Frances Langford was born April 6, 1913, in Lakeland, Fla., the daughter of
Vasco Langford, a carpenter, and his wife, Anna, who was an accomplished
pianist. She attended music college briefly but dropped out and began to
work in vaudeville. Her first big break came after her mother drove her to
Miami and convinced Rudy Vallee, then a popular star of stage and screen, to
listen to her. He liked what he heard, asked her to sing on his radio show
and even helped her get a start in New York. A small part in a Broadway
musical led to radio appearances and a string of movie musicals.

In 1941, Miss Langford made her first appearance on Mr. Hope's radio show,
and the visits to the troops started shortly thereafter. She also wrote a
column for Hearst newspapers, recounting some of her experiences as an
entertainer in wartime.

After the war, she was featured on a radio variety show and returned to
nightclub work. She was married three times, first to the actor Jon Hall,
from whom she was later divorced, and then to Ralph Evinrude, the
manufacturer of outboard motors. They settled in Florida and started a
marina, restaurant and gift shop near her 400-acre estate at Jensen Beach.
She became more interested in sailing and fishing than singing, but on
occasion she would sing at the restaurant.

Mr. Evinrude died in 1986. In 1994, she married Harold Stuart, an assistant
secretary of the Air Force in the Truman administration, who survives her.

------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 11:01:30 -0400
From: Steve barbone 
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Barbone Street @ Perkins Arts Center
To: Fans/Friends/Clients 
Cc: DJML 
Message-ID: 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Just a quick note to say Barbone Street is at Perkins Art Center in
Moorestown NJ from 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM tomorrow (Wednesday) night, for our
10th annual appearance. This is a free outdoor concert. Paul Grant, our
regular trumpet guy will not be there. (dental surgery)

However, of special interest is that Randy Reinhart, recently returned from
a European tour and the Ascona Jazz Festival, will be on Cornet/Trumpet. He
is, as you know a very special player. And, he is traveling a long distance
to play with the usual suspects in Barbone Street. And, as on previous gigs,
we might even be able to talk him into playing a chorus on Trombone and
another on Clarinet.

Should be a great concert, played by some longtime friends in the Jazz
business. Hope to see you there.

Perkins Art Center - At the intersection of Camden Avenue and Kings Highway
(Where Main Street becomes Kings Highway on the West edge of town). Concert
sponsored by the Recreation Department, Town of Moorestown.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 16:40:53 +0100
From: "iVOR jONES" 
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Playing For Free
To: "DJML" 
Message-ID: <000501c586f8$16a4d600$10f10dd5 at home>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original

In response to Steves missive regarding freebees we have a structured price 
list. We all live in a coastal strip in the south of Portugal , say 125 
miles by 40
it's called the Algarve, we play in the centre part approx holiday 
complex/Golf course/4 or 5 star hotel area.We have a scale of charges which 
I append, is this common practice. It seems from that which Steve wrote it 
might be. If we are asked to do a charity gig our lowest price comes into 
play, 400 Euros about $480. Our one exception is the only Jazz Club down 
here which we do for 60 Euros a man and One woman vocalist. This club brings 
in visitors from the north of Portugal and which spreads the word.We have 
currently two residencies, The Sheraton, and the Tivoli, plus two monthly 
gigs and a number of Council concerts. Our Cd is played on two local radio 
programmes.

I have home-produced a 9 page full colour ring bound brochure which we give 
to possible venues plus our latest Cd. As a retired design consultant I 
still have retained enough skill to put a quality brochure if anyone wants 
one .In English or Portuguese. If you will excuse me saying so it impresses 
entertainment managers and those of that ilk. We appear very professional 
(which we are) and so far it is pulling in the work. We are getting more 
enquiries every week from all over Portugal

Ivor Jones
The GOOD TIME JAZZ BAND. (One of many with that title)

Having written all that I don't if anybody is the least bit interested 
but........

our list is as follows:-
2 0 0 5

F E E S T R U C T U R E

* Residencies within the Algarve

Minimum of 20 weeks - 400 Euros

Minimum of 10 weeks - 500 Euros

* Events Bookings within the Algarve

Minimum of 4 events - 600 Euros

* Single events, Parties, Celebrations etc. - 750 Euros

*Conferences - 1000 /1500 Euros - dependent on company status & size

Jazz Concerts, within the Algarve area - 1250 Euros

**Jazz Concerts, outside the Algarve area - 1500 Euros

**Jazz Festivals

Negotiable - dependent of number of days and/or performances

*A two-speaker sound system is available if required

** plus travel expences - meals - and accommodation if necessary.

1 euro = 1.20 US$

From: "Steve barbone" 
To: "DJML" 
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 3:38 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Playing For Free

------------------------------

Message: 7
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 11:56:23 EDT
From: Cebuisle2 at aol.com
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] humor in jazz
To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Message-ID: <20b.4b69e05.30054227 at aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Greatly enjoyed the jokes and humor from an Acker Bilk concert. I am 
reminded that many of the jazz groups from the early days used humor and 
entertainment extensively in their performances. Louis Armstrong was one of the greats, 
and danced as well as sang and mugged.

Funniest act I saw was the excellent tuba player with the Black Eagle Jazz 
Band years ago at a concert. in Northern Maine. He played a set of finger 
cymbals in belly dancer fashion while playing the tuba at the same time.You had 
to see it to believe it! The audience loved it! I laughed so hard I messed up 
my recording tape.Back then you could record your favorite group live, no 
problam.The banjoist wore one red sock and one green one, and prominently 
displayed both on stage..

tradjazz 

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Message: 8
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 12:14:52 -0400
From: tcashwigg at aol.com
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Playing For Free
To: BANJONES at SAPO.PT, dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Message-ID: <8C75513F8572017-734-E018 at MBLK-M16.sysops.aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; format=flowed

Way to go Ivor:

It is great to see another Professional Bandleader being successful on 
the list, you guys must be good to consistently get good gigs and keep 
expanding your marketplace. I would imagine that you have little or 
no competition for your style of music in that market either which no 
doubt allow your act to stand out well much like Jim Kash does in 
Madrid.

I look forward to meeting up with you guys on one of our tours in that 
part of the world, and maybe we can even get to play a date or two 
together, I understand that they love Marching Bands in Portugal, but 
so far we have not been successful in getting that far over out of 
Spain. Perhaps because we are such a large group and therefore a bit 
more expensive to move around than a five or six piece act. I do know 
that they Love us in Getxo, San Sebastian, Vitoria and Andorra.

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