[Dixielandjazz] Re: Competition in the arts?

[Tramette89 at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/15/2005 12:02:48 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
amazingbass at cox.net writes:
MIke Vax said:

>The problem is that many band  programs
>today have become extensions of the athletic department.  They  exist to 
>enter
>competitions and win trophies.  What does that mean?   They learn three or 
>four
>tunes for each band (jazz, concert, and marching) for  the whole year, and
>that is it!!!!!!!  They keep working on these tunes  over and over.
.
They also become extensions of the athletic department because the band is 
viewed solely as an appendage to the football team. Hence, any attention given 
to the instrumental music program at all revolves around marching at a football 
game, where, incidentally, everyone hates us. (Most band members are 
oblivious to the fact that the athletes and audience view them as a nuisance that 
would be better off if done away with.) 

It's as if the concert band is non-existant, and the jazz band exists only to 
play at basketball games. And yes, we do only learn about four songs a year. 
Last year, we only learned two. The year before that, the jazz band learned 
over 30 numbers, but that's because the graduating class was full of hard 
workers.

We did start a combo at school this year, because the jazz band was so bad. 
We played a 2 hour, 2 set gig at Chick-fil-a. It was fun. (Now I know how it 
feels to play in a restauraunt...it makes you very, very hungry!)

Lily Korte

P.S. We went to two jazz festivals this past year, and did miserably in both 
of them, due to the fact that the brass section cannot count to "4". But most 
of the stuff we played wasn't even jazz! There was this one abysmal 
number...ugh...some rock song. It'd be nice if a "jazz" band actually played jazz. They 
think they're luring in more students if they play rock stuff, but in reality, 
they're making the serious young musicians angry. Nobody ever pulled a good 
jazzman into a band by having them play heavy metal! (Just a view from a 
student's perspective)