[Dixielandjazz] Youth Bands

[Steve barbone]

Bob Ringwald wrote:

> Steve, What makes you think that the New York Youth Symphony, or let's say,
> the individual musicians of the New York Youth Symphony are paid to perform?
> Obviously you are still referring to the Youth Trad Jazz Festival that the
> Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society and the Jazz studies at CSUS are
> sponsoring for Feb 11, 2006.

Hi Bob: No, not referring to that at all. The STJS Youth Festival thread had
already passed. Simply posting how others do this very important task of
getting the kids to play. The Venue is CARNEGIE HALL AND IT IS A CONCERT.
They have been doing concerts for 40+ years. Below is another post about one
from a band mom. The post was from a couple of years ago: Note that Tully
hall was almost sold out, except for the cheap seats. :-) VBG

-snip -If anyone in the area loves the French Horn, this Sunday at Alice
Tully Hall the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra will be performing The Strauss
Concerto (I think) for French Horn with Philip Meyers the Principal French
Horn of the NY Philharmonic. My son's orchestra, the Metropolitan Youth
Orchestra's Chamber Orchestra, will be performing Mozart's Requiem with a
full Chorale at the same performance. Both orchestras will perform more but
those are the highlights. 2 PM at Alice Tully Hall on Sunday. There are only
$35 and $25 seats left. If you have nothing special to do and want to
support a youth orchestra join us.-end snip-.

The Difference is that the YOUTH ORCHESTRA IS A VIABLE ENTITY. It is funded
by the admission charges at Alice Tully, Carnegie Hall etc.
 
> See http://www.sacjazz.org

Yes, I have seen it many times. Very impressive
 
> Your negative response to this groundbreaking festival, is astounding to me.
> After reading about the plans for the Youth Trad Jazz Festival, you say,
> regarding OKOM (Our kind of music), "we ourselves do not support the
> mechanism for helping it to grow."  Unbelievable!

The "we" does not refer to STJS. It refers to the bulk of the trad audience
which will neither go out of its way to see Youth bands perform, nor spend
the money to fund them. I hope that in this instance, they will support it
by attending and paying admission money.
 
> As with other academic, adjudicated music festivals with judges and
> clinicians, this youth trad jazz festival is part of a learning process for
> young musicians.  It is also hoped that it will encourage school music
> teachers to
> teach their young music students more about early jazz and of course for
> school music departments to add the study of early jazz to their
> curriculums.
> 
> It is expected that most of the bands that will be competing in the
> festival will be from schools.  And most of the musicians will not be of
> professional quality.  This is part of a learning process for the young
> musicians.

I have no problem with its goals. I have a problem with the assumption that
we need to encourage school music teachers to teach jazz and that a Youth
Festival is the best way to accomplish this. Basically because it does not
involve the bulk of the school kids. (e.g. the new audience)
> 
> Think about it in this way.  Kids study math in school.  They do not get
> paid to do so.  They may someday grow up to be a mathematician, but for now,
> they are learning.
> 
> They go on field trips.  They do not get paid to do these
> trips.
> 
> They participate in sports.  Can you imagine a high-school football
> player getting paid to play football?
> 
> They belong to the Chess club & compete in tournaments.  Do they get paid
> for this?
> 
> They belong to the swimming team, practice every day, compete in swimming
> meets and, if they get good enough, maybe even go to the Olympics.  Do they
> get paid to do this?  No.  Sure, sometimes they get help through
> sponsorships.

That is an Apples and Oranges comparison. I am not suggesting that school
bands be paid for school activities.

> The Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society give scholarships to our youth jazz
> camp, award scholarships for music lessons and sponsor a youth traditional
> jazz band.  Many other Jazz Societies do the same.

Yes, you and the others are to be lauded in that regard.
 
> We find that while every young musician who gets music lesson scholarships,
> who attends our jazz camp & who plays in the STJS youth jazz band, TNT (The
> New Traditionalists), is not going to become a professional musician.
> However, they will certainly be made more aware that music was not invented
> by the Beatles.

Yes, my suggestion to pay bands, is to pay bands like TNT. And to get the
best ones high profile to venues. So that they reach an AUDIENCE. And, by
playing frequently in Schools, we will convince a hell of a lot more kids
that OKOM is HIP.
 
> We have 90 to 100 musicians who attend our youth jazz camp every
> year.  We do not turn out 90 to 100 professional musicians.  But the kids
> have a wonderful time, play with and learn from some of the top OKOM
> musicians in the country and go away with an appreciation for our kind of
> jazz.

Yes. A worthwhile endeavor. My suggestion is simply to get OKOM and other
Professional Jazz Bands playing in schools. FREQUENTLY. Like the those bands
in Post number 6, from the NY TIMES in the DJML issue that your post is in.
A lot more kids than just the musicians among them will learn ONE HELL OF A
LOT MORE from this kind of interaction, with Maynard Ferguson, or the Big
Phat Band, or Barbone Street or Fulton Street.  A once a year festival which
will "wear off" in short order, helps only kid musicians. We have plenty of
musicians, what we need is AUDIENCE. And MANY MORE KIDS will learn from HS
performances. That in a nut shell is my beef with IAJE. Why do their members
not get H.S. programs with visiting bands in their schools going? Like Big
Phat, Maynard, Mike Vax, et al.
 
> You continually cite Jonathan as being a young musician whom you pay to
> play with your band.
> That is all well and good.  However, there are very few Jonathans around.
> While Jonathan is good, for his age, he has a long way to go.  If he falls
> into the trap of believing his own press, and does not continue to practice
> and get better, he will someday be a 30 year old fiddle player that is still
> playing like a 9 year old prodigy.  This has happened so many times.  Let's
> hope it does not happen to him.

I think there are a lot more Jonathan's out there than you might imagine.
Maybe not as good, but certainly much better then we were at their ages. And
yes, we all hope that J will continue on his path and practice regimen. But
regardless of how many times failure with others may have occurred in the
past I think we must remain positive that J will succeed in spite of the
others. Why cite the failures? If the Wright Brothers had not disregarded
the previous failures, all the way back in history to Leonardo DaVinci or
Icarus, you would be bicycling to the Logan Festival.
> 
> BTW- Jonathan is tentatively scheduled to appear at the Sacramento
> Traditional Jazz Society in 2006.

THAT IS GREAT NEWS. "BREAK A LEG."
 
> One of the ways of raising enough money to put this Youth Trad Jazz Festival
> on is to sell business size ads in the program for $50.  I am sure that
> larger ads may be purchased.
> 
> To buy an ad:
> 
> Send your business card sized ad (3 1/2" x 2" camera ready art) and $50
> check payable to Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society, to:
> 
> Edd Burhans
> Creative T's and Things
> 90 Arden Way
> Sacramento, CA 95815
> 
> Questions may be directed to him at (916) 927-8858 or
> ctees at pacbell.net

Pass, since in this instance, STJS is not contributing money back to the
bands, and not building the audience for jazz. But, I will take that $50,
multiply it by 50 and use it to discount school appearances by The Barbone
Street Jazz Band in my market where I am certain it will do much more good.
(With schools that need a little monetary help)

Cheers,
Steve Barbone