[Dixielandjazz] Stage Business

[Henry Mason]

On 5/17/05, Steve barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Henry Mason <hcmsjo at gmail.com> wrote: (polite snip)
> Question re "Stage Business"
> 
>
> 
> Barbone Street has a million of them. (little tricks, that is). Here are
> just a couple:
> 
> 1) When introducing Guitarist Sonny Troy I point out that he toured the West
> Coast years ago with Peggy Lee and that "Ms Lee was not only a wonderful
> jazz singer who treated jazz musicians well (unlike some diva's today), she
> was a also composer. She wrote a song about Sonny called "Is That All There
> Is."

> Any "working" band members will probably agree that "music is a transaction
> between artists and audience, through the medium of sound, to share a
> vision." (forgot who said that originally, but it is posted on my office
> wall) It is helped immensely by an effort to connect with that audience via
> a simpatico stage presence.

Many thanks Steve and that is exactly the sort of thing I was asking
about.   As I told Bill, I have been running a big band for years and
definitely have the mindset about maintaining a rapport with the
audience, but the sorts of gigs we do with the big band tend toward
more formal events.   We plan to start booking our traditional jazz
band more and in my opinion, what you said about connecting with the
audience will go a long way.    I would love to hear more from you
about this topic and I would bet that some of our listmates may have
some  tricks (probably not many) that you haven't thought of.

I love the bit with the beads,  that would certainly wake up a young crowd.

Cheers,

Henry