[Dixielandjazz] Uniforms - Public Perception

[Steve barbone]

Larry Walton Entertainment at larrys.bands at charter.net asks: (polite snip)

> but you didn't answer the $24K question
> and that's what is cool. You seem to know what isn't.  So let me pick
> this apart a bit.  Got some web sites to visit?

Goodness, I didn't say look cool and I don't rely on web sites for dress
information. Usually, I wear L.L. Bean khaki pants and a Ralph Lauren shirt.
Soft white walking shoes in Summer, black walking shoes in winter.

> OK what is it? (meaning the "look" I mention as a uniform)

As stated above. Some sidemen prefer turtleneck shirt and roomy jacket,
others wool slacks, etc., etc., etc. What I would call neat - casual.

> That seems to be jeans and a T.  Frankly we (I) would look like hell in
> that.  Is it the bands job to try to look like the crowd?

What on earth gave you that idea? Wear what any well dressed casual male
wears when going to the mall to shop. I did not say look like the crowd, I
said relate to the crowd.

> We do a lot of that kind of playing. (regarding retirement homes)
> You actually have to explain to older audiences that you are hip!

No you don't. We just tell them how many gigs we do for young folks and how
this music is coming back in the area and how the kids love us, just like
you (they) do. If you are well dressed, have the bios we do, and have been
doing gigs once a year there for 8 years, and are all jazz musicians, they
know damn well we are hip. They hear our hippness in the music, and our
patter. They are not stupid and know who and what jazz musicians are.
 
> Well that's OK to say but again what's Hip.  I would love to see Tom's
> group and from his web page he is "hip" but if I copied him we would be
> a bunch of old white guys trying to look black. Not a pretty picture and
> it wouldn't float.

Well hip is what jazz musicians are. If you are not a jazz musician, but are
a musician who sometimes also plays jazz, you have only a slight chance to
be hip. But, if you have to ask what it is, you will never be hip. It is an
attitude. "Hey man, I'm hip." Now if that is not you, then don't try to be
hip because you will never succeed. As with jazz, copying is not the answer.
 
>about the general public perceiving "Dixieland" as older, white musicians,
>dressed in old time outfits, playing yesterday's corny music. Larry writes

> Guilty although I don't think it's corny.  I took in the Preservation
> hall band in New Orleans several years ago and it wasn't corny at all
> just badly performed by guys that were way over the hill.  Not that I
> have any objection to that actually but not in a venue that's supposed
> to be a showcase . The group that day sounded like a  green sheet job
> to benefit retirees. There is one band around here that is really bad
> also but they seem to work a lot.

Those are black guys, the originators of jazz and they are playing in the
ORIGINAL STYLE. You miss the raison d'etre of Preservation Hall. THIS IS THE
MUSIC THAT STARTED IT ALL. FOLK MUSIC Dixieland. If the rest of us wanted to
copy the music from the very beginning, this is exactly what we should sound
like. Who are we to question that? It is period music and it is hip in the
genre of period music. They are PRESERVING IT, not innovating it.
 
> Trad is generally ignored here although in all fairness so is a lot of
> other jazz too.  It would be hard to characterize St. Louis as being
> anything.  Typically we don't have many headliners hit here.  As you
> point out  good reviews don't come very often.  We do have some
> fantastic players working some of the venues.

Dixieland and Jazz are generally ignored everywhere in the USA. Few of us
band leaders are trying to do something about that. But even our own peers
give us a load of crap about it for reasons which still mystify me. As a 71+
year old American, I was brought up to be responsible for what I do and to
create my own environment. Not to believe that the world owes me a living
because I am an artist. So I am a jazz activist that creates work for my
band. That seems to piss some people off, but what the hell, I am not doing
it for them anyway.

>Larry writes about bands dressing in the uniforms of the times
 
> We are back to T shirts and Jeans.  Just wearing a tie is no longer the
> norm and as someone suggested that bands of the past dressed elegantly
> in white tuxes and tails.  Yes that's a fact as many photos suggest.  I
> suggest that those bands had to dress that way just as society bands
> dress in tuxes today.  I put on my tux every Saturday night.  There is
> another angle and that was that they wanted to be accepted as more than
> street musicians and they did it through often elegant clothing.

Get off the T shirt and jeans concept. Gee whiz, last Saturday I did a
formal jazz concert/dance for a Fraternity at the University of PA. I wore
Tux pants, suspenders, white shirt, long tie. T shirts and jeans are not
normal audience wear. Play a public park concert. The audience is casually
dressed. So dress neatly and casually. Slacks and a Sport Shirt are perfect.
Me, I'm partial to Ralph Lauren wear because I personally relate to horses,
having owned between 3 (now) and 11 (20 years ago) for the past 30 years.

> I would think that a club would be the wrong place to wear the vests
> etc. However on the street and a lot of other informal kind of gigs I
> think it is appropriate and a whole lot more comfortable than some other
> outfits might be.

Our neat casual wear suffices for 95% of our gigs, excluding the Showboat
Casino. At the showboat, we are trying to look like a New Orleans Marching
Band without being in uncomfortable clothing. So we wear Tux Pants, black
suspenders, regular white shirts, long colorful ties. And every day we play
there, about 100 this year, we are asked "Are You From New Orleans?, so we
know we have succeeded. Once I asked a wedding groom what we should wear.
(They were formal) Being about 25 years old, he said: "Hey, you're the band,
wear what you please." So we played in our neat casual mode. The bridal
party and the guests thought it was hip.
 
> I don't think the music is corney however it is dated but I guess that
> assumes that the performance is somehow less than standard and I dislike
> doing anything that is less than standard.

The music may not be corny . . . but the PERCEPTION of the mass audience is
that it is all corny. You and I know better, but they don't. Corny implies
for example, that Dixieland clarinet is like what Ted Lewis played. That
indeed is now seen as corny, but not all clarinetists played like him.
 
> Go for it but I have found that a lot of musicians like to do that
> anyway to anyone they perceive as lesser musicians or not as cool than
> themselves or not "in".  It doesn't say a lot for us.

I follow an unwritten rule of never putting another musician down by name,
publicly. Note that I usually use "we" when I discuss what I perceive as a
general fault. That includes "me". Heck I even defend Kenny G when folks
name him as a musical hack. What bullshit. He plays melody, he plays in
tune, his music has pleased countless millions and new Christmas Album is
wonderful. And oh yes, his music has all the elements of jazz including
improvisation. How the hell then, does anyone have the balls to put him down
for what he accomplishes?

Not to like his music is fine, but to then rant and publicly put him down
for it, is simply ignorant. Many do it because they think it is cool. BUT:

The hip folks among us appreciate him for what he is. ;-) VBG

Cheers,
Steve