[Dixielandjazz] audience??

[Bill Gunter]

Hello listmates,

If a jazz band plays in a forest and nobody is there to hear it do they make 
any jazz?

Statements such as ("one needs an audience in order to be "jazz") seem to me 
to be somewhat illogical.

Didn't some band leader (perhaps Turk) say to the sidemen something like 
"OK, we'll play one for the audience and one for us"?

Want to analyze what was actually said? Let me paraphrase . . .

"Ok, we'll play one for the folks who don't really know what 'jazz' is and 
who think once you've heard 'When The Saints Go Marching In' you've heard it 
all' and then we'll play one for the people who really know and appreciate 
what jazz is all about . . . namely ourselves!"

As a musician have you ever had the experience when the band, for some 
inexplicable, mystical, magical reason, transcended itself and really 
cooked? Ever have that feeling that something miraculous just happened?  Was 
the audience aware of it or did they just hear another jazz tune?

The musician playing is the ultimate audience. If the musicians are playing 
jazz and there's nobody else there to hear it, so what! You're playing jazz 
and that's good enough for you!!!

Respectfully submitted,

Bill "What the hell was THAT?" Gunter
jazzboard at hotmail.com



>From: Cebuisle2 at aol.com
>To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>Subject: [Dixielandjazz] audience??
>Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 09:41:31 EDT
>
>I would strongly disagree with Cees regarding the need for an audience for
>jazz performance.
>One of my best memories was of the Tuesday nite jam sessions in the back
>room of a barbershop in Bangor, Maine. I drove icy roads for fifty miles to 
>get
>there! The locals would drift in and out all night, There were only two 
>rules-
>  No women (sorry female listmates-these were not politically correct 
>times)
>and  no booze. But you could have a few before getting there-or sneak back 
>out
>to  your car-
>
>How about the loft cutting sessions in NYC that Steve attended? No good  
>jazz
>there?? Probably the best jazz that was never recorded.
>
>
>          Ted
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