[Dixielandjazz] The right to advice other potential ticket buyers .. .etc.

[jobriant at sunrisetelecom.com]

Steve Barbone wrote:

> Agreed, one has the right to say what one wants about 
> a player/performer.  However, when one walks out of a 
> performance, not hearing most of it, one's views about 
> the entire performance being good or bad, are invalid. 

On the other hand, if one hears four or five or six numbers from a
player who is supposed to be a professional, and he/she simply plays
badly for all of them, there's also nothing to give the listener any
expectation that the performance might improve.

The L.A. Times reviewer mentioned a bad reed or a weak embouchure as
possible causes of the less-than-musical sounds that he described.
IMHO, someone who is charging $35 or $65 (or, as in the SFO area later
this week, $150) per ticket should be professional enough not to try to
play more than a few measures with a bad reed, and professional enough
not to charge at all if his embouchure isn't up to the task at hand.
 
> Point is that what you, or I, or anybody else "hears" or 
> does not "hear" with regard to a particular musician or 
> performance may be, and often is, completely at odds with 
> what others will hear. 

> Opinions are like rectums. Everyone has one. And they are 
> very personal.

With regard to matters of taste or style, I agree.  

However, the question here is whether someone plays their instrument at
a beginning level or an advanced level, with regard to tone,
articulation, technique, etc.  Is the player a competent musician on his
chosen instrument, or not?  Can he produce a tone that sounds like (in
this case) a clarinet is supposed to sound?  Can he articulate and
release notes so that they begin and end as they should?  Does he have
his scales and arpeggios "under his fingers" to the extent necessary to
play the licks he wants to play? And if he can, did he perform up to
this level for his paying customers?

All of this is far less a question of opinion than of fact. 

> Regarding the price, Tickets to see Woody Allen in 
> concert range from $35 to $65. IMO that is not a high 
> price. Ken Peplowski tickets at Lincoln Center in NYC 
> run as high as $137.50. Allen is no Peplowski, and the 
> difference in pricing reflects that, even though many 
> may go just to see Allen up close and personal and 
> not particularly to hear him play.

At $35/ticket, I might go hear him - partly to see if his playing really
is as described in earlier messages.  But at $150, the price for the
only appearance I know of in my area, I'll pass.  (For $150.00 I can buy
a cheap clarinet on eBay and play it badly myself.)