[Dixielandjazz] So who's this Jim Cullum...?

[Don Mopsick]

Time for el mopo guapo to weigh in on this. 
 
Tom Wiggins wrote:
 
>> As an admittedly "Johnny Come lately" to this genre of music I had
>> never heard of Jim Cullum, Jim Beebe, Charlie Hooks, Kenny Davern, Ed
>> Polcer, Johnny Varro, Jim Kash, Vince Giardono, Tom Saunders, Duke
>> Heiteger,  and countless others,  why?  Because they were hidden from
>> the Public Eye and ear if indeed they were ever there in the first
>> place, outside their hometowns or Trad. Jazz Society gigs.
 
Agree that “they were hidden,” but it’s worth pointing out that the
hiding happened not as a result of the actions of any one person or
group with some kind of agenda. The hiding of good music from the public
eye and ear has turned into mass hypnosis in the last decade, and many
have noted this phenomemon in recent threads on this list. Whatever the
causes, and we can (and have) debated them forever, the fact is that
good music of any kind is declining in terms of audiences and revenues
as surely as are the glaciers in Alaska and on top of Mt. Kilamanjaro
receding. So part of the “Great Hiding” is something no one can do
anything about unless a person can come up with a cure for Global
Warming within my lifetime. 
 
Now, Tom, if you are saying that a small part of a Great Hiding ala
David Copperfield happens as a result of myopia or neglect on the part
of some promoters and proprietors, yeah, then you may have a point. For
the last 11 years I have been trying to do my small part to reverse this
trend by using the internet. To clarify the discussion, however, I will
try to correct some (minor) misapprehensions below. I don’t claim to
speak for Jim Cullum or the Riverwalk producers, but one of the
advantages of being in the game is that I have a seat at the
50-yard-line. 
 
David Dustin replied:
 
>Tom, I agree with a lot that you?ve said in recent posts but I?ve just
got
>to say that Jim Cullum and his terrific trad band is and has appeared
weekly
>on NPR or PRI with his Riverwalk series from the Landing at San
Antonio,
>probably for the last 20 years.  Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks
Orchestra
>are a fixture on the east coast OKOM scene, and Vince guests frequently
on
>bass sax with the Shoe Band on Prairie Home Companion and was the music
>director for a couple of recent films, including ?The Aviator?. He was
also
>spotlighted in the Sunday NY Times about 4 months ago.  Duke Heitger,
the
>youngest of these players, reached a national audience with the
Squirrel Nut
>Zippers retro-jazz band (if you?re over 50 you may not have heard of
them)
>and is out there nationally and internationally as a terrific jazzer
out of
>the New Orleans tradition, etc.  If you haven?t heard of these monster
>players, it?s not because they are hiding under a rock or failing to
find an
>audience or not being excellent OKOM jazz ambassadors in the current
>cultural scene.  Perhaps you should get out a little more, or at least
turn
>your radio on over their in the Bay Area.  A lot of good OKOM jazz has
been
>going down since Turk Murphy stomped Earthquake McGoon?s.....
 
“Riverwalk Jazz” (formerly known as “Riverwalk, Live From the Landing”)
began broadcasting nationally in 1989. By the way, Kenny Davern was on
some of the first shows, as were Warren Vaché Jr., Lionel Hampton, Doc
Cheatham, Howard Alden, Odetta, Suzannah McCorkle, Yank Lawson, and Bob
Haggart. Again just to clarify the facts a bit, the show is now carried
by about 200 stations nationwide and in Canada, on XM Sattelite radio
channel 133, and of course streamed 24/7 on-demand on the web at
www.riverwalkjazz.org <http://www.riverwalkjazz.org/> . I have heard
various estimates as to audience, among them a little under a million
listeners weekly. The total audience for the radio show grew by 11% in
2005. 
 
So we’re not exactly unknown, but as Tom correctly points out:
 
>>NPR is not the mainstream radio and TV no matter how much many who
watch it may think it is.<< 
 
We would call this a “niche market.” Public radio listeners, although
much smaller in numbers, are older, far wealthier, and much better
educated than the “mainstream Unwashed Public Audiences.” Jazz is a
small part of the public radio sphere, and Riverwalk Jazz is one of a
handful of shows broadcasting older jazz, so it’s a niche within a
niche. 
 
Tom, you and I grew up in an era when the “mainstream” mass market was
everything. The digital age seems to be rendering this world asunder.
Yes, there are still huge bux to be made by touring rock bands, but many
observers see this as a last-century hold-over. The canary in the
mineshaft are the industry-wide CD sales figures in the last 5 years,
which are clearly in the “mayday” phase. I read in the New York Times
that record companies see the handwriting on the wall and are now
jumping on alternate revenue streams like t-shirts and cellphone ring
tones, which by the way are close to a billion $$$. I heard on NPR
yesterday that Bob Dylan has a #1 CD, but that means nothing nowadays
since for the most part now, only boomers like us buy CDs anymore, most
music is purchased now as a download. 
 
>>Why aren't these fine monster players performing on the major JAZZ 
FESTIVAL ALL OVER THE WORLD and why have they not been doing it for the 
past 20 years. well for one reason Jim Cullum has been tied down to a 
STEADY gig at Riverwalk, a good thing yes but not without it's 
consequences of which we are now discussing. And please don't anybody 
get me wrong about what I am saying here, I am not disrespecting Jim 
Cullum or his decision to do it his way. So many of the older guys OF 
THE PREVIOUS DECADES dreamed of getting a STEADY GIG and not having to 
travel and play to a different audience every night live out of a 
suitcase etc.<<
 
Again, clarification: Jim Cullum’s Landing, was founded on the San
Antonio Riverwalk in 1963. Today, about 100K customers visit us every
year. Since 1973 the club has provided full-time employment to 7
players. Agree that the potential for much bigger $$$ is there via
touring, and this was once the case in the 1950s for groups like
Armstrong All-Stars and the Dukes of Dixieland, but it’s been over for
trad jazz for a long time now. Ah, for the good old days
 But having ANY
steady gig in the jazz business is a major accomplishment, and getting
more major every year the glaciers melt down and the Great Hiding gets
Greater. I live a middle-class life, I’m not starving yet and I don’t
have a regular “day job” outside the music and public radio business.
And by the way, we do SOME touring, not nearly enough these days. It’s
those glaciers again. 
 
>>However most of the bands with real fire in the belly and 
touring as lean mean musical machines are long gone in this genre.<<
 
I know one or two on this list have complained about the onstage
demeanor of the Jim Cullum Jazz Band at trad jazz festivals. Yes, it’s
true we don’t have a choreographer or wear funny hats, or play rock
tunes. Trad jazz festivals seem to be a zero-sum game for us. 
 
But again, from my vantage point on the 50-yard-line I can assure you
that the fire is there, and night after night, 6 nights a week, at the
Landing. As far as the road is concerned, in the coming years, you will
be seeing less and less of the JCJB at trad jazz festivals (not because
Jim doesn’t want to play them) and more at our own booked concerts. I
have yet to hear a complaint about one of those shows. 
 
>>Many have actually become complacent and boring doing the same old 
stuff night after night to the same audience in many cases, people are 
fickle at best and move from club to club to club in search of 
something new. Being a monster player does not guarantee that they will 
be so loyal as to come out night after night to spend money to see and 
hear you, hence the need to constantly promote to new people and 
acquire new audience members to replace them and keep the cash 
registers ringing. Other wise the joints empty and the band gets laid 
off again and again and goes form one joint to another as the OKOM 
scene continues to shrink and get harder and harder for them to even 
eek out a living as a professional musician.<<
 
Yep, those glaciers keep melting, but you really should stop in at the
Landing some night, not only to feel the band’s considerable heat (most
nights), but to observe just who is in the audience. To be sure, the
(unfortunatley now rapidly evaporating) Greatest Generation of GI Joes
are represented, as are the Korean War generation. Boomers for sure. But
lately I’m seeing lots and lots of folks born between 1970-1985. And not
just because they’re staying at the Hyatt. Lots of them seem to be
genuine fans of the music. At the club we see a few “jazz fans” and trad
festival attendees, mostly our loyal groupies, whom we treasure. But in
my 15-year tenure, the majority of the audience has definitely shifted
to “younger than I am.”
 
So if the audience is there, they’re getting younger, the trend is
upward, and the news is good, then why aren’t we rock stars? Good
question, Tom. We’re trying to turn it around, and maybe it’ll happen
before I’m ready for Social Security. 
 
mopo
 
Don Mopsick, Riverwalk Webmaster