[Dixielandjazz] Meet me in St Louis, Lewis (was .Why guitar, not banjo?/T...

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

That's precisely the point.  St. Louis is a great city with dozens of great venues and possibilities but I maintain that it is almost totally ignored by the national fine art's community.  You forgot to mention the Philharmonic which I prefer to the StL Symphony.  

St. Louis along with most of the Midwest is not important to the left and right coast people who control the arts in this country.  Part of it is the people in this city who just don't support the arts.  Everyone pleads poverty here when you are trying to book a band for more than $50 a man or get a good ticket price for an event.  All of those things you mentioned are a bargain and range from free or dirt cheap to not much as compared to NY or LA.    It's a funny thing that people will pay twice as much in Branson but won't turn loose of a dime here.  You can go to Casa Loma Ballroom which is one of the oldest still active and hear an 18 piece band where the guys are making from $15-35 off the door.  One night they got $12. That in a nutshell is why the coasts ignore us.  

Just when was the last time anyone saw a major musical event originating in St. Louis on National TV?

The first time I went to Germany, 10 years ago, I paid $100 ($400 for four of us)  a ticket to see a Mozart concert and the square was packed with people.  If you charged that here for anything no one would show up.  To top it off it turned out to be a DJ'd concert and Laser show.  The real concert was in the palace at prices I can only dream about. Those people came out of the real concert in their tuxes, furs and jewels to see the laser show.   People in Europe are willing to pay for their arts.

I'm not too sure about Jeanne but the other two groups are part time operations but are as you pointed out are class acts.

Not only that we get negative PR all the time.  The recent news that STL leads the nation in crime is a bogus thing too.  Every other city was counted with it's metro area included but STL's metro area wasn't included because they are governmentally separate.  It's just hard to win.
Larry
St. Louis.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Gluetje1 at aol.com 
  To: csuhor at zebra.net 
  Cc: bhaesler at bigpond.net.au ; larrys.bands at charter.net ; dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com 
  Sent: Wednesday, December 27, 2006 12:23 PM
  Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Meet me in St Louis, Lewis (was .Why guitar, not banjo?/T...


  I also have a different opinion than Larry wrote yesterday about the riches in St. Louis.  We have world class: St Louis Symphony, Missouri Botanical Gardens, Washington University, medical technology, Mississippi River, the Arch.  One of the better zoos in the U.S., fine art museum, this year the World Series Baseball Champs, excellent theater going opportunities, acoustically wonderful Powell Hall and Sheldon theaters, great park concerts and Shakespeare Festival in summer, ? the largest outdoor theater in U.S. (Muny Opera), highly reputable grand opera in St. Louis Opera Theatre, Fox Theater for traveling Broadway shows, brewery tours etc., etc., etc.  Three DL groups that I very much enjoy unless they're having an off-day (which every group has).  Those 3 (well, actually it's more as Jeanne Kittrell's names fronts several groups are  St. Louis Stompers, Cornet Chop Suey, and whatever group Kittrell puts in front.  Also have had St. Louis Ragtimers for 45 years.  Very, very active amateur music community constantly doing concerts for free or next to nothing--and therein lies a downside for musicians.  It's rare to be able to earn a living as a music performer in this region. 
  Ginny