[Dixielandjazz] Museum Piece music

[Steve Barbone]

"Jim Kashishian" <jim at kashprod.com>
 
> (quote from Steve B. about a review).....Perhaps the most interesting
> conclusion to be drawn from his US tour is that there is a newspaper review
> of his performance, AND NEW ORLEANS JAZZ, AND DIXIELAND in just about every
> city where he performs. How many of us get that kind of publicity?
> 
> (snip from the review posted on DJML)....... While Allen has surrounded
> himself with good musicians and is competent enough in his own right, the
> music they play is of another age, a kind of feel-good museum piece that
> without Allen's name and presence would certainly have limited appeal, at
> least in a concert setting.
> 
> (my comments).... the remark the reviewer made about "and is competent
> enough in his own right", has been argued about quite strongly already on
> DJML, and even my mailman doesn't agree with this reviewer's opinion.
> 
> I don't know if I like the kind of music I play being referred to as "a kind
> of feel-good museum piece", and we all know that it doesn't have "limited
> appeal" if it at least gets heard.  This guys opinions are not really very
> knowledgeable, and probably should be tossed in the bin!
> 
> So, it's ancient & dead (a museum piece), and is only enjoyed by a few!  I'm
> not sure that kind of publicity is good for OKOM at all.

I guess it is a question of whether the glass is half full, or half empty
and which quotes one takes out of context. The positives are:

"Woody Allen blew into town Saturday night with his licorice stick and
seven-piece New Orleans-style jazz band and took the audience at the Napa
Valley Opera House by storm."

"Since the 1970s he and his band have played Monday nights in Manhattan at
Michael¹s Pub, now the Café Carlyle."

"The Opera House was three-quarters full for the one-night-only performance,
a respectable house given the $150 ticket price. The audience was wildly
enthusiastic from the time Allen appeared on stage in his brown pullover
sweater and beige slacks until the final note of the band¹s encore 90
minutes later. It was, of course, celebrity driven enthusiasm."

"He focuses on the music to the point of worship, an idolatry the audience
eagerly joined him in this night. Invariably the solos and vocals drew
applause and the end of the evening brought a standing ovation."

Admittedly, they play in "museum piece" style, just like Preservation Hall
but so what? It is not the music most of us play. To me, the important
things are that he has been doing it for 35 years, and his audiences love
it. An audience quite large compared most of ours. So what's not to be proud
of? That he, like Preservation Hall, is a celebrity? Heck, maybe we should
all try to be celebrities. Who among us is even being reviewed? And
certainly in the USA, at the moment, it is true that Dixieland does have
limited appeal. 

Critics have been downing Dixieland Jazz for years, nothing new there.
Whether this one is knowledgeable or not matters little and could be argued
either way. Basically, audiences have loved Dixieland when ever competent
bands have played it, or whenever celebrity bands have played it. We should
be grateful for the positives and disregard the negatives as I see. it. Or,
we should indeed take it out of the museum piece category by bringing
something new to the party.

Point? As the review states several times, the audience loves what he does.
Same for Preservation Hall. Same for any, more competent, Dixieland band
performance. Problem is, we don't, with rare exception, know how to bring it
to large audiences out there. Nor do we keepers of the flame generate many
reviews in the mass media.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone